Small-town newspaper articles usually begin with a sober account of the news. But today, Windham Journal staff writer Michael Ryan broke the mold and decided to start an article about municipal improvements in the town of Ashland with a little more pow: 

Holy infrastructure revival Batman! The usually quiet town of Ashland is suddenly a happening place where government leaders practically have to be super heroes to keep up with everything that is going on, although none of it is villainous, to be sure.

It's official: New piglets are cute as hell. Ulla Kjarval of Spring Lake Farm has the photographic proof.

Tomorrow, New York's Department of Environmental Protection will open boating season with an announcement that it has opened up 33 percent more of the Cannonsville Reservoir -- 1,473 acres between Cannonsville Bridge and the Cannonsville Dam -- to recreational boating. From the press release:

The new area expands recreational opportunities into a much larger portion of the Town of Deposit and makes it more accessible for visitors coming from the Binghamton area and points west.

Of course, 1500 extra acres isn't much in a year when 41 state parks might be closing. Luckily, today the governor and the state legislature announced that they might manage to keep the parks open after all. From the New York Daily News:

Legislative sources are claiming a "handshake agreement" with Gov. Paterson to reopen the 41 state parks and 14 historic sites that were closed because of the state's budget crunch.

When Courtney Love's daughter, Frances Bean, didn't make the lead in the 2006 show at the intense Catskills summer theater camp Stagedoor Manor, Love acted like any meddlesome stage mom would, according to a new book called 'Theater Geek" by Mickey Rapkin:

Love complained about Bean's role in the musical, "Leader of the Pack." "She was in like, some tertiary chorus line. It really p - - - ed me off," Love told Rapkin

The New York Post gleans other tidbits from the book about the dog-eat-dog world of theater camp, including this gem:

Bean was also teased so much that Love had Drew Barrymore, Bean's godmother, call her at camp. "I asked her to have them say over the PA system, 'Francis, you have a phone call from Drew Barrymore,' so the kids would stop making fun of her," Love related.