All Stories

health

WELLFLEET — A large number of children who visit the Outer Cape Health Services clinic here are “under-vaccinated” — having not received a full series of standard immunizations against infectious diseases, which are required under state law for school admission. Only 77 percent of the kindergartners at the Wellfleet Elementary School in the past three […]

ECONOMY

PROVINCETOWN — The tourism industry brings about $200 million into Provincetown every year, according to Tony Fuccillo, Provincetown’s director of tourism. It’s an enormous economic engine that touches nearly everyone in town, regardless of occupation, and with most of the 2019 season in the rearview mirror, it’s common to try to assess how well the season […]

ECONOMY

Close brushes with death are common for Outer Cape fishermen. Rick Marvin of Eastham, who fishes for lobster, bluefish, and crab, knows from experience that a routine move can quickly become dangerous on a fishing boat. One day in early December 2017, Marvin was tossing lobster traps off the side of a boat when his […]

CIVICS

PROVINCETOWN — The most consequential vote at Tuesday’s select board meeting came after most of the audience had left: a unanimous decision not to recommend Fire Chief Mike Trovato’s petitioned article at the Dec. 2 special town meeting. The board members’ statements against the proposal were wide-ranging and emphatic. They came at the end of […]

CANNABIS

PROVINCETOWN — It turns out the marijuana industry and the end of communism have a lot in common. U.S.-born investor Boris Jordan, the major shareholder of Curaleaf, helped the Russian government privatize after the fall of communism. So he is used to fledgling legislation, a lack of traditional banking, and the complex regulatory environment that […]

MILLION-YEAR PICNIC

With the end of daylight savings time, it’s suddenly darker much earlier in the evening. You may notice that the night sky has changed since those beach bonfires back in August. Look east around 9 p.m., and you’ll see Orion the Hunter rising, which you probably haven’t seen since last winter. Why is that? What […]

BODY/MIND

Ever walked out of a yoga class feeling peaceful? Even-keeled? Like you had hit the reset button? Same here. It was what first hooked me. I reluctantly walked into a yoga studio after injuring myself playing collegiate sports, feeling scatterbrained and despondent about my body. A friend dragged me to a yoga studio down the […]

ECONOMY

Some people, like Shawn Vecchione, are tired of talking about sharks. The constant chatter about great whites caused Vecchione, who owns Vec Surfboards in Orleans, to close the retail side of his business this summer after 10 years. “It got to a point where everyone wanted to talk about sharks,” Vecchione said. “Mentally I wasn’t […]

NATURA VIVA

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OP-ED

I do not doubt Fire Chief Michael Trovato’s list of needs required to keep the community safe. Those needs include a new fire substation, new trucks, more bunks, and more space to train. Unfortunately, the town will now be voting at the Dec. 2 special town meeting to eliminate housing at the VFW property in […]

SKETCHBOOK

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THE HOMELESS

HYANNIS — Freddie Rocha greeted David Chick with his usual questions: “When are we going home?” and “Did you come to take me home?” Chick smiled and asked if he had been smoking cigarettes. Rocha said, “No, I quit.” Chick had arrived on Oct. 31 at 75 Pleasant St., the Larry Doughty House, a tired-looking […]

AT THE LIBRARY

Educated Tara Westover New York: Random House, 2018 Family dynamics can range from quirky to full-blown dysfunctional even at the best of times, but holidays have a way of putting this drama on full display. So, if you’re feeling a little uneasy with Thanksgiving looming ominously on the calendar, take the time to unwind by […]

HOUSING

EASTHAM — What would we do differently if we saw affordable housing as a human right? That’s the key question Andrea Aldana, director of housing advocacy for the Community Development Partnership (CDP) in Eastham, brought back from Ireland last week. She was there on an “affordable housing learning journey” with a delegation of housing advocates […]

ELECTIONS

WELLFLEET — The select board voted 3-2 on Oct. 22 to “retire the horse and buggy,” as board member Kathleen Bacon put it, and replace the town’s 95-year-old hand-crank ballot box made of wood with a $5,200 optical scanning machine to count votes. Interim Town Clerk Jennifer Congel requested the change in an Oct. 18 […]

THEATER

For their first seven years, the four actor-founders of the Harbor Stage Company — Robert Kropf and Stacy Fischer, Brenda Withers and Jonathan Fielding — who run the small Wellfleet theater at 15 Kendrick Ave. on their own without a board, had an affordable place in Wellfleet to live in year-round. “It’s really important in […]

ENVIRONMENT

WELLFLEET — The Blasch property is receiving another massive amount of “sacrificial sand” in an effort to stall the mansion’s collapse over the edge of a coastal bank. The 5,817-square-foot house perched on “the Gut,” a narrow spit of sand between Cape Cod Bay and the Herring River, was only 25 feet from the edge […]

THE YEAR-ROUNDER

There are heroes living among us, men and women who struggle and prevail every day with the demon of addiction. You may know one of these heroes; you may not. They do not especially broadcast their struggles; neither do they hide them entirely. They rely on equal parts inner strength and the support of others. […]

IN AND OUT

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PROVINCELANDS

Watching a shorebird is like watching a comet: you have to trick your eye into detecting it. To find a comet, you look sideways at the sky until your peripheral vision — more powerful at night than your regular vision — picks out a blotch of white from the neater points of light around it. […]

PHOTOGRAPHY

The Provincetown Art Association and Museum is known for its collection and shows of work by world-renowned painters, sculptors, and printmakers who have lived and made art here. Oil painting, starting with Charles Webster Hawthorne as teacher at the turn of the century, has always been the medium most associated with the Provincetown art colony. […]

BOOK REVIEW

After a two-decade absence, author Michael Nava’s award-winning Henry Rios mystery series returns with its eighth installment, Carved in Bone. (This volume fits chronologically between the first and second books of the series, so it is identified in the sequence as No. 2.) Rios is a gay Latino criminal defense lawyer whom The New Yorker […]

INDIE SCREEN

In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, Martin Scorsese bemoaned the Marvel Universe takeover of Hollywood. He’s right to do so, but it’s a process that has been going on for years. The fact that Scorsese’s new film, The Irishman, was funded by Netflix and will have a limited run in theaters […]

HEALTH

The Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, Cape Cod Healthcare, and the Peter Pan bus company have partnered to create a bus route to bring patients from Provincetown to the hospitals and medical centers in the mid-Cape. The Peter Pan bus service already has two buses scheduled from Provincetown to Hyannis. One leaves Provincetown at 6:30 […]

WARRIORS WATCH

Note: Team records are listed as of the Independent’s deadline. Thursday, Nov. 14 Boys soccer: The Warriors (18-0-2) will play the Oliver Ames Tigers (15-3-0) in a Division 2 South Sectional semi-final game at 7 p.m. at Sandwich High School. The winner will earn a spot in the championship. Nauset defeated Duxbury 3-1 in the […]

home

Real Estate Transactions Recorded at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds from Nov. 4 to Nov. 8, 2019. PROVINCETOWN Nov. 7. Tracy Hawkins to Timothy Grafft and David Hacin. 606 Commercial St. $677,500. Nov. 8. Catherine Beauchamp, Jennifer Schlauder Lin, and Frank Lin to Jeffrey Caywood and Robert Neel. 24 Captain Berties Way. $699,750. Nov. […]

film

PLAYING NOW: NOV. 14-20 The Good Liar (R). Wellfleet Cinemas, Thursday-Wednesday 4 & 7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday 1 p.m.; Tuesday 10 a.m. Harriet (PG13). Waters Edge Cinemas, Thursday 4:30 & 7:30 p.m.; Friday-Wednesday 4:30 p.m. Last Christmas (PG13). Wellfleet Cinemas, daily 4:15 & 7:15 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday 1:15 p.m.; Tuesday 10 a.m. The Lighthouse (R). Wellfleet Cinemas: […]

letter from the editor

“Why did you call it the Provincetown Independent?” That’s probably the question we are asked most frequently at our Open Newsroom sessions at the town libraries and in casual conversations about the reasons for launching a newspaper to cover the Outer Cape. The Independent, it’s true, is about much more than just Provincetown. Our mission […]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Where Are the Doctors? To the editor: In light of your front-page story on Oct. 31 about the restoration of nurse midwife services at Outer Cape Health Services, I’d like to suggest another topic related to access to health care. We recently became year-round residents and wished to sign up with OCHS. On Oct. 7 […]

classifieds

PROVISIONS Organic Turkeys for Thanksgiving. The East End Market at 212 Bradford St. in Provincetown is taking preorders for Mary’s Organic Turkeys for Thanksgiving. We have limited birds. Sign up today before they are all gobbled up! Vegetarian options, sides, and pies are also available. 508-487-2339. [11-21] Salty Market offers casual catering for family get-togethers, […]

our picks for the week of November 14 through 20

Outer Cape Calendar Thursday, Nov. 14, 2 p.m. “Protect Yourself From Fraud,” a talk about financial scams with officers from Seamen’s Bank, is at the Wellfleet Council on Aging at 715 Old King’s Highway. Free. Thursday, Nov. 14, 6 p.m. Open Newsroom with the Provincetown Independent: join a conversation about community journalism — what’s in […]

this week

BRIEFS Badland Film’s a Fund-raiser for HOW and PFS It’s an interesting idea for a Western: a bounty hunter who goes after Confederate war criminals. Badland, a feature film starring Kevin Makely, Mira Sorvino, Bruce Dern, Wes Studi, and James Russo, will be preview-screened on Saturday, Nov. 16, at 1 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 17, […]

CIVICS

Every town on Cape Cod is encouraged to have a local comprehensive plan, developed in accordance with its residents’ expressed priorities, updated every 10 years, and certified by the Cape Cod Commission — the Cape’s regional planning agency. Only two of 15 towns do. “Ten years goes by pretty quickly,” said Jon Idman, the commission’s […]

CANNABIS

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling has questions for towns that have issued host community agreements to marijuana businesses.  Provincetown, Wellfleet, and Eastham town administrators all received subpoenas last month ordering them to produce documents, emails, and any other correspondence associated with the agreements.  They must appear at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse to testify before […]

health

EASTHAM — The current e-cigarette ban and recent cases of vaping-related illness have affected the number of students using vaping products on campus at Nauset Regional High School. Assistant Principal Sean Fleming told the Independent that the number of kids getting caught vaping at school has decreased by more than half since last spring. Gov. […]

economy

WELLFLEET — The town’s taxpayers now own over 162 acres of shellfish flats on Indian Neck, the most productive part of the harbor, after purchasing the acreage from the How Do You Like Them Apples (HDYLTA) Realty Trust. The purpose of the $2 million purchase, finalized at a closing last week, was to protect public […]

civics

PROVINCETOWN — The select board will hear from the Pier Corp. on Nov. 12 about the harbormaster’s budget, money that the town has paid to the Pier Corp. for years. This arrangement dates to 2005, but the agreement defining it expired in 2017. The select board must now either develop a new agreement with the […]

HEALTH

Laurie Veninger of Truro is organizing Cape Cod women to lobby lawmakers on Beacon Hill on Thursday, Nov. 14 in support of a bill aimed at protecting and expanding abortion rights under current state law. The bill, S. 1209, is titled “An act to remove obstacles and expand abortion access.” As of Monday, 24 Cape […]

CROSS-COUNTRY

EASTHAM — After ending the regular season with a 9-0 record and a first-place finish in the league championship meet on Oct. 26, the Nauset High girls’ cross-country team aims to defend its state sectional title on Nov. 9 at the Eastern Mass. Division 4 championships. Nauset won the Atlantic Coast League (ACL) championship last […]

Halloween 2019

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VETERANS DAY 2019

PROVINCETOWN — The pride with which this town has always acknowledged the sacrifices of its veterans is evident in the many tributes one sees here. Keeping vigil over Commercial Street at town hall, the Doughboy Monument beckons passersby to reflect on the more than 250 Provincetown residents who served in World War I. The town’s […]

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performance

By Susannah Elisabeth Fulcher |  Photographs by Marcia Geier Walk down Commercial Street in Provincetown pretty much any time of year and, if you’re lucky, you might encounter a tall, exuberant queen with bouncy blond curls, a round-faced smile, and obvious hip extenders under her 3XL dress, sashaying gleefully in high heels. She isn’t handing […]

Crossword

  The November puzzle from Sophia Maymudes should be done on dry land. Need some answers? We send out the solution in our Friday newsletter. You’ll find the signup for our newsletter right here on our home page! This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

POLITICS

WELLFLEET — State Rep. Sarah Peake and Sen. Julian Cyr appeared before a friendly crowd of shellfishermen at Preservation Hall on Nov. 1 and told them what they wanted to hear: that the so-called Cutler bill, H. 746 before the state legislature, has virtually no chance of becoming law. The legislation was originally promoted by […]

dovetail joint

The question: We have two grandchildren and a third on the way, so we are thinking of adding a playroom space to our home. The problem is, we can’t add on. What is the best way for us to gain space, given our tight lot? We do have a full basement that is just used […]

economy

EASTHAM — Rock Harbor is in line to receive additional upgrades starting in March. Shana Brogan, the town’s conservation agent, told the harbor planning committee on Oct. 17 that the state will begin with improvements to the parking area and boat ramp. Voters approved a $1.3 million Rock Harbor improvement plan at a 2018 town […]

island notebook

Elmas Gustauvos Bowlin — or Dadda Bowlin — was a man respected by the entire community for his resourcefulness and way of life, and he was my own hero and mentor. I can still remember standing next to him as he met with Jamaica’s fourth prime minister, Michael Manley. Traditionally, most Jamaicans have a nickname […]

ON THE LANDSCAPE

Frost etches the margins of the grass in the early morning. You can see your breath when you step outside at night. The bin of winter clothing has been pulled from beneath the bed and all the warm blankets are out of their summer hiding place. You have brought your house plants back inside. They […]

the observer

I think we all can agree that Sophie’s Choice was a great movie, but no one wants to be Sophie. At Provincetown’s upcoming special town meeting, however, the year-round community will experience something like it. Housing has been a long-standing priority as the town attempts to address the crisis, while the fire department has long […]

EASTHAM CURRENTS

The public will hear the final proposed cost of the Nauset Regional High School building project in February, according to Greg Levasseur, chairman of the building committee. Levasseur told the Eastham Select Board on Oct. 23 that the Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA) will vote to fund the project in February at a final proposed […]

Poetry

  “Senzo” is also the title of a Cape Jazz album by Abdullah Ibrahim, the anti-apartheid activist who once described improvisation as a life-preserving skill. Alluding already to ancestor in Japanese and to action in Zulu, Evie Shockley’s “senzo” soaks up another meaning: improvised poetic form. Pouring into rhymed stanzas (“rooms” in Italian), her dissonant […]

book review

In the 2007 novel Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman created a beautiful and sensual love story about two young men — Elio, a 17-year-old American piano prodigy spending the summer of 1983 in Italy with his parents, and Oliver, a doctoral student working with Elio’s archeology professor father and living with the family. […]

VETERANS DAY 2019

PROVINCETOWN — Veterans and volunteers have organized a number of activities to commemorate Veterans Day on Monday, Nov. 11. The first event honors those who served in seagoing services and will be held at MacMillan Pier at 10 a.m. At 11 a.m., a ceremony paying tribute to all veterans takes place at the Veterans Memorial […]

steamers

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OBITUARY

Willie Fenichel, known as “Farmer Willie,” of Truro, died on Oct. 9, 2019 after a brief illness. He was 47. Willie grew up in Watertown and graduated from Watertown High School and Suffolk University, where he majored in history. He worked odd jobs for a few years, and then moved permanently to his family’s home […]

PROVINCETOWN CURRENTS

Developer Christine Barker’s plans to redevelop a long-shuttered restaurant include rebuilding Benjamin Lancy’s Wharf. Her proposal, which goes before the zoning board of appeals on Nov. 21, includes a 264-foot pier. The proposal for the condemned Old Reliable Fish House calls for a pier that will provide a pathway from Commercial Street over the beach […]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Rift at Provincetown Arts To the editor: As the Independent can attest, when the subject of an article about the dramatic changes at Provincetown Arts came up, I expressed strong resistance to the idea. Close scrutiny of the situation, I believed, would do the magazine and Provincetown Arts Press no good. But since it’s crucial that the newspaper remain true to […]

WARRIORS WATCH

Note: Team records are listed as of the Independent’s deadline. The regular season has ended; only a few teams are left competing in postseason action. Results Boys golf: The Warriors placed fifth in the Division 2 state finals after finishing the regular season with an impressive record of 12-5. Girls field hockey: The Warriors finished […]

MOVEMENT

It’s too bad so many of us are taught about good posture as merely a matter of virtue or aesthetics. Good posture is actually a matter of good health, starting with the fact that it reduces strain on your muscles and ligaments while positioning your joints correctly for movement. Most people know that poor alignment […]

letter from the editor

Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes they’re big. I received an email from a reader who signed himself “Tim C.” complaining about a variety of blunders in the last two issues. “Need to proofread the paper,” he wrote. “There were a number of errors in the issue of Oct. 24: 98 Conwell instead of 9A, Danny Schmidt […]

home

Recorded at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, 2019. PROVINCETOWN Oct. 28. Rosemarie Consoli and Stephen Brackett to Jonathan Cade Cowan. 9 Bangs St. $697,000. Oct. 28. David Frost and Michael Richards to Mark Bryant and Christopher Chung. 29 Conant St. $1,087,500. Oct. 31. Patricia Deluca to WJHJR LLC. […]

our picks for the week of November 7 through 13

Thursday, Nov. 7, 6 p.m. Open Newsroom — Local Journalism Project, Truro Public Library, 7 Standish Way. The Provincetown Independent invites community members to join in making local news more collaborative. Editors and reporters will be on hand to hear about issues. Free. Thursday, Nov. 7, 6:30 p.m. The Grab Brothers’ acoustic duo will be […]

this week

BRIEFS Sparky and Rhonda Rucker Perform at First Encounter Sparky and Rhonda Rucker — musicians, authors, and teachers — will perform a variety of folk songs, spirituals, and historical ballads on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.) at the First Encounter Coffeehouse at Chapel of the Pines, 220 Samoset Road […]

classifieds

DO GOOD Casino Night Returns. Helping Our Women’s popular Casino Night returns to Montano’s on Saturday, November 16 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm.  Join HOW for an evening of fun and gaming! Try your luck (or skill) at the Roulette Wheel, poker and blackjack and win CASH prizes while raising money for HOW.  Montano’s […]

film

PLAYING NOW: NOV. 7-13 The Current War (PG-13). Wellfleet Cinemas, Thursday 4:15 & 7:15 p.m. Harriet (PG-13). Waters Edge Cinemas, Thursday 4 & 6:45 p.m.; Friday 4:30 & 7 p.m.; Saturday 2, 4:30 & 7 p.m.; Sunday 7 p.m.; Monday-Tuesday, 4:30 & 7 p.m.; Wednesday, 4:30 p.m. Last Christmas (PG13). Wellfleet Cinemas, Friday-Wednesday 4:15 & […]

music

When, in the 1930s and ’40s, Cuban musicians such as trumpeter Mario Bauzá and percussionist Chano Pozo introduced the American jazz world to Afro-Cuban rhythms, they kicked off a cultural cross-pollination that continues today with the Cuban jazz combo Harold López-Nussa Quartet. The group — López-Nussa on piano; his brother, Ruy López-Nussa, on drums and […]

metaphysics

Ghost hunter Joni Kosmach points a hand-held infrared camera into the shadows. Black, metallic, and blinking with strange energy, it looks like something a Navy SEAL might wield — or a character in “The X Files.” “Is there anyone with us?” Kosmach asks. “Would anyone like to talk to us today?” Crouching on the cement […]

book review

A book on the oil and gas industry, Russia, and government corruption? Sounds a bit daunting. But Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, author of The New York Times best seller Drift: The Unmooring of Military Power, and part-time Provincetown resident, has written a page-turner on those very subjects — Blowout: Corrupted […]

dia de los muertos

That which frightens us makes us feel more alive. Politics, sex, death, the unforeseen: all things outside our control serve this purpose. It’s the end of October, the season for feeling more alive, even for the dead — a time for all the signs of death-within-life to grow reckless and vivid and in your face. […]

CIVICS

PROVINCETOWN — Longtime Fire Chief Mike Trovato has turned in a petition with 203 signatures on the future of the VFW site, enough to trigger a special town meeting now set for Monday Dec. 2. The meeting will consider a single article, Trovato’s plan to dedicate the former VFW property at 3 Jerome Smith Road […]

HOUSING

PROVINCETOWN — Development of the town-owned VFW site on Jerome Smith Road, long envisioned as a likely spot for affordable housing, appears to be moving forward with a plan for 51 units — primarily rentals for tenants making well below area median income. A series of public meetings have helped town officials narrow the choices […]

health

Outer Cape Health Services will restore its nurse midwife practice following a year with no prenatal or postpartum care available here, OCHS CEO Pat Nadle said this week. Certified nurse midwife Meredith Goff will start part-time in March and work one day per week, spending half her time in Provincetown and the other half in […]

them apples

WELLFLEET — “We got the money, baby!” crowed Edward Englander, the Boston attorney who represents the HDYLTA Trust, on Tuesday following the closing of the sale of the trust’s shellfish flats to the town for $2 million. “We like them apples!” Englander was referring to the trust’s name, which stands for “How Do You Like […]

civics

PROVINCETOWN — Artists, gallery owners, and retailers gave resoundingly bad reviews to Ray Wiggs’s attempt to have the town ban the sale of fine art in restaurants, bars, and inns at an Oct. 22 meeting of the Provincetown Licensing Board. “I don’t think anyone here can honestly say it’s fair that someone can host a […]

LEARNING

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HALLOWEEN

PROVINCETOWN — Say the words “Nelson Avenue” to local kids in October and watch their eyes light up. For years, this small neighborhood off Race Point Road has made up for what it lacks in water views and fancy architecture by being the most decorated and most candy-filled place to go trick-or-treating. Nancy Roderick, of […]

sketchbook

Northern Long-Eared Bat (threatened, endangered). Scientists know them by their calls, and catch them in mist nets. These guys frequent kettle ponds. Across the dunes and forests of Cape Cod and the Seashore, 8 species of bats have been found. They eat massive amounts of insects every night. (White Nose Syndrome found on Cape Cod […]

provincelands

I’ve bought time, the most beautiful thing for which we pay. Time to act out an old monkish dream of a spare cell facing out over water. Time apart, a moratorium on my own life into another, pretending to simplify, to distill. Being on an artist’s residency makes me feel attached to the many artists, […]

STEAMERS

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COCKTAIL HOUR

We’re deep into harvest season — although some people might say we’re heading into the holiday season, since it now seems to start with Halloween rather than Thanksgiving. Either way, there are pumpkins everywhere. And where you find pumpkins, it seems, there is “pumpkin spice.” A quick internet search for “pumpkin spiced cocktails” yielded a […]

OUTDOORS

HOLDEN — I’m sitting in a tree stand 15 feet off the ground. I’ve been here since 6 a.m. and it’s now 8:45. I believe I saw a deer at about 6:30, but it was at a distance and too dark to know for sure. “Every good hunter mistakes a stump for a deer twice […]

FIRST RESPONSE

EASTHAM — The town’s police station was built 30 years ago and has stayed virtually unchanged ever since. But now some much needed exterior and interior renovations are under way. The building received a new roof this fall and renovations to the locker rooms, kitchen, and training room are expected to begin in January and […]

IMMIGRANTS

TRURO — Fall hasn’t yet hit Down Home Farm: devoid of the expected autumnal colors, its fields glow green. The growing season isn’t over, and the farm’s cozy stand on Truro Center Road boasts a lush array of radishes, zucchini, arugula, broccoli, and flower bouquets. This patch of land is cultivated by its tenants, Bhala […]

dovetail joint

The question: When we had our deck built, we were told it would last forever. But each year a few more boards crack or rot and they’re expensive to replace. I suspect it’s not real mahogany. What do you think? Please don’t tell me to treat it. The whole idea was that this expensive hardwood […]

ENVIRONMENT

BOSTON — The Boston Globe’s multimedia reporting project “At the Edge of a Warming World,” published with much fanfare last month, held few surprises for Cape Codders. Most of it was old news — yes, we’re experiencing erosion, flooding, storms, and biodiversity loss. Species are shifting their ranges. Fish stocks are dwindling, and special habitats […]

WINTER WATCH

In the wake of the Thursday, Oct. 17 nor’easter with winds of up to 90 mph Eversource received over 100,000 Cape Cod power outage reports. According to Eversource representative Reid Lamberty, restoration efforts lasted over 72 hours, with the last customer back online the following Sunday morning. The coming winter is forecast to be colder […]

WHISTLE-BLOWER

WELLFLEET — Barbara Jacobs is demanding a refund of $256 after members of the Wellfleet Fire Dept. ordered Silver Cloud Towing to take away her disabled car rather than the AAA-authorized towing service she had arranged. Chief Richard Pauley has refused her written request, saying the tow had to be done quickly because her car, […]

GETAWAYS

I live in Truro, she lives in Connecticut. We’ve both been to New York City many times. For me, it’s been about work. I could tell you what’s on exhibit at every major museum. She goes for theater and knows every little out-of-the-way neighborhood place. We met online, and we’ve been seeing each other for […]

HOUSING

TRURO — It was no surprise to any board of health member that the Delgizzi family had not complied with the latest orders to clean up their property and submit plans for repairs and septic upgrades. Daniel Delgizzi and his son David have for years ignored town rules and failed to pay taxes on multiple […]

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Our reporter Sophie Ruehr followed up this week on her August 29 story about tenant farmers in Truro by writing about Bhala and Digree Rai, the Nepalese immigrant couple who have created Down Home Farm on an acre of land owned by Ron Singer. Ruehr’s earlier report focused on the way connecting owners of arable […]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Saving Provincetown Arts To the editor: Your Oct. 17 article “Eight of 11 Board Members Quit Provincetown Arts” [page 9] was one-sided and didn’t present a complete and balanced account of events. As you noted, one of the people whose written comments are quoted extensively in the article, Mary Maxwell, is a backer of the Independent. More […]

Our picks for the week of October 31 through Nov 7

Thursday, Oct. 31, 2 p.m. On the Trail with the Classics: Wyman Richardson. Salt Pond Visitor Center, 50 Nauset Road, Eastham. These 45-minute programs are set in locales that inspired writers and poets and include a one-mile walk. On Oct. 17 Mary Oliver’s poetry was featured; this time visitors can enjoy Wyman Richardson’s descriptions of […]

OBITUARIES

Susan A. Wheelan of Provincetown died peacefully at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 72. Susan was born in Providence, R.I., the daughter of Daniel and Janice Wheelan. She was a graduate of Bay View Academy, Stonehill College, and the University of Wisconsin Madison with a […]

this week

‘Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement’ East End Books, 389 Commercial St., will host a reading on Friday, Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. Author David K. Johnson, an associate professor of history at the University of Southern Florida, presents a vivid look into the lives of physique entrepreneurs and their customers. The book […]

classifieds

SERVICES Planning a Wedding? Rev. Vernon Diannah Porter, Provincetown’s own wedding specialist, would be honored to be a part of your special day. Officiating with love, respect, and optimism, whether your marriage is gay or straight. Also known for her WOMR role as DJ “Lady Di,” Vernon is a minister and a certified professional life […]

home

Recorded at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds during the week of Oct. 21 to Oct. 25.  PROVINCETOWN Oct. 21. Jaime A. Del Manzano to Thomas Jung. 400 Bradford St., Unit 3. $804,325. Oct. 21. Allen Bradbury to Markes Property Group LLC. 133 Bradford St. $935,000. Oct. 23. ESB III Trust (Edward S. Still III […]

CLIMATE

TRURO — The nor’easter that struck the Outer Cape on Oct. 10 and lingered for almost three days caused massive erosion at Ballston Beach. Sand dunes and bluffs were carved away, exposing the bare clay beneath. The new scenery is unfamiliar — almost Martian in its hues and its bizarre ridged formations cut into the […]

CIVICS

TRURO — Town Manager Rae Ann Palmer has announced she will retire on June 30, 2020 after five years as the town’s municipal chief. “It’s time,” she said on Tuesday. “It’s been a great five years. I feel we’ve done a lot of great work together.” Palmer, who lives in Eastham, told her department heads […]

ECONOMY

PROVINCETOWN — A 600-foot floating concrete structure is being installed in Provincetown harbor over the next two weeks. Each 60-foot segment is six feet tall and 15 feet wide, and weighs more than 20 tons. This height and heft will reflect and dissipate wave energy away from MacMillan Pier. The attenuator will protect all four […]

ECONOMY

PROVINCETOWN — Freda Powell has been coming from Jamaica to work at Marine Specialties on Commercial Street every year since 1998. Like many other seasonal workers on the Outer Cape, she comes here via the government’s H-2B visa program, and she is grateful for the opportunity. “Money from here is sent home to family for […]

ECONOMY

Five small groceries on or near the Outer Cape have closed in the past few seasons, limiting off-season food access for local residents. Bradford Natural, a Provincetown health food store, closed most recently this past May, preceded by Phoenix Fruit in Orleans, Nauset Market in Eastham, Soul Food Natural Food Market in Wellfleet, and the […]

oysterfest 2019

The crowd: There were a total of 18,178 admission tickets sold, 11,486 of them on Saturday. This is about average compared to other years. Before we go on with more stats on the OysterFest, let’s set the scene with a few pictures.       OysterFest by the Numbers Serving those 18,178 festival-goers were 190 […]

warriors watch

Note: Team records are listed as of the Independent’s deadline. The fall sports season is winding down and many teams will compete in their final regular season games this week, with some headed for postseason action. Thursday, Oct. 24 Girls field hockey: In their final game of the season the Warriors (7-6-3) will host the […]

PEOPLE

There are moments in life that seem to unfold in slow motion. Zeno Schwebel, 20, of Truro, remembers one. It was June 27, 2019, the start of what was supposed to be an adventurous summer aboard his friend Kai Olney-Miller Malicoat’s new 58-foot steel seining vessel, the Ginny O. They planned to fish for salmon […]

KITCHEN TABLE

A study published this summer in Science suggested trees are the best tool we have to stabilize our rapidly changing climate. We could increase the world’s forest cover by a third without affecting existing cities or agriculture, the researchers say, and cut atmospheric carbon dioxide by 25 percent, to levels last seen almost a century […]

OBITUARY

Actor, director, producer, and teacher Gabriel Kuttner, a well-known presence on Outer Cape stages for more than a decade, died at his home in Amherst on Oct. 5, 2019 of an accidental drug overdose. He was 45. Kuttner’s credits were copious: the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Harbor Stage Company, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Lyric Stage, New […]

vignette

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THEATER REVIEW

When a work of theater focuses exclusively on the lives of older women — the things that pain them, humiliate them, terrify them, strengthen them, elate them, or amuse them — it’s instantly marginalized. Unless they’re gargoyles or saints, older women are typically on the periphery, and their courage and self-actualization are matters that most […]

steamers

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PROVINCETOWN 400

PROVINCETOWN — The select board is looking to break the logjam on two projects related to the Provincetown 400 commemorations. The board voted on Oct. 15 to hire a landscape architect to help improve the Pilgrims’ First Landing Park, inside the rotary at the far end of Commercial Street, near the spot where the Pilgrims […]

ECONOMY

PROVINCETOWN — A 31-room hotel, restaurant and bar with outdoor dining, and four condominiums are in the plans to redevelop the Old Reliable Fish House property on the waterfront at 229R Commercial St. A preliminary design for the project was presented by developer Christine Barker to the planning and zoning boards on Oct. 10. The […]

TURNING THE TABLES

PROVINCETOWN — I was having lunch recently with a friend who loves food and restaurants as much as I do. We always have a blast together, laughing pretty much nonstop, and he must have really enjoyed his lunch this time, because there wasn’t a trace left on his plate. When the server came by to […]

ENVIRONMENT

EASTHAM — “There isn’t a single alternative or suite of alternatives that can 100-percent guarantee the safety of all individuals who choose to enter the water,” coastal scientist Adam Finkle told a crowd of about 100 at Nauset Regional High on Oct. 17. Representing the Woods Hole Group (WHG), Finkle presented the results of the […]

Letter from the editor

“There is no such thing as a pure fact, innocent of interpretation,” wrote Howard Zinn in the afterword to the 2003 edition of his wonderful book, A People’s History of the United States. “Behind every fact presented to the world — by a teacher, a writer, anyone — is a judgment. The judgment that has […]

home

Recorded at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds during the week of Oct. 15 to Oct. 18. PROVINCETOWN  Oct. 15. Sheltons Bend LLC to Stephen Netemeyer and Ned A. Gizinski. 421 Commercial St. $915,000. Oct. 18. T and Celine Funk Gandolfo to Marjorie M. Kyriacou. 744 Commercial St. $1,855,000. Oct. 18. Vincent S. Garmo to […]

sketchbook

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classifieds

Let’s get right to it: these sweet little ads are among the most practical pages of any community newspaper. The classifieds are a friendly way to seek, find, swap, buy, sell, or even brag. Special pricing as we kick this off: get a standard ad, 50 words or fewer, run it for up to 4 […]

surfing

The alarm always comes too early. An anxious dream cut short of its unpleasant conclusion. The body knows that at any moment the sound will come, and so it is tense. My alarm is the sound of a harp. But at 4 a.m., even the instrument of the angels can seem harsh. I wake up […]

the year-rounder

PROVINCETOWN — It is true that Provincetown was incorporated in 1727, but it was not much of a town then — more like an outpost. It really wasn’t until the early 19th century that the town began to develop, with the growth of fishing and whaling activities. And one of the major components of this […]

at the library

Palaces for the People: How social infrastructure can help fight inequality, polarization, and the decline of civic life. Eric Klinenberg New York: Crown, 2018 I have often said that the best place to view a community is from behind the circulation desk at the public library. From that vantage point, I can see everyone. Individuals. […]

movies

In January 2004 “Heir to an Execution,” Ivy Meeropol’s documentary about her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 as Communist spies after what can only be called a political show trial, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. “It was a film that was incredibly personal and difficult to make,” Meeropol says. […]

FAWC

The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown welcomed its 2019-20 class of 20 winter fellows on Oct. 1, 10 in writing and 10 in visual arts. They will be in town through April, working on individual and, occasionally, collaborative projects. The Independent queried the fellows via email about their work and unique backgrounds. Here is […]

Women’s Week 2019

Growing up in the bucolic countryside of Hertfordshire and Cambridge, England, Fiona Goodwin began to suspect that she was different when she developed unusually strong emotional attachments to other girls. Her sense of otherness and isolation was reinforced by a mercurial and troubled mother, and by the loss of contact with her father when her […]

at the library

When local libraries began to introduce computers with searchable databases, most patrons thought they’d seen the last of the old card catalogs — those imposing wooden drawers filled with index cards that contained arcane data decipherable only by librarians. But three libraries on the Outer Cape are proving that there’s still life in the old […]

oysterfest 2019

WELLFLEET — Organizers of the Wellfeet OysterFest announced last week that this year’s event will be “plastic free” in response to rising concerns about the environmental impact of single-use plastics. Lead organizer Michele Insley said of SPAT (Wellfleet Shellfish Promotion and Tasting), the group that puts on the festival, “We’re a nonprofit that supports the […]

environment

EASTHAM — The culvert connecting Great Pond and Deborah’s Pond will be replaced to allow significantly increased water flow, the conservation commission decided last week. This is good news for herring, which return each spring to Eastham’s brooks and ponds to spawn. The commission voted 5-0 on Oct. 9 to increase the size of the […]

kitchen table

It’s been a good fall for mushrooms, with plenty of rain followed by some warm, sunny days. I’ve been out in the woods looking for boletes — being careful not to trample the pine needle duff in their favorite settings as I go. There are lots of different boletes out there. They like woods like […]

EXECUTIVE SESSION

WELLFLEET — The town’s purchase of 254 acres of shellfish flats for $2 million from the HDYLTA Trust, which was supposed to close by Sept. 20, has been at least temporarily derailed by the results of a survey of the property commissioned by town officials. The survey showed the trust’s holdings totaled less than two-thirds […]

view from the hive

Unlike some bipeds I know, honey bees never seem to procrastinate in their preparations for the big chill of an Outer Cape winter. The bees take advantage of every warm day, coming and going at the hive entrance at a seemingly frantic pace. Like people, they need to ensure a source of heating fuel that […]

CULTURE DESK

PROVINCETOWN — Every summer for the last 34 years the fat and glossy Provincetown Arts magazine has hit the newsstands with a proud thump. On its pages — and this year’s edition had a colorful 156 of them — mingle the work of artists, performers, and writers, connected to the town whether by deep roots […]

sports

NRHS — “Shocked” is how the members of the Nauset Figure Skating Club described their first-place finish at the Harvestfest competition in Dover, N.H. on Oct. 6. The club is new for the regional high school this year. The Nauset club is made up of eight skaters ranging from sophomores to seniors. Six girls from […]

PEOPLE

PROVINCETOWN — In the Portugal Jose DeBarros grew up in, it wasn’t uncommon for young people to leave high school and set out in search of work. The country was transitioning from dictatorship to democracy, and the economy was lagging. DeBarros wanted something different for his family. So in 1980, the 32-year-old and his bride, […]

MUSIC

“I was sort of ordained to play music.”   So says blues singer-guitarist Joe Louis Walker, who’ll be performing at the Payomet Performing Arts Center in Truro on Saturday, Oct. 19, as part of OysterFest weekend. A member of the Blues Hall of Fame and four-time Blues Music Award winner, Walker was born and raised […]

Outer Cape Portrait

My dad’s a shellfisherman. Grandma is. She digs a bunch of clams. She’s really good at what she does. She gets a lot of clams for the truck at the pier. My dad has a huge boat out on his grant, and me and my brother Asher play on the boat, and when we are […]

in and out

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steamers

This month’s drawing by A. Crock does a doubletake on Marty. This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

Women's Week

The last four days of Women’s Week, from Thursday, Oct. 17, to Sunday, Oct. 20, are jam-packed with events. We highlighted several venues last week, and there are some more on this page, but there are always a few events that defy categorization, so we’re breaking them out day by day, below. On Thursday, Oct. […]

million-year picnic

The constellations of summer are passing from the night sky, while our old wintertime friends, like Orion the Hunter, are making their way onto the stage. The planets Jupiter and Saturn are still visible in the early evening, but not for much longer. They’re setting earlier each night, and will soon be lost in the […]

queer I

Fantasia Fair, which unfolds from Sunday, Oct. 20, to Sunday, Oct. 27, represents the best of Provincetown. This isolated village at the end of Cape Cod is a haven for the transgender community — it’s friendly, it’s tolerant, it’s uninhibited, it’s experimental. By 1975, the year of the first Fantasia Fair — before Women’s Week, […]

HEALTH

PROVINCETOWN — Knowledge equals power when it comes to navigating a health crisis. Sometimes it even means financial power. No one knows this better than Molly Perdue, co-founder of the Alzheimer’s Family Support Center (AFSC) of Cape Cod, who told the Independent that financial crises are often one of the unexpected consequences of dementia. She […]

ENVIRONMENT

The reports of dead lobsters being pulled from Cape Cod Bay started on Sept. 23. The cause: warmer than average late fall water temperatures and low wave action that led to “unprecedented” low levels of oxygen in the water. That day the Mass. Div. of Marine Fisheries began getting reports of dead lobsters coming up […]

sports

EASTHAM — From the seat of my kayak I have come to see Nauset Marsh, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore in Eastham, as the Everglades of New England: more wilderness than civilization, a place for endless exploration. My family started kayaking when the kids were small, and we had a typical pair of […]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Beware the ‘Appeal to Nature’ To the editor: The front-page article in the Sept. 6 issue titled “Culling Seals Is Wrong Answer to Shark Threat, Scientists Say”) is a fine example of the rhetorical device (and logical fallacy) known as the “appeal to nature.” It may well be that infestation by sharks and seals is […]

WELLFLEET OYSTERFEST 2019

Wellfleet OysterFest 2019 will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 19-20, rain or shine. General admission tickets are $10 per day. Shellfishermen and food vendors will line Main Street to peddle their wares and chat with customers about Wellfleet’s unique shellfishing community. Wellfleet SPAT (Shellfish Promotion and Tasting), the […]

OP-ED

Susannah Fulcher’s Aug. 9 article about childbirth on the Outer Cape in this newspaper exposed serious weaknesses in our existing medical system here. It also made me want to share my gratitude for midwife Rebecca Taylor’s low-key professionalism in providing prenatal care and home delivery of our third child in Wellfleet in 2008, when I […]

METAPHYSICS

Driving west over the Sagamore Bridge in early October, heading back to Chicago, I sighed as I realized I was once again doing my biannual Persephone act. Ah, but which side of the bridge is the Underworld? There’s the rub. In terms of the calendar, I was going from the light of summer to the […]

ECONOMY

PROVINCETOWN — As recently as 10 years ago, there was only one oyster farmer in Provincetown, and his efforts were small scale and experimental. Nine farmers now land Provincetown oysters at MacMillan Pier and aquaculture operations are approved on 25 acres of deep water in the East End and 38 acres of tidal flats in […]

letter from the editor

Some people love performing and being on camera. Others cringe at the thought, especially in this age of surveillance capitalism, when we can’t even go to the supermarket without getting the feeling that we’re being watched and recorded. (Yes, we mean you, “Marty.”) So we understand the resistance exhibited by some local town officials to […]

WOMEN WITHOUT LIMITS

By the time I arrived in Provincetown in 1982 to find myself there was already a vibrant community of young women washashores here, nourished by a long and deep tradition of strong, independent Portuguese women. There seemed to be no boundary to what we could do, and no limit to what we could imagine ourselves […]

letter from the editor

More than one reader of the brand-new Provincetown Independent has asked us about our “politics” as a newspaper. What is our position on property taxes, or the Mass. Shellfish Initiative, or the funicular (sorry, “inclined elevator”) up the hill to the Pilgrim Monument? What’s our agenda? My usual answer to these questions is not very […]

MOVEMENT

Strength training is good for you, and not just for increasing muscle mass. It increases bone density and even improves cardiovascular health. But a lot of people have trouble making weightlifting part of their routines. I blame the mantra “No pain, no gain.” That idea is just wrong. And it’s one of the top reasons […]

COCKTAIL HOUR

I’ve had a bout lately of nostalgia for the 1990s, a decade when we were younger, prettier perhaps, and definitely more civil with one another. One reason for this nostalgia was spending a lot of time in Provincetown this summer, which reminded me of my first visits to town in the ’90s. In the course […]

PROVINCETOWN WOMEN'S WEEK 2019

The 35th annual Provincetown Women’s Week, which officially runs from Oct. 14 to 20, celebrates, among many things, lesbian visibility. It’s fitting, then, that one of the most popular events of the week is likely to be a film about the efforts of a few women, starting in 1970s, to document lesbian lives so they […]

THE PITCH

PROVINCETOWN — At the top of the hill on Winslow Street sits Motta Field, home of the Provincetown Fishermen soccer team. It’s an energetic mix of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders, coed and diverse in color and national origin. “I don’t think there’s another [middle-school] team as diverse as ours,” says Tracey Anderson, the team’s assistant […]

on the landscape

Shhhhhhhh. The wind is given voice by the grass. The wind has no sound if not for the things it passes through, around, within. It is not the sound of the wind, but of the grass. The wind does not scream in the lines. The wind allows the lines to speak their sound. Shhhhhhh…. Blades […]

in the wild

The Outer Cape’s sandy, acidic soils are generally seen as inhospitable for food crops. But every fall, people travel from across New England and farther afield to visit our dunes and pine forests, looking for the special mushrooms that thrive in nutrient-poor soils and in symbiotic relationships with pines and oaks. The number of mushroom […]

PROVINCETOWN WOMEN’S WEEK 2019

It officially starts on Columbus Day, doesn’t it? Women’s Week may have aged a bit over its 35 years, and there seem to be fewer lesbian inns and hangouts these days, but the week itself in Provincetown has been ever-expanding in time and with things to do, both free and fund-raiser-expensive. Indeed, there is so […]

environment

WELLFLEET — The owners of a mansion teetering on the edge of a dune near Great Island won approval from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to construct a 241-foot-long rock revetment to shore up the structure, despite opposition from the town and the Cape Cod National Seashore. The DEP approval does not, however, […]

civics

PROVINCETOWN — Town Planner Jeffrey Ribeiro is resigning from his job this week to become the Truro town planner next week. The Truro position offers slightly more money, but according to Ribeiro that’s not the reason he’s moving — it’s that there are more interesting opportunities coming up in Truro. The Provincetown planner’s time is […]

housing

TRURO — Last week the Truro Board of Health gave a landlord up to 15 days to begin repairs to his motel where about 50 tenants live year-round. If Daniel Delgizzi, of Braintree, and his son David fail to meet the town’s deadlines for the Truro Motor Inn repairs, the town will petition the housing […]

technology

ORLEANS — If you’ve been to the Stop & Shop supermarket here recently, you may have noticed a new staff member roaming the aisles. He’s seven feet tall, thin, rolls on wheels, and has a pair of big googly eyes. His name is Marty the Robot, and he arrived in Orleans in May. Although he […]

Rail Trail

WELLFLEET — Following a heated exchange on Monday with a crowd opposed to the extension of the Cape Cod Rail Trail extension to Route 6, the Wellfleet Select Board voted against sending a letter to Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker about it. The letter would have asked the governor to temporarily stop work on the current […]

transportation

WELLFLEET — Increasingly, statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicate that America’s roads are safe only for those who drive on them. In 2018 for the second year in a row cyclist and pedestrian fatalities increased while motorist fatalities dropped slightly. Preliminary 2018 data from the NHTSA show that an estimated 36,750 […]

health

Every Tuesday night starting Oct. 29 there will be a dinner party with 100 guests at the Wellfleet United Methodist Church. Dana Franchitto will play classical pieces on the piano and the food will be prepared by teams of cooks who get a little competitive with their culinary creations. Along with the best meatloaf on […]

oysterfest 2019

WELLFLEET — Ever wonder how all those oysters get to OysterFest? This year, Wellfleet Shellfish Promotion and Tasting (SPAT), the nonprofit that organizes the OysterFest, is expecting to serve 130,000 oysters to around 20,000 people over the course of the two-day festival on the weekend of Oct. 19-20, according to Michele Insley, SPAT’s executive director. […]

ASK INDIE

Dear Indie, My husband, “Cosmo,” and I have been married for almost a year and are very happy. He is the most loving man I know and a wonderful stepfather to my three young children. We were both married before, and in fact Cosmo was still married when we met and fell in love. This […]

letters to the editor

Reproductive Health Overlooked To the editor: I was pleased to see your front-page article on childbirth on Outer Cape Cod [“Childbirth on the Edge,” Sept. 6, 2019], a topic that along with women’s reproductive health care in general is all too often overlooked. As a midwife who specializes in women’s health care, including prenatal care, […]

OBITUARIES

PROVINCETOWN — Mary Dorothy “Dotty” Mulcahy, a free-spirited child of the 1960s whose mischievous smile and sparkling blue eyes live in the hearts of all who knew and loved her, died of ovarian cancer at her Provincetown home on Sept. 16, 2019. She was 70. Dotty leaves her wife, Cherie Mittenthal, her McBride family, and […]

ENVIRONMENT

EASTHAM — Restoration Agriculture author Mark Shepard of Wisconsin visited the Nauset Food and Research Garden at Nauset Regional High School last week to speak with about two dozen community members on agroforestry. Shepard is well known in permaculture circles for his pioneering vision of perennial agriculture and advocates using trees to grow staple crops […]

Crossword

This month’s puzzle can also be found in our October 10, 2019 print edition. This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

BACKTALK

ORLEANS — Walking into class and seeing a substitute teacher at the front of the room can mean different things to different students. Some see an excuse to relax and mess around. Others see an opportunity to help out a guest. At the Nauset Regional Middle School in Orleans, which most Outer Cape kids in […]

Vignette

Holding on to summer as the fall rains arrive. This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

natura viva

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the year-rounder

PROVINCETOWN — My late father-in-law was a wonderful man, with a simple palate, a real meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. Whenever any of his three daughters (each an accomplished and inventive cook) attempted to serve him something creative, something Asian-fusion or whatever, he would take a bite or two, look up quizzically, and ask, “What is […]

housing

TRURO — About 50 residents of a rundown Route 6 motel that serves as affordable year-round housing were spared eviction on Thursday night when the Truro Board of Health voted against condemning the property. Despite what board of health members described as serious state code violations — including overloaded electrical outlets — the board voted […]

sketchbook

It’s fall. Migrating birds are flocking and staging along the coast. This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

POETRY

Shirt To get into it As it lies Crumpled on the floor Without disturbing a single crease Respectful Of the way I threw it down Last night The way it happened to land Almost managing The impossible contortions Doubling back now Through a knotted sleeve                     […]

civics

PROVINCETOWN — Former harbormaster Rex McKinsey, who has been on administrative leave since August, will return to work on Oct. 15. But he may have a new title, marine coordinator, and a more limited set of duties, as town officials consider splitting his old job into two or three new ones. This page is available […]

environment

Maine lobstermen have withdrawn their support for an agreement made last April to protect whales by limiting the amount of rope they use, and Cape Cod lobstermen are not happy. Severely endangered right whales are thought to become tangled in the ropes connecting buoys to lobster traps set on the ocean floor, leading to increased […]

the observer

PROVINCETOWN — Tell me if you have heard this one: A coastal community, remote, popular, seasonal, with a shrinking population because the year-round jobs are disappearing while housing costs climb, driven not by local conditions but by the purchasing power of its second-home owners, while the year-round residents struggle to secure just one. The community […]

PEOPLE

WELLFLEET — In September Melissa Lowe Cestaro became the director of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. She succeeds Bob Prescott, who is retiring after nearly 40 years in the post. Melissa is an environmental educator and came to the Audubon from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown. The Independent asked Cestaro about her […]

Environment

WELLFLEET — A Cape May warbler is flying through a pine forest. Its brown-green wings flutter madly as it races to keep up with its flock. It has been feeding all summer in Canada on an abundance of spruce budworms and has accumulated enough fat to make the journey south. As it heads towards a […]

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

On Friday, Sept. 6 the first edition of the Independent on paper rolled off the press at Graphic Developments Inc. in Hanover, Mass. It’s always a thrill to see the beautiful precision and power of the Goss Community web press and the skill of the printers who keep the news coming to us. Many of […]

island notebook

WELLFLEET — I grew up in the agricultural community of Black River, Jamaica, where my grandfather, Elmas Gustauvas Bowlin, was a prominent butcher at the local farmers’ market. The pride he took in his work, and in all he did, is something I embrace and continue to live by. Our back yard had flourishing vegetable […]

sketchbook

“… Yeah, just got a year-round place in P’Town, you and the fam should visit…”   This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

Health

PROVINCETOWN — Concerned residents have been calling the health dept. to report rat sightings in recent weeks, according to a public notice posted on the town website. The notice urges townspeople to eliminate the animals’ food sources by storing garbage in rodent-proof containers and install traps, or use poison if necessary, to mitigate the problem. There […]

Economy

WELLFLEET — At a contentious meeting on Tuesday, the Wellfleet Select Board voted 3-0 to limit the number of shellfish racks that may be left on aquaculture grants through the winter and to require that all such equipment be pushed down to be flush with the sea floor. The new regulations are intended to prevent […]

ART AND POETRY

WELLFLEET — Art critic and poet Monique Brunet-Weinmann and artist Bertrand Bracaval are both from Brittany, the westernmost region of France, but they did not meet each other there. That happened in Montreal, where Brunet-Weinmann has lived since 1969. She showed Bracaval her poems in a series titled “Exile,” about her longing for the places […]

THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY

PROVINCETOWN — The public landscape committee presented its plan to renovate the Pilgrims’ First Landing Park in the West End at a joint meeting with the select board on Monday, and the selectmen encouraged the committee to find common ground with the dept. of public works. The DPW’s Richard Waldo had presented his own plan, […]

LEARNING

PROVINCETOWN — Disagreement over who should be eligible to benefit from a town scholarship fund established more than 30 years ago led the select board to ask for help from town counsel last week. In question is the John Anderson Francis Family Scholarship, established by the will of Cecilia C. Francis in 1985, before school […]

NATIONAL SEASHORE

Efforts to revive the Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission, which was deep-sixed by the Trump administration and Senate Republicans last year, produced a glimmer of hope on Wednesday. The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources unanimously approved H.R. 182, which would reauthorize the commission’s existence. But the outlook for congressional passage of the bill […]

LEARNING

EASTHAM — A proposed revision of the strategic plan for the Nauset Regional School District emphasizes social and emotional learning, global citizenship, and partnerships between the schools and the community at large. The plan was presented to the regional school committee on Sept. 17 by Maxine Minkoff, former principal of the Nauset Regional Middle School, […]

OBITUARY

PROVINCETOWN — The Rev. James W. “Jim” Cox of Provincetown died on Sept. 10, 2019 at home, surrounded by friends. He was 59. Born in Barnstable and raised in Wellfleet, he was the son of Hazel and the late William T. Cox. After graduating from Nauset High School, he went on to study at Centenary College, a Methodist Church-affiliated school in […]

THE YEAR-ROUNDER

PROVINCETOWN — I live in an unusual Provincetown neighborhood. There are 11 nearby dwellings, and eight of them are occupied year-round. (That’s 73 percent.) Two of my year-round neighbors own their own businesses, three others work for local companies or nonprofits (and so do my wife and I), and two are self-employed. This all sounds […]

OBITUARIES

Mary Lou Santos, 90 TRURO — A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 20 for Mary Lou Santos, who died at age 90 on April 2, 2019 at her home in North Truro. Friends and family are invited to attend the service at St. Peter the Apostle Church on Prince […]

VIEW FROM THE HIVE

Honey bees, like all social insects, are inherently aware of the late summer’s waning day length, low sun angle, and chilly nighttime temperatures. With the end of the sweet pepperbush nectar flow in mid-August the colony’s expansive mood of May and June has abruptly shifted — to conservation and consolidation. It’s not surprising that our […]

FIRST RESPONSE

WELLFLEET — A fiber optic cable fire on Route 6 near Pamet Point Road took out telephone lines and blocked first responder communications from Wellfleet to Provincetown for several hours on Sunday, Sept. 8. Communications between the Outer Cape and the Barnstable County Sheriff’s office were disrupted as well. “Phone lines and, potentially, 911 were […]

sketchbook

The summer beach builds during calm seasonal weather until this time of year when stormier tides take big bites out of the mounded sand, leaving rugged scarps. If there’s a few weeks between storms, the beach rebuilds. But winter will finally scour away the summer’s contours. This page is available to subscribers. Click here to […]

OBITUARY

PROVINCETOWN — Anne Lord Malicoat, a long-time resident of Provincetown, died peacefully at home on Aug. 29, 2019, with her family at her side. She was 81 and had lived for over a decade with Parkinson’s disease. A respected artist, a community- and conservation-minded citizen, and a nurturer of all, Anne reveled in the outdoors, […]

CLIMATE

WELLFLEET — As citizens organize to address the certainty of disruptive climate-related events here, librarians — including Wellfleet’s Gabrielle Griffis — are taking a leading role in urging communities to prepare for the crisis. An emerging statewide network called Climate Change Conversations in Libraries is cosponsoring a program on extreme weather events at the Wellfleet […]

MOVEMENT

We all strive to find balance in life. In a physical sense, it’s central to everything that we do from walking to surfing and from gardening to high-intensity sports. The clinical definition of balance is the ability to maintain the center of gravity over your base of support. For both elders and athletes, this translates […]

EASTHAM CURRENTS

EASTHAM — The 400 Commemoration Committee isn’t waiting until 2020 to start the celebrations; the first of its events, in partnership with the Eastham Public Library, takes place this Sunday, Sept. 15, at the Salt Pond Visitors Center. Kathleen Bragdon, an ethnographer and author of Native People of Southern New England 1500-1650 will present a […]

HOUSING

EASTHAM — Some 200 local residents filled the Orleans-Eastham Elks Lodge on Sept. 5, waiting anxiously for their numbers to be called by representatives of Pennrose, the developer of the Village at Nauset Green, Eastham’s new affordable rental housing complex. The lottery determined the order in which the 263 applications that had qualified for the […]

THEATER

PROVINCETOWN — Everybody knows the name Tennessee Williams, the two-time Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright who gave us The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Not everyone knows the name Yukio Mishima, a Japanese author who was thrice considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature, though he never won. Very few […]

ON THE LANDSCAPE

If I were asked to describe one image that most aptly represents the character and feel of the Outer Cape, it would be a gnarled, wind-sculpted pitch pine clinging to the top of a sand dune. Its roots firmly anchored in the sand, a tapering trunk bending back onto itself in turns, coarse and knotted, […]

Crossword

This month’s puzzle also appears in our print preview edition This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

THEATER

WELLFLEET — Spoiler alert: Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, which opens this weekend at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, ends with a defiant declaration. “I’m not capitulating!” shouts the last man on earth. It’s not a bad motto for a troupe that was shut down on its opening weekend back in 1985 and nearly collapsed under crushing financial burdens […]

A comprehensive listing of artistic, cultural, and community events in Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, and Eastham. Send listings to [email protected] and include a phone number for verification.   TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 10-11:30 am: Wellfleet Eastham Knitters. Eastham Public Library, 190 Samoset Rd., Small Conference Room. Free 10 am-12 noon: Outer Cape Moms. Eastham Public Library, 190 Samoset Rd., Children’s […]

ENVIRONMENT

WELLFLEET — A multimillion-dollar plan to restore Mayo Creek could significantly improve water quality in Wellfleet Harbor and would not threaten nearby structures or septic systems, town officials have concluded. The select board voted unanimously earlier this summer to proceed with planning the restoration following preliminary research into the project’s feasibility. But nearby property owners […]

HEALTH

WELLFLEET — Health and Conservation Agent Hillary Greenberg-Lemos issued a warning on Wednesday that the Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus had been detected in Wellfleet. The rare but deadly disease is contracted from the bite of an infected mosquito. Greenberg-Lemos said that residents should try to avoid being bitten. “I don’t think they should be super […]

EASTHAM CURRENTS

EASTHAM — It’s been called “the party the town throws itself when the tourists go home.” Eastham’s Windmill Weekend celebrations extend far past the edges of the triangular swath on which Cape Cod’s “oldest and last working gristmill” (when it’s working) sits. The 42nd edition of the festival takes place this weekend, although the windmill […]

Poetry

Sharks’ Teeth Everything contains some silence. Noise gets its zest from the small shark’s-tooth- shaped fragments of rest angled in it. An hour of city holds maybe a minute of these remnants of a time when silence reigned, compact and dangerous as a shark. Sometimes a bit of a tail or fin can still be […]

Learning

Photos and words by photographer Edward Boches. TRURO — Where could you go to get a full-body workout, improve your concentration, build self-esteem, and learn how to collaborate better? At the summer circus camp at the Payomet Center for the Performing Arts, young people work hard to gain those skills. But if you ask them, […]

Provincetown

Photos by Marcia Geier taken at this year’s Carnival parade, with words collected online and in conversations afterwards by Susannah Elisabeth Fulcher. PROVINCETOWN — “Joy in the street!” The words of longtime Provincetown visitor and now year-round renter Barbara Dyett perfectly captured the mood of this year’s Enchanted Forest Carnival Parade. The costumes were magical […]

wellfleet

Photographs by Jacob Greenberg, taken on Saturday, August 24 The acoustic duo Cumberland, Jim Rohrer and Lynda Shuster, played bluegrass and traditional Appalachian tunes.   Blue Dog brought jazz to the front porch of the Wellfleet Public Library.   The Atlantic Rhythm Pigs perform on African drums.   Singer-singwriter Tom Leidenfrost entertained the crowd at […]

Letters To the Editor

The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers. No fancy form for now; just send us an email. Please include your phone number, for verification, not publication.   Only in Wellfleet To the editor: In your article concerning the apparent dysfunction within the Wellfleet Select Board [“Wellfleet Struggles With Leadership Crisis,” Aug. 16], you attribute the following […]

economy

TRURO — At least 11 Truro farms are providing local markets with fresh produce and flowers this year, up from just one farm in 1987. But it may come as a surprise that half the growers at the Truro farmers’ market cultivate land they do not own. Instead, these farmers have leases or more informal […]

eastham currents

EASTHAM — Two weeks after showing high concentrations of a green filamentous algal bloom, a pair of Eastham ponds remain closed by order of the town’s health dept. Recreational activities at Schoolhouse and Minister’s ponds are prohibited and residents are strongly advised to avoid any contact with or ingestion of the water from either pond. […]

economy

WELLFLEET — Shellfishermen here are mobilizing to oppose state legislation that they say threatens their way of making a living from the sea. The Outer Cape’s state legislators and the Wellfleet Select Board are in their corner. “We need people behind us to fight this thing,” Brett Morse, a member of the shellfish advisory board, […]

dear indie

Note: The deadline for submissions for the advice columnist position has now passed. Keep watching the Independent for further developments in the selection process.   Dear Indie: My husband, “Cosmo,” and I have been married for almost a year and are very happy. He is the most loving man I know and a wonderful stepfather […]

ECONOMY

WELLFLEET — Along the pine-fringed stretch of Route 6 in South Wellfleet, farm stands have come and gone, motels have changed hands, and a clam shack has turned into a patisserie. But there is one roadside scene that hasn’t changed much over the years — give or take a few giant inflatable dinosaurs. Two souvenir […]

million-year picnic

The planets Jupiter and Saturn returned to the evening sky last month and will be with us through autumn. Jupiter looks like a brilliant white-gold star, and Saturn is a dimmer, rich gold color. They’re a beautiful sight against the night sky, but bright objects like these can be seen earlier, just after sunset, when […]

ENVIRONMENT

TRURO — The climate crisis is “the greatest threat to the integrity of our National Park Service that we have ever experienced, and we’re at the forefront of it,” according to Cape Cod National Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom. Responding to that threat includes getting creative with practicalities like dune stairways and beach bathhouses. That’s because […]

THEATER

PROVINCETOWN — It was the evening before Provincetown’s Carnival parade, and Commercial Street was filled with half-naked people in 10-inch heels and three-foot Afros. Loud men in thongs hawked tickets to “Bearlesque.” It was our last chance to see it! Seven p.m.! The feeling of freedom and unabashed sexuality extended to the stage of Fishermen […]

PEOPLE

PROVINCETOWN — The 250 Bradford St. home of artists Elspeth Halvorsen and Tony Vevers, formerly owned by Mark Rothko, is hidden behind an overgrown patch of trees. On this sunny, hot August day, light splatters through leaves and pine branches creating an enchanted forest of another time, a Provincetown past. Inside, Halvorsen sits under a […]

ENVIRONMENT

PROVINCETOWN — Calls to curb the seal population in Cape Cod waters by ending their protected status under federal law are misguided, say scientists who study marine ecology. In spite of the increased presence of great white sharks here, they say, the return of both seals and sharks represents a re-establishment of the balance of […]

THE YEAR-ROUNDER

PROVINCETOWN — Sailing or motoring out of Cape Cod Bay, rounding Long Point and entering Provincetown Harbor, there is a sense of protected water. The harbor appears as a big round bowl, the rims running from the shores of Truro through the crowded town waterfront, backed by dunes, and out to the Point. Refuge. Indeed, […]

VIEW FROM THE HIVE

WELLFLEET — In early August, sweet pepperbush, also called summersweet (Clethra alnifolia), comes into bloom where I live, in north Wellfleet. And when it does, the “honey factory” goes into full production. The bee yard is one loud hum as thousands of bees per minute pour in and out of hive entrances. Foragers streak off […]

sketchbook

Drawing by Daniel Dejean, who lives, gardens, runs, and draws pictures in Wellfleet. This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

OBITUARY

EASTHAM — Half an hour before he collapsed on Aug. 7, Joe Abbott was working with his fellow staff members at Willy’s Gym, where he directed the tennis program. “They were laughing, giggling in the office,” owner Barbara Niggel said. “He went back down to the courts to teach a lesson.” There, near the courts, […]

environment

A father sprays his son’s back with sunscreen and releases him into the water at Newcomb Hollow Beach to play. It’s a common scene: an estimated 1.9 million people visit the Cape Cod National Seashore each summer between June and August and most tourists spend a good deal of their time in local waters. The […]

economy

As the registration and first payment deadline for the new Mass. short-term rental tax approaches, some home owners are confused and frustrated by unanswered questions about how the tax is collected and exactly who owes it. Airbnb has acknowledged that it has collected the new tax from customers of at least some hosts who are […]

economy

EASTHAM — Wellfleet is world-famous for oysters. Neighboring Eastham is not. But there are folks in town who are trying to change that. One is 31-year-old Jared Collins, whose family has been here for five generations. Jared has three small shellfish grants in Town Cove, including the first grant in the town of Eastham, dating […]

eastham currents

EASTHAM — Some 16 months before the 400th anniversary, plans are well under way to commemorate the Dec. 8, 1620 “first encounter” between Native Americans and European pilgrims. Perhaps the most ambitious aspect of the celebration is an effort to bring the sailing “shallop” Elizabeth Tilley to Eastham for both display and tours. The vessel, a replica […]

metaphysics

TRURO — “Autumn is over the long leaves that love us,” wrote William Butler Yeats. The first harbingers of autumn are suddenly over the Outer Cape, as we see the sharpening of the colors of the water and feel the chill in the morning air. But the Outer Cape has become more permanently autumnal, as […]

next month in review

Artists, poets, therapists, fortune-tellers all understand that the urge to uncover meaning in an apparently random arrangement is an aspect of the human condition. We long for personal messages whispered to us in the patterns of the wordless world — stars, dreams, inkblots, playing cards, smoke swirls, serendipities, coincidences, or even someone’s gaze. At the […]

wine

With July behind us and each evening on our glorious peninsula growing shorter, we sense this summer beginning to flit through our grasp. We cherish our last few visitors somehow more than the others who came early on. And I, for one, am done with sharing cheerful but unremarkable wines. Especially the lightly sweet rosés […]

civics

WELLFLEET — The select board’s efforts to address citizen concerns about the process leading to the signing of a purchase and sale agreement for 247.5 acres of shellfish flats off Indian Neck have been stymied for a month by members’ recusals and a canceled meeting. It is unclear at this point how the board will […]

Letters To the Editor

The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers. No fancy form for now; just send us an email. Please include your phone number, for verification, not publication. ‘It took us back’ To the editor: We enjoyed Dennis Minsky’s essay, “Peculiar and Superior,” in the first issue of the Independent. It took us back to our year-round […]

people

WELLFLEET — The picture, painted in about 1898 by S.F.M. Badger for Capt. Lewis R. Paine, was a classic Americana image of Paine’s ship plowing a translucent sea in full-blown sail, a lighthouse stiff in the background. It was also a restorer’s nightmare. A descendant of Wellfleet’s Paine family had brought it to Debra Dickinson’s […]

economy

PROVINCETOWN — The OpenCape fiber optic cable network went live in January 2013, having secured $40 million in grants and offering the promise of high-speed internet connections to Cape Cod residents from the canal to Provincetown. Six and a half years later, mention OpenCape to almost anyone here and the reaction is “Whatever happened with […]

housing

WELLFLEET — The long-delayed plan to build four affordable single-family homes on Old Kings Highway has hit another wall: a new lawsuit filed by a group of abutters. The zoning board of appeals unanimously approved a comprehensive permit for the project on July 18. Five members of the ZBA and Habitat for Humanity of Cape […]

environment

WELLFLEET — On the afternoon of July 11 the beach at Gull Pond was empty: no chairs in the sand, no children doing cannonballs and belly flops from the dock. “CLOSED, NO SWIMMING,” a sign read. “Swimming May Cause Illness.” A routine test the day before had found a high level of potentially toxic cyanobacteria […]

people

PROVINCETOWN — Bartender, bullet maker, bookkeeper — Beata Cook has been all these things. Not necessarily in that order. But who cares about chronology when you’re listening to a master raconteur? It’s a hot Sunday afternoon in late July, and Cook, dressed in shorts and a white tank top that matches her close-cropped hair, has […]

island notebook

WELLFLEET — Black River, where I grew up, is the capital of St. Elizabeth’s Parish. Known by the beautiful sobriquet “breadbasket of Jamaica” because of a thriving agricultural and fisheries community, it is a city with no city life to offer. It’s still a place where there’s no need to maneuver through traffic, or to […]

the year-rounder

PROVINCETOWN — It happened again the other morning: walking my dog on the beach I met a couple and we began talking. I mentioned something about last winter’s storms. There was a pause. He asked: “Do you live here?” Yes. “Year-round?” Yes. “Nice!” he exhaled in a reverential tone. Instantly I felt my status elevate: […]

on the landscape

There is a trail I follow through the forest behind my house, a winding old fire road grown narrow over the years. I have walked these woods for most of my life. The walk is one I take when I need to hide from the summer heat in the shade only an oak forest provides. […]

Crossword

This puzzle from Sophia Maymudes is the first installment of a monthly feature in the Independent. This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

sketchbook

In the late season the tree swallows make flocks, sometimes thousands of birds, roosting on remote beaches and descending on stands of bayberry shrubs with their candle-wax berries (which few other creatures can digest). We came upon them after a long dune walk, clustered and swirling in a hollow near the ocean. This page is […]

in season

Striped bass migrate north from the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River during the summer into Cape Cod Bay. I learned from my grandfather that catching a “schoolie,” which is a small bass, about 12 to 18 inches long, is one good reason a person might choose to live on the Cape. These are catch-and-release fish […]

health

“Will we make it to the hospital in time?” That’s one of the big questions faced by young families living on Outer Cape Cod and expecting a baby. As intimidating as Route 6 traffic can be in the summer, it turns out that there are even more daunting issues facing prospective parents here — including […]