Around New England

Regional Annual High School Ball To Allow All Same-Sex Couples, and Anyone Can Wear A Dress

Matthew McDonald

An 80-year-old regional dance for high school girls and their dates in southwestern Connecticut will start allowing all-male same-sex couples next year and will remove the requirement that boys wear a tuxedo.

The annual County Assembly Charity Ball — known as "the Counties" — has traditionally been for high school junior girls and their escorts. That has traditionally meant that a girl has gone to the dance with a boy.

Around New England

Extreme Northern Maine Town Is Tired of You Using Their Name To Sell Products

Matthew McDonald

People in Allagash, Maine (population 236) are unimpressed that a new movie named after the town is set to be shot in the far-off western portion of the state.

The real Allagash, at the end of Route 161 before a dirt road goes into the North Woods, is on the Canadian border in northwest Maine, so far up that it's north of Quebec City. At the confluence of the St. John River and the Allagash River, the town mostly consists of people of Irish, Scottish, and Acadian descent.

Read More