The future is here, cat sold separately. About 8,000 people were chosen by Google in a social media competition to get the chance to test-drive Glass, the company's much-hyped, face-mounted, picture-taking web gadget. One of them was the Daily Freeman's Ivan Lajara, who got his Glass on Wednesday, and has been Glassing up a storm all over town ever since. Tinfoil-hatters of Ulster County, beware.
Good morning, Catskills -- and it is a drippy one.
The region is still under various flood watches that have been in effect since Thursday afternoon. Reports of overnight rainfall ranged from less than an inch in parts of Ulster and Schoharie counties to a whopping 3.91 inches in Hancock. But so far, the Catskills has escaped the brunt of the weather, which delivered some nasty flooding to the Mohawk Valley overnight.
We wish we could report that it's going to let up soon, but local forecasts into next week are looking thoroughly infested with thunderstorms. Cross your fingers for a reprieve by fireworks time.
The Coxsackie Fire Department got some video evidence of flooding on Riverside Avenue and North Street during yesterday's rainstorm.
Speaking of flooding. Schoharie County would love to move their first responders' offices out of the flood zone. Unfortunately, that's up to FEMA.
Congrats to the Fabulous Beekman Boys, who are getting married today at their Sharon Springs farm. Martha Stewart will be broadcasting live from their porch. It's like some kind of Great Conjunction of artisanal cheese and cute upcycled mason jars.
About that Sharon Springs: They've got a new mayor, and he's got big ideas. Solar and compost and murals, oh my.
Meanwhile, in New Paltz, mayor Jason West is threatening to sue the village for reducing his salary.
Grand Gorge 7-year-old Dylan Utter clearly has enough to deal with in life without a mountain of grief from his health insurance company.
In Woodstock, there's a fundraising campaign afoot to buy 82 acres on Overlook Mountain for preservation. Bonus: The land's got ancient Indian cairns on it, say the folks at the Overlook Mountain Center.
Indian schmindian, says this SUNY New Paltz prof: Those Overlook rock piles are Irish.
School lunch prices in Catskill are going up by a nickel this year. Where will it end?
There's a big glossy new coffee-table book out about the great old Catskills resorts of yore. Proof of how gorgeous the whole scene used to be; try not to weep into your borscht. (Hat tip to Upstater.)
Seriously, there ought to be an HBO series about Monticello village politics already.
That giant munching sound coming from direction of Canada? It's Fortis completing its $1.5 billion takeover of Central Hudson.
To the great dismay of Assemblyman Kevin Cahill and the Citizens for Local Power.
Rural voters: Not as anti-government as the New York Times thought they were.
"Luxury log cabins" are in, according to the Wall Street Journal, whose team of roving house-porn aficionados found a $12.5 million, 15,000-square-foot specimen in Windham.
Catskill Park is about to get its first official Scenic Byway, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo poised to sign the Mountain Cloves Scenic Byway in Greene County into law. (No word on whether a shadow cabal of Agenda 21-pushers at the United Nations are cackling with glee and busting out the champagne.)
A house on Radcliff Road in Liberty was destroyed by fire Thursday night, but its occupant escaped unharmed.
Sullivan County's trash fee is "breaking the middle class," an outraged resident told the embattled Sullivan County Solid Waste Task Force last week.
NewsShed, our weekday digest of news, weather and hot bloggy goodness from around the region, is a new item here at the WP. Readers, what do you think? Let us know in a comment, or email us at editor@watershedpost.com.
