We must stress that it's preliminary, but what you see above is the gist of the new Catskills-specific design that will soon be perched atop road signs throughout Catskill Park. It's the result of months of brainstorming by a crack team of town supervisors and tourism directors working with a graphic designer from the New York State Department of Transportation.

Like it? Don't like it? Have a better idea? Now is the time to say something, while the DOT is still tinkering with it.

The design above will be used on smaller signs, and the design below will appear over bigger ones.

Kingston school Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger felt it necessary to strike down an anonymous complaint about cockroaches in the cafeteria of Kingston High School yesterday with some strong rhetoric. According to the Daily Freeman, Gretzinger insisted that any statements about roaches in the school are "misinformation."

The New York Times celebrated the fruits of many farmers' labors yesterday with a long article about the new prevalence of locally-raised beef and pork at city farm markets. No Catskills farmers were mentioned, but beef from Otsego County and Columbia County made appearances.

Representing Otsego County:

One of the new meat sellers is Dave Dutton, who, with his life and business partner, Sonia Sola, left a life in Manhattan to start raising the shaggy cattle called Scottish Highland on a farm in Schenevus, N.Y., near Cooperstown. They like the breed because it’s hardy enough to survive on meager hay and because the animals’ long coats mean less fat, which means leaner meat, which some people prefer. They plan to slaughter about 20 this year, some of which they’ll sell at a Greenmarket near Columbia University in Manhattan on Thursdays. Even the ground beef, at $8 a pound, sells fast. “The people who are aware of what they’re eating are realizing things are getting pretty scary out there,” Mr. Dutton said.

And representing Columbia County:

Anti-drilling documentarian Josh Fox was at the Walton Theatre last night showing his movie "Gasland" to a pretty packed house. After the showing, Fox fielded questions from the audience. In one notable answer, Fox described how he thinks gas drilling will impact the Catskills economy:

What I've found was the utter degradation of an era of boom and bust. We might have a couple years of economic development, but you also have a truck go by every 30 seconds. These are places that no one wants to live anymore. ... In this area, we have a number of billion-dollar industries, one of which is tourism, another is organic farming. All of that sustainable development would be destroyed. If you actually look at a graph of what the region does economically, you're talking about a boom and bust kind of thing. The boom lasts 5 years, ten years, but you're fundamentally changing all the basics of what this area is about. I don't think it adds up. ... And what's going to happen when New York is the only area left where you have fresh water? You're going to have a gold mine of fresh water. You're selling that future.

The Dancing Cat Distillery and Saloon, a new distillery-and-art-venue combo near Bethel Woods in Sullivan County, looks like it's going to be opening soon, according to David Knudsen, who has been eyeing its orange and "burnt raspberry" color scheme all year: