Mahon About Town Nantucket BlogThe Nantucket Land Council Sunset Dinner at Galley Beach took place on Sunday, September 14, 2008, with dinner prepared by executive chef W. Scott Osif, cocktails, and live jazz with conservation-minded people, courtesy of the Silva Family’s generosity. The annual fundraising dinner, chaired by Karen K. Clark, raised over $100,000 to help the NLC Nantucket’s drinking water, wildlife habitat, family lands and beautiful beaches. Photos by Mai Linh Norton.
Ehren Jordan has been named 2008 Winemaker of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle. Ehren, son of Nantucket realtor Lucille Jordan, is the winemaker for Turley Wine Cellars, and makes Pinot Noirs and Syrahs under the Failla label with his wife, Anne-Marie Failla. From the article: “He and Anne-Marie have managed the near impossible – building their own winery from the ground up with no outside investors except their bank.” Ehren is pictured here with his mother (left) and Rhoda Weinman (right) at the 2007 Nantucket Wine Festival.
Doug Bennett, former Nantucket resident and Selectman, now lives in Boston, and is one of about a dozen candidates running for City Council. His campaign tactic: knocking on as many doors as he can before the election.
In a related story, Dotnews.com on December 11, 2008, reported that former Nantucket Selectman and current City Council at-Large candidate Doug Bennett was fined by the Dorchester Inspectional Services Department for improper bumper stickering of streetlights and other public furnishings.
Chris Matthews, the host of MSNBC’s “Hardball” and Nantucket homeowner had been considering a Senate run in Pennsylvania in 2010, but has announced that he will not be doing so. Chris is pictured here at the 2008 Nantucket Film Festival.
Frank Milligan, former Executive Director of the Nantucket Historical Association, showed up last week on “CBS News Sunday Morning” as part of a piece on Lincoln’s 200th birthday. Frank is now the director of President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home in Washington, D.C. Frank is pictured here at an NHA event.
the blACK book: the life and times of successful singletons on Nantucket
GOLDEN HANDCUFFS
Holly Finigan
“You heading back to Nantucket this summer?” my sister asked the pretty waitress, after she’d delivered their dessert martinis at a fine dining restaurant in Vail. “Yeah, I will be,” she said firmly. “That island has me in golden handcuffs.”
Oh Nantucket. How do I love thee, let me count the ways. Where else in the world can you work for minimal hours and make maximum profits? Where else can you spend your days lazily on the beaches of Cisco and spend your evening serving their stellar Whales Tale Pale Ale? Where can you go to make as much money as many people do in a year and you do it in five fantastic and fun months? Where can you work with your friends during the evening and still want to hang out with them throughout the days?
A lot of us Rockette’s leave for the winter months. We head to greener pastures. (Or snowy pastures, in this waitress’s case, or to sandy beaches, in mine.) We take off on the slow ferry when we’re “over it” in December and come crawling back for spring when the rock gains 20 degrees and the daffodils bloom along Milestone Road in April. Regardless of what we do, what restaurant we work at, what seasonal job that the Rock has to offer, we come back. We’re like those birds that flock back to the island together, after heading south, north, or west for the chilly months.
We always tell ourselves that there has to be something else out there. We move to Colorado or the Caribbean, to Killington or to Kaua’i, but we’re always ready to head back to our old faithful, the Rock, for another summer. Perhaps the last summer, but probably not. Nantucket is a little fantasy island to itself. There is no other place like it in the world. And that it why we leave. To appreciate the beauty of the island and to realize there is truly no place like home. And I’ll repeat that, as I click my gold Jack Rogers and close my eyes to say:
There’s no place like Nantucket…There’s no place like Nantucket…There’s no place like Nantucket…
I’ll see you all in May.
Holly Finigan has been living the dream for the past five years, spending her summers tending bar in Nantucket and her winters in various exotic locations, finding that “endless summer” in St. John, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. She is currently resides in Maui, Hawaii. You can email
her at hollyfinigan@yahoo.com.
Mahon About Town Nantucket Blog 