From the EFFector:

For the last two months, your phone calls and letters have helped hold back the dangerous surveillance bills in Congress. These bills threaten vigorous judicial oversight of the illegal NSA spying program and let the government off the hook for breaking the law.

Without exaggeration, these bills represent the greatest expansion of government surveillance power ever considered by Congress.

Now various Senators are trying to rush these bills through at the last minute, prior to Congress' October recess. Even if you have called your Senator about these bills before, it is critical that you do so again now and help stop the illegal surveillance: http://action.eff.org/fisa.

The New Hampshire Historical society has added the Old Man of the Mountain bobblehead to its Museum Store wares. Not bad, but if we're going bobblehead with our state symbol, I bet Archie McPhee could do better.

It may be time to revert yet again to this banner.

In the last installment of H.E.L.P., the Home Emergency Ladies' Pal, we girls learned some valuable lessons from the inside front cover, such as:

• Biscuit recipes, newspaper articles, and toy assembly are all hard.
• It's not our fault.
• What we need is a book that took men six years to write so that we can "get the information from the printed page into (our) mind... and then from (our) mind into the right action!"

With this foundation, I think we're ready to tackle the section on "How to Use This Book":

This book is arranged so you can find things fast and easily -- as it should be, to be of help in emergencies. Run your finger down the Table of Contents (opposite) and find the general section covering your problem (for example, if you have a drain problem, your finger would stop at PLUMBING). Now turn the book to look at the right edge and "fan out" the pages to see where the black line in the Table of Contents picks up again in the book. In this way you can turn directly to Plumbing on Page 37.

So we're not smart enough to use a Table of Contents without instruction, yet we get to play with electricity, gas, plumbing, carpentry, and people's lives? Cool!

Do not pick up the book and attempt to read it for enjoyment, as you might other books. This book is not designed to entertain you.

I guess these guys didn't see the women's movement and blogs coming. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose....

Some of the procedures may be confusing if you start reading in the middle. Therefore, when you set out to do any of the jobs covered in this book, always start at the beginning of the appropriate section or subsection. Scan through first, and then begin step by step. If you do this, you won't get confused!

Most pages consist of words on the left and illustrations on the right. Any part referred to by name is followed by a number in paren­theses -- for example, valve [4]. This part is found in the illustration by looking for the same number (4, in this case) and noting where the arrow points. This way you always know what is being referred to, where it is and what it looks like. Sometimes the picture will not look exactly the same as the item in your house, because of the great variety of hardware on the market. But we have covered all of the more common types.

A word is needed about CAUTIONS and WARNINGS. Occasionally there is a chance you will damage something if you are not care­ful. We call your attention to this by a CAUTION before the step is performed. If there is the possibility of injuring somebody, we use a WARNING.

(taking notes) Reading from the middle: Bad! Things on the left: words; things on the right: pictures. Go to the store and buy the things in the pictures so as not to get confused. Invite the ex over for tea and store-bought biscuits. Upon arrival, try tasks with WARNINGS.

The Emergency Medical Aid section is unique in that there is really no substitute for on-the-spot judgment in medical emergencies. We have given generally accepted procedures for treating common accidents. These should be considered as guidelines only, which will help you avoid hasty, unthinking actions and indicate what can be done until professional care can be obtained.

(still taking notes) Blame the book and the inherent stupidity apparently associated with being a woman for failure to revive ex. Point to illustrations and feign confusion resulting from the fact that the picture does not look exactly the same as the ex.

Thus ends another enlightening installment of H.E.L.P. Stay tuned until next time when we'll either figure how to distinguish a hammer from a paintbrush or learn how to "survive." (It all will depend on my mood at the time and whether or not I can master this whole table-of-contents, page-fanning-out thing.)

Pan Dulce ( Mexican Sweet bread)
Originally uploaded by NoNo Joe.

To my great surprise and pleasure, I have located a source of Mexican pastries in New Hampshire: El Mexicano Jr. on Wilson Street in Manchester. I haven't had these in, gosh, well over a decade! I wonder if they make them at the restaurant, or if they purchase them from a bakery. If the latter, maybe there's a chance of tracking down some FRESH flour tortillas!

Thanks to NoNo Joe for making this photo available. I was too busy enjoying my tasty find!

The Washington Post's David S. Broder doesn't care for the DNC's revised primary and caucus calendar either.

What was lost in all this ("front-loading") was any sense of public deliberation about the choice of the next president. In the general election, people have two months or more to evaluate two or maybe three candidates. In the early primaries, eight or 10 people may be vying. What is most needed is time -- and a place -- for them to be carefully examined.

Historically, New Hampshire has fulfilled that responsibility. Voters there -- in both parties and especially among the numerous independents who also vote in the primary -- take their role seriously. They turn up at town meetings and they ask probing questions. So do the interviewers at local papers and broadcast stations. So do high school students.

Indeed we do take our responsibility seriously -- VERY seriously. And the fact that we're a small state means that the candidates have far less geographic scrambling to do and can thus maximize the amount of time they spend with the voters, hearing our concerns and sharing their positions.

I've lived in other states -- states with quite a bit of diversity -- but never have I seen folks embrace the democratic process like the residents of New Hampshire. Why the DNC doesn't see value in that enthusiasm is beyond me....

Whatever New Hampshire does, the country will be forced to witness the huge field of candidates flashing by in perpetual motion during the December holidays and the frantic first weeks of January, not standing still anywhere long enough to be measured for the job they are trying to win.

Ah, but here's where you're wrong David. We could move our primary up to 2007. After all, as long as we're going to defy the DNC and their silly sanctions, we might as well make it count. Why sacrifice our delegates over a few measly days or weeks? Besides, moving our primary up to 2007 would surely give us sufficient time to carefully examine the candidates....

I think mid-autumn would be perfect: The weather's beautiful for outdoor events and door-to-door campaigning. And can you think of a better way to promote tourism than broadcasting our amazing fall foliage on the nightly news?

What do you say, Governor Lynch?