New China!

It's been one of those weeks where things are so busy at work that you're running just to stay in place, so finally catching my breath here, on Friday night, I'll try to back-announce some high spots.

First, for those of us who have longed for a good Chinese restaurant (especially in the north end of Portsmouth, who've had to make the jaunt to Tiverton or Fall River) the opening of New China on Tuesday at the Irving gas station and food plaza was cause for celebration.

On the way home from distributing budget referendum fliers at the Middle School open house* (remember to vote October 5!), I stopped by, and the food is great. I had hot and sour soup, an egg roll, and sesame noodles. The egg roll was competent and unexceptional, and the soup above average, sporting a nice tang and large chunks of tofu. But the sesame noodles were absolutely amazing. The sesame paste was eye-wateringly delicious, a perfect combination of creamy mouthfeel and blistering heat. The diametric opposite of the sad "pasta and peanut butter" you get from some local eateries, and quite literally, the best implementation I've had north of New York City. Now if I could just get them to put some of that on wontons... anyone else remember the wontons with hot sesame from Tak Pao City? Mmmmm. I can't wait to go back to try an entree.

And Tuesday was election day. I have to congratulate all the winners of the Democratic primaries, especially Mayor David Cicilline, who I think will be a wonderful representative for our district, and I hope you'll join me in supporting him in November.

Tuesday was a school holiday, but I had to work in New York City, so instead of standing outside a polling place with a "SEGAL" sign, I was in meetings, and took Jack along. We had enough time at the end of the day for a couple hours of blitzing-style tourist-fu, and we were able to hit the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Pix up on Flickr.

So while I "missed" the election — I voted by emergency ballot — I felt very good about how things went in Rhode Island. Thanks to the magic of Twitter, Facebook, Portsmouth Patch and GoLocalProv, I got the results in real time on my iPhone as the polls closed, somewhere around Bridgeport. I have to agree with much of what Matt Jerzyk says in this week's "Hot and Not" over at GoLocalProv. Four out of the five races I cared about broke the way I hoped (Angel Taveras, Teresa Tanzi, Richard Morrison, and Sam Zurier) and even David Segal showed unexpected strength in Portsmouth (and pulled nearly 30% in precinct 2704 at Common Fence Point. (See full precinct-level results at the Board of Elections.)

Last, but absolutely not least, I would like to suggest to all my readers that you strongly consider applying to be on the Portsmouth Charter Review Committee. Really, it's important.

As you know, the Portsmouth Concerned Citizens (PCC) went to the Town Council with a package of charter changes, including eliminating partisan elections and providing for recall of elected officials. This is basically a batch of revisions that would make elections less transparent and give the PCC a bigger club to wield against democratically elected officials.

The Council, wisely I think, opted instead to convene a committee to review the Town Charter and make recommendations, and they have asked for citizen volunteers to serve. All it takes is some common sense and free time, and I'd very much urge everyone to at least put in your names. The Council may well pick their own favorites (especially the four-person majority who have opted not to stand for re-election) but at least we should make them look at as many applications as we can.

You can go to Town Hall, or, download the forms here (Word or PDF format) and they need to be returned to Town Hall by 4:30 pm on Monday, September 20. Yes, that's this Monday, so please, take a few minutes this weekend and fill one out.

*Full disclosure: David Croston and the Save Our Schools folks were out fliering on the referendum at every middle school orientation this week, and you can expect to see 'em again at the the remaining sessions. You can read the flier on the SOS web site. Thanks to Croston, Marge Levesque, Andrew Kelly, and Terri Cortvriend. With the school committee's decision not to pursue a Caruolo action, passing the referendum has become even more critical.