JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

(slaterjn@comcast.net)

Hopefully, as you read this, you will have had your fill of holiday feasting and company and conversation and be ready for a distraction. So, since this is traditionally a slow news week, I will resort to writing about non-news experiences.

Like most Islanders, I make all necessary doctor’s appointments in the fall and usually have several in sequence both on the Island and off.

This year, the delays and waiting times were long and that drove me to reading the available magazines. However, this led to an interesting experiment that amused me through several appointments over several weeks. I found an August, 2008 issue of Tatler in the first office and on the front page was a picture with article included of Chilmark summer resident Maggie Gyllenhaal describing her current successes. I made note of the coincidence of finding an article about a fellow Chilmark resident. My next appointment allowed me time to pick up a June, 2008 issue of Architectural Digest and there on the cover was a handsome remake of a Roger Allen Chilmark house owned now by Bill and Roz Glazer. The article included many pictures of the Menemsha views from the house. I made note of the coincidence of finding another Chilmark resident to share my wait time with. The third appointment took me to Falmouth where the waiting room offered only a January, 2008 copy of Preservation, the Magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The cover story was The Greening of the Yard referring to the landscaping at Harvard. And, there in the article, was a picture of South Road seasonal Chilmarker Michael Van Valkenburgh, who was referred to as a leader in his field. There is a Chilmark connection just about anywhere you want to look, it seems, and, of course, now I am hooked! If you are not in Chilmark, take a look around you, where-ever you are, a Chilmark connection isn’t far away!

Please note that the title of the movie to be shown at the library on Jan. 14 is I Know Where I Am Going. The matinee will include a chowder lunch and the film will begin at noon and is sponsored by the Menemsha Fish Market and the Friends of the Library and is free of charge.

This week’s column is brought to you with thanks to the Chilmark Library who loaned me the computer as mine has taken an untimely vacation. Please hold your e-mails to me until I tell you that I am back online! Sorry. What did we do before this machine was invented?