Despite being a few dozen yards from the ER, Rachel Dow of Edgartown lost her life yesterday in a terrible car accident. According to police, at approximately 5:45pm the 37-year-old woman lost control of her vehicle before crashing into the woods where her car burst into flames? WTF.

School officials, worried about the spread of swine flu, have cancelled all group activities except for the one big group activity that all of the kids participate in: school. As of last Friday there were approximately 140 students out with about 113 being ill.

Now that everything is settled with the on going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and we are no longer concerned with near-record unemployment, oh and winter is supposed to be long, cold and wet (not all hot like the global warming doomsayers predicted) it is nice to sit back and remember how close the human race is to extinction because of swine flu.

The boil water order has claimed its first victim: a house. The home, located at 29 Carol Ave, was destroyed by fire on Monday afternoon. The culprit? A pot of water left to boil on the stove. Luckily no one was home at the time. Can the Water Department be blamed?

After several days of undrinkable water, Oak Bluffs is going on the defensive. While happy to be receiving free drinking water, residents are furious about a perceived lack of notice of the original boil water order. The town has released a time line of events for your perusal.