Farmer’s Beefing Saves Pet Cow

Bureaucracy has a heart after all, and it beat just in time to save a pet cow that had been sentenced to die under a federal dairy herd termination program. When Iowa farmer Arlo Van Veldhuizen first sought a reprieve for Old Mama, his beloved 15-year-old bovine, the Department of Agriculture refused. But Van Veldhuizen was later informed that the department had a change of heart and decided to spare the graying cow. “She’s useless to anyone but me,” Van Veldhuizen had argued before the reprieve. “She doesn’t give any milk and she’s never going to again. It’s just like a pet, a cat or a dog that’s around.” The farmer has agreed to have Old Mama sterilized in return for the favor, and the cow will spend the rest of her days in grass-chewing splendor. Not so fortunate were dozens of others. Agriculture official Mike Masterson said the agency has received “a boatload full” of requests from farmers who wanted to keep their animals as pets but has denied their requests.

--When things go bump in the night at this 18th-Century farmhouse, chances are it’s just a couple of the resident ghosts smacking an ectoplasmic elbow or two as they conduct their haunts in what must be tight quarters, even for an unearthly body. At least five restless spirits share the small Connecticut farmhouse commissioned by American patriot Nathan Hale, according to documents found at the historic site. George Dudley Seymour, who last owned the farmhouse and willed it to the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society more than 40 years ago, wrote in the recently discovered papers that the ghosts include Hale’s father, Deacon Hale; Hale family members Liz Carpenter and Lt. Joseph Hale (the latter inhabits the cellar, where he clanks chains), an unidentified woman in white whose tall form has been seen gliding through the kitchen, and another female phantom who sweeps the upstairs hall in the morning. The hustle and bustle hasn’t spooked members of the historic society. “There are no lights in the museum part and it is very isolated . . . . But I wouldn’t be afraid of it,” said Michelle Bolduc, a guide at the farmhouse.

--Movie director John Huston has been released from a Massachusetts hospital after spending 22 days in the intensive-care unit for treatment of pneumonia. Huston, who celebrated his 81st birthday while in the Fall River facility, will continue on to Rhode Island, where he was headed to film the movie “Mister North” when he was stricken. He will receive close medical supervision during the filming, a spokeswoman said, but “as always, his buoyant spirits and zest for living are assets to his recuperation,” she said.