HOW TO CREATE a slow-cooker soup bar at home.

A REPORT FROM THE SCOTT BROWN RALLY AT WORCESTER: “It’s an absolute mob scene. The police have closed off the streets. It’s mind blowing. The hall is already full, and it holds 3,000 people. There may be another 1,000 people outside.”

Meanwhile, reader Sean Fitzpatrick writes: “Pictures don’t do justice. Nothing like this in Mass since JFK. Worcester rally starts in thirty minutes and the streets are already packed.” Here’s a pic.

UPDATE: Fitzpatrick sends another picture from inside the hall, and comments: “If the Brown campaign were worried that they wouldn’t fill the hall then they needn’t have. It is standing room only and the hall management is concerned about OVERcrowding.”

I like the “Whole World Is Watching” sign at the lower left. Yep. And sometimes via cellphone pics.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Meanwhile, reportedly, Coakley can’t fill a hall. “Martha Coakley and Barack Obama held a rally today in Boston. They couldn’t fill the hall. . . . It holds 3,000 and frankly only 2,000 to 2,500 showed up.”

UPDATE: DaTechGuy says that Cameron is wrong and there were plenty of people to fill the hall. “Cameron was inside and I wasn’t so I don’t doubt that he saw a hall that was not filled, but it wasn’t for lack of supporters as at least 500 people that I presume were Coakley supporters were not let in. I know since I was in the middle of them. In fact I personally spoke to a woman with a cane and a pronounced limp who had been passed through but was sent back due to fire limitations. (more on her later tonight). Perhaps it was a question of security. There were easily more Brown people outside protesting than Coakley people waiting to come in (more on that later) so maybe they were worried about screening out people who opposed the president and the candidate getting in so the campaign had to keep a tight leash to avoid mass heckling.”

More from the Northeastern event here, including an interview with Reason’s Michael Moynihan.

And I guess they were right to worry about hecklers. “The big news here isn’t so much that a heckler appeared at a Coakley rally — with passions this high, it would have been news if one hadn’t — but that a series of hecklers threw Obama so far off his stride. It didn’t matter to the people who attended this rally, of course, but it’s a bit strange to see an experienced politician allow a couple of loud voices to interrupt for as long as this goes … and then to ask ‘Where were we?'”

SMURFS, SPIES, AND JELL-O SHOTS: If you missed it on XM/Sirius satellite radio, the latest PJM Political is online.

CHARLIE COOK: Brown Now Favored To Win. Okay, but don’t get cocky.

There’ll be a new PJM/CrossTarget poll coming out at midnight Pacific Time.

HOMELAND SECURITY UPDATE: The System Worked!

A Waupaca woman finds herself in the middle of a major security investigation at Cleveland’s airport.

Kimmy Janke had gone through security. In fact, she was in a secure part of the terminal when she stopped to go to the bathroom before making her connecting flight.

That’s when she found a loaded handgun. . . . A Cleveland police report confirms a fully-loaded .40-caliber pistol was left on top of a toilet paper dispenser.

“A little kid could have grabbed that. The wrong person could have grabbed that. You never know,” Janke said.

We’ve since learned the gun was traced to a federal customs agent.

Customs officials have denied all requests to explain why a highly-trained agent left her gun in the bathroom, claiming there is an internal investigation.

The country’s in the very best of hands.

UPDATE: A reader who requests anonymity writes:

I suspect that the agent that left her pistol on the toilet paper dispenser wears a waistband holster and didn’t want the thing to hit the ground when she dropped trou and possibly get snatched by someone with fast hands in an adjoining stall. Understandable. Do we need to mandate that all plainclothes LE types wear shoulder rigs?

On the Barney Miller series everyone wore very fashionable itty bitty revolvers in waistband holsters except Fish. He, as I recall tended to frequent restrooms frequently and was the only one to use a shoulder holster. I say he, or his writer, was the only one paying attention.

The restroom problem is an issue when carrying concealed. However, we expect federal agents to have figured out what to do about it, particularly in secure areas.

MORE: Reader Matt Green writes:

SOP that I was trained to when using a stall is to put the pistol in the crotch of your pants, both to protect it from the bathroom floor, and prevent you forgetting the weapon. If this person was allowed to retire, they may have been older and not up on current weapons handling training. They may also have been a desk jockey who wasn’t used to wearing a weapon, and didn’t miss it when it was gone. Most street cops and regular pistol carriers would notice right away if their weapon was absent.

You’d think.

GREG MANKIW: “Is galloping inflation around the corner?”

SCOTT BROWN: From MoneyBomb to VoterBomb.

ON THE UPSIDE, LESS BACKSTRAIN. On the downside, less exercise? Women’s handbags getting lighter: “A typical bag now weighs 1.5kg (3.3lbs), against the back-breaking peak of 3.5kg (7.7lbs) in 2006. . . . The cause is a combination of the recession and lighter gadgets.”

AND HARRY REID’S ONLY MAKING THINGS WORSE: Creams Offering Lighter Skin May Bring Risks. “Dermatologists nationwide are seeing women of Hispanic and African descent, among others, with severe side effects like Mrs. Ross’s from the misuse of skin-lightening creams, many with prescription-strength ingredients, which are sold in beauty shops and bodegas and online.” No, really, the article mentions Harry Reid.

CLARK HOYT: Yes, GruberGate is a scandal. But with a quick Bush-guy-did-it-too head-toss thrown in.

WHAT THE WORLD HAS BEEN WAITING FOR: Lady Gaga Barbie.

I still prefer SpongeBob Barbie.

ON THIS WEEK: Tucker Carlson to Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Stop Saying ‘Teabaggers’.

HMM: Lack of Progress of LGBT and Other Issues Threatens To Derail Democratic Majority. Well, if I were a Democratic gay-rights activist, I’d be pretty unenthusiastic at this point. And, actually, gay rights is one of the places where Obama has actually managed to disappoint me, as opposed to living down to my expectations. . . .

IN THE MAIL: From Roy Spencer, The Bad Science and Bad Policy of Obama’s Global Warming Agenda.

IF YOU MISSED IT YESTERDAY, be sure to check out AlfonZo Rachel’s guerrilla reporting from Boston.

PHOTOS FROM HAITI:

SALENA ZITO: POLITICAL THERMOMETER. “Wise strategists need look no further than U.S. House races in Pennsylvania to gauge the country’s political temperature. . . . What House races in Pennsylvania show is that freshman and sophomore Democrats nationwide are vulnerable. Incumbents of each party should be wary of being tossed out by frustrated voters.”

L.A. TIMES: In Massachusetts, Voter Discontent Threatens Democrats. “Several factors have been cited to explain Brown’s surge: He’s affable and telegenic, and has run an aggressive campaign, compared to Coakley’s more reserved effort. But interviews with potential voters also revealed a persistent feeling that Obama and his allies in Congress have misread the public mood and have failed to concentrate on priorities such as the economy.”

TAM ISN’T FEELING THE HAROLD FORD LOVE: She writes: “With Harold Ford suddenly talking about his love of gun safety, maybe folks need to be reminded that he didn’t listen to the mandatory gun safety briefing at CCA?”

IN NORTH CAROLINA, a challenger for Heath Shuler.

He’s vulnerable, and he’ll probably wish he’d been a bit nicer to the Asheville Tea Party folks. . . .

THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER is looking for one brave Democrat.

HYPOCRISY UPDATE: Roy Edroso, call your office! Roy has an office? More here.

CATERINA FAKE: Great Engineers: Where Are They?

WELL, IT WAS THE BIRTHPLACE OF FASCISM: Italy Proposes Mandatory Licenses for People Who Upload Video.

HAITI UPDATE: London Times: Haiti earthquake: a few more rescues, but aid still slow. “Nobody can go anywhere without security in the city. No aid workers can go anywhere without taking risks with security. That adds to the difficulty of delivering the aid because you not only have to have transport – which is rare – you also have to have some sort of security with you, or you are taking a risk. People are getting angry, people are getting hungry and thirsty.” This is sounding kind of familiar.

As I mentioned before, disaster relief isn’t like ordering a pizza. It’s hard to get aid into a place where the infrastructure has been wrecked and ordinary social order broken down. I’m seeing some people start to go after Obama on this in an obvious echo of the Katrina-based criticism of Bush. I understand the appeal of payback, but I don’t see any evidence that Obama has blown it here; this stuff is just hard. Of course, the press won’t go after him the way they went after Bush, but that’s a given.

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene writes:

Glenn I hope your readers are paying attention.

Granted, Haiti didn’t have a very robust infrastructure to begin with, nevertheless its experience should be an object lesson for every American: In a natural disaster, aid is probably not coming nearly as fast as you think it should. It isn’t coming as fast as you think it will. And aid isn’t coming as fast as you’re going to need it.

If you’re not prepared to go it on your own for at least a couple of weeks, with your own supplies of food and especially water and emergency medical supplies, then you probably deserve your fate. Those of us who survive will be all the better off in a significantly cleansed gene pool.

Might be a good time to link people to this … just as a reminder that the United States is also due some natural disasters of epic proportions.

Well, if the Yellowstone Caldera really blows, the only good preparation will be a trip to Australia — taken before it lets go. But this Haiti earthquake has had me thinking about the New Madrid fault, which could wreck things across a very large part of the United States. And, yeah, you need to be ready to look after yourself for at least a week, preferably two or three at a minimum.

Lots of disaster-preparedness resources here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Some readers think Kevin Greene’s comments are a bit harsh. Well, yeah, but I think they were meant to get your attention. Did they?

Meanwhile, reader Jeff Cook writes:

What I haven’t seen posted, and know from personal experience, is that there is almost nothing worse than a flood (i.e. New Orleans).

When the fire burns out, when the tornado moves on, when the earth stops wobbling, you’re left with a mess and a bunch of bodies. With a flood, your left with a mess, a bunch of bodies and ten feet of water on top of them, and almost nowhere to even land a helicopter, not to mention drive a Humvee or park a generator.

I’ve been through one, (Texas Medical Center 2001) and worked in the aftermath of Katrina. Pure misery and helplessness. No excuse for having a quarter horse association president as your FEMA director, but some perspective of the relative difficulty of response is appropriate.

Yeah, and the damage extended over a very large area, blocking roads, railroads, etc.

MORE: Another reader emails:

You are very correct to be thinking of the New Madrid Fault at times like this. The New Madrid when it goes off will make Haiti look like a garden party.

There is a sort of sneering that goes on at times like this. Look at at that backward country down there. The question is does anyone think Memphis and St Louis would fare any better? Memphis despite knowing better built a huge glass pyramid on a sandbar. Those brick homes and office buildings will come tumbling down with perhaps much more devastation

The death and destruction would have world wide consequences. The Mississippi River would likely change course after the levees break and wipe out critical parts of the United States and indeed the world’s food supply in the Delta. The nation’s most critical Highway would be out of use for some time. In fact the Mississippi River might be coming through your home. What about the critical pipelines that take all that critical oil and gas up north.

There would massive food disruptions and yes rationing on a nationwide basis.

The massive death and disease would be something else.

Here is the frightening thought. Haitians are used to have no support and largely having to get by on their own. In my view the average American might not have the survival skill that the people of that Island do. It might not pretty.

So while look at poor Haiti perhaps we need to be preparing here.

This is not some DOOM and GLOOM History Channel scenario. The Madrid Fault will go off and it is very overdue

One would think the media would make the connection and might mention this all this.

Last time it happened, there was damage in Knoxville — and there wasn’t much of Knoxville to damage. There have been some efforts to prepare for this, particularly in the Memphis / St. Louis corridor, but not enough. Here’s an earlier post on that.

And another reader emails: “When one adds in the looming San Andreas fault catastrophe and the cataclysmic danger to the east cost from the megatsunami that a Cumbre Vieja eruption-caused collapse of the La Palma mountainside in the Canary Islands would most likely cause, there isn’t much of the US that ISN’T under some Sword of Damocles or other.” Carpe Diem, and all that. But also be prepared. . . .

STILL MORE: Reader Ben White emails that people are being too gloomy:

You can look back at any number of disasters that have hit different parts of the US. Remember the disastrous Mississippi River flooding? No widespread deaths. No panicking. No anarchy. Remember the hurricane after Katrina that hit Texas? You probably don’t, because there was no widespread media-hyped chaos. It was hurricane Rita.

The difference is the people. Midwesterners won’t have the problems that New Orleans residents have. Living in a neighborhood with smart, capable people of good character is, by itself, an effective disaster preparedness measure. New Madrid is a threat, but it threatens us where we are the most resilient.

Your readers should try to remember what country they live in. America may be in decline, but every town is not Detroit (or New Orleans, or Washington DC) yet.

Well, people tend to do better than expected in disasters, but a major New Madrid quake would be awfully bad.