EZ-HOAX.(The Talk of the Town)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 22-MAY-06

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COPYRIGHT 2006 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

Shelter Island's first inhabitants, the Manhanset Indians, called their home Manhansack-aha-quash-awomack, which means "an island sheltered by islands"--or, in other words, "take a boat or swim." At least since the days of Nathaniel Sylvester and his teen-age wife, Grissel, who survived a shipwreck on their way from Barbados in 1652, travellers to the area have been content to rely on the former method of conveyance, which, while not free or available at whim, claims the advantages of dispatch and dryness. Comers and goers have their choice of two ferries, one to Greenport and the other to North Haven. Each shoves off every fifteen or so minutes and costs around ten dollars.

Native Shelter Islanders are bred to regard the exigencies of the ferry schedule with less annoyance than with pride; in homage to their...

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