Out of the Box

This year the OcraFolk Music & Storytelling Festival has embarked on a creative new fundraising project. About three dozen islanders and friends of Ocracoke picked up five pieces of wood from committee members several months ago. Any conventional person could make a simple box with the pieces. However, everyone was encouraged to think "outside of the box" to create a distinctive work of art. Some of these "boxes" will be auctioned off at the festival; others will be sold on Ebay. Below are photos of some of the early submissions (any idea which one is mine? -- no fair peeking at the file names!).

For more information about the boxes and their creators, and to see more boxes as they come in, click on this Festival Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ocrafolk-Music-Storytelling-Festival/210781592277504?ref=tn_tnmn

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a list of a few traditional Ocracoke Island recipes. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news052112.htm.

Capsized Boat

I received the following email message last night at 9 pm. We are glad there were no deaths. And hoping for a full recovery for the one person in serious condition. Many thanks to our local and national rescue personnel.

Hyde County, North Carolina May 25, 2012 9 PM

Boat Capsizes in Hatteras Inlet; 4 Passengers Carried to Ocracoke Shore On Friday, May 25, at approximately 7 pm, a call came in to Hyde County Dispatch reporting a capsized 23' Grady White boat near the Hatteras Inlet. The 4 passengers of the boat were carried by ocean current two miles south onto Ocracoke beach shore. One patient was transported to a local hospital via Coast Guard helicopter after receiving treatment from Hyde County EMS and Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department. He was reported to be in serious condition at that time. The other three passengers did not need further care at that time. This was a collaborative rescue effort by the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department, National Park Service, US Coast Guard, and Hyde County EMS. It was reported that the boat capsized due to rough seas.

Horses

Here is a saying that was once very common on Ocracoke. I still hear it now and then, but not very often.

"They don't set horses."

I wonder if any of our readers know what it means. Leave a comment if you do.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a list of a few traditional Ocracoke Island recipes. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news052112.htm.

Firemen's Ball

Coming right up -- this Saturday, May 26 -- is the 7th Annual Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department's Firemen's Ball. Held at the Community Center beginning at 5 o'clock, the Ball is a fun-filled event featuring a Pig Pickin', Live and Silent Auctions (starting at 7 pm), and a Dance at 8:30.

The Ocracoke Rockers, The Aaron Caswell Band, and the Dune Dogs will be providing the music.

All funds raised help support the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department. You can visit their website at http://www.ocracokevfd.org/  for more information or to make a donation.

Hope to see you Saturday!

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a list of a few traditional Ocracoke Island recipes. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news052112.htm.

Ocracoke Brogue Segment

For those of our readers who missed Monday's CBS segment with Mo Rocca about accents and the Ocracoke brogue, here is a link to that episode:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7409252n

Many thanks to "Debbie S" who alerted me to the video.

One other thing -- if you see Amy Howard today wish her a Happy Birthday! I won't tell you how old she is but there is a 4 and a 0 involved. I don't know how this happened.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a list of a few traditional Ocracoke Island recipes. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news052112.htm.

Nookd

Today's post departs from my stated mission to provide a glimpse into daily island life...except so far as it reflects my reaction to something I stumbled across in my reading.

Some weeks ago I decided that I wanted to read Tolstoy's War and Peace. Lou Ann loaned me her copy. At more than 1100 pages, reading it in bed required as much strength as balancing a box of bricks in my hands. In my senior years I have developed arthritis in my thumbs, which made the effort not only difficult, but painful.

I had read about half of the novel when I was given the gift of a Nook, the e-reader from Barnes and Noble. Although I am committed to supporting my neighborhood independent book store (Books to be Red), and enjoying honest-to-goodness books, the .99 Nook edition was so lightweight that it has made reading War and Peace a genuine pleasure. For those of you who have not tackled this tome as yet, it is a page-turner.

As I was reading, I came across this sentence: "It was as if a light had been Nookd in a carved and painted lantern...." Thinking this was simply a glitch in the software, I ignored the intrusive word and continued reading. Some pages later I encountered the rogue word again. With my third encounter I decided to retrieve my hard cover book and find the original (well, the translated) text.

For the sentence above I discovered this genuine translation: "It was as if a light had been kindled in a carved and painted lantern...."

Someone at Barnes and Noble (a twenty year old employee? or maybe the CEO?) had substituted every incidence of "kindled" with "Nookd!"

I was shocked. Almost immediately I found it hilarious...then outrageous...then both. It is definitely clever. But it raises many questions. E-books can be manipulated at will by the purveyors of the downloadable software. Here is a classic work of fiction (some claim it is the greatest novel every written) used for a sophomoric and/or commercial prank. What else might be changed in an e-book? Fears of manipulation for economic, political, religious, or other ideological ends come to mind. It makes one wary of the integrity of any digital version of not only War and Peace...but any e-book.

I searched the Internet for others who have found the same "revision" but was unsuccessful. Could it be that no one else has ever read this e-book version of War and Peace? Or has no one else brought the substitution to anyone's attention? Could some software programmer have altered just my copy?

I may never have answers to my questions, but I would like to hear our readers' reactions. Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a list of a few traditional Ocracoke Island recipes. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news052112.htm.

Recipes

We just published our latest Ocracoke Newsletter. I have shared a few island recipes on this blog in the past. This month I decided to reprint nine traditional Ocracoke recipes from three local cookbooks -- the "Green" cookbook published by the Methodist Church (available at the OPS museum), the "Yellow" cookbook also published by the Methodist Church (available from Village Craftsmen), and the "Hoi Toide" cookbook published by the volunteer fire department (unfortunately out of print).

Click on this link (www.villagecraftsmen.com/news052112.htm) to see the recipes, and to start putting a little bit of Ocracoke on your dining room table.