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A second cruise line has agreed to buy lobsters from local suppliers when one of its ships visits Maine in September and October, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said Wednesday.

Celebrity Cruises has agreed to purchase about 3,800 pounds of lobster when the Celebrity Summit visits Bar Harbor and Portland, Pingree said. The 965-foot ship carries more than 2,000 passengers.

Officials said last week that Holland America Line agreed to purchase locally caught lobsters for its cruise ships when they visit Bar Harbor several times this season.

Warner restaurant a pleasant outing

Anyone who thinks the American Dream is no longer achievable should visit the School House Cafe in Warner, where sisters Caleen Fisher and Kathy Skinner-Shifrin are making the dream come true.

The sisters share a history of working in the food industry, and this month, they celebrated one year since they opened their own restaurant.

The parking lot is usually full, the tables are usually full, the public enjoys outstanding meals at very fair prices. The food is all fresh - the dishes homemade, baked goods are homemade, soups are homemade. Their chicken salad is something special, and the corn beef hash is the best I've ever had - equal, I'd say, to my own.

Boscawen Ghost peppers and jalapenos lead to food challenge failure Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Tim vs. the Inferno Burger Tim vs. the Inferno Burger

I've made some bad decisions in my life. Celebrating my love of taffy minutes after costly dental work, taunting a 6-foot-4 meaty-fisted bouncer, letting the glassy-eyed older brother of a friend "cut" my hair with rusty shears. Michael Dukakis. But this one tops them all. This time I may have gone too far. I've just finished my first mouthful of the Inferno Challenge burger, and I can't feel my face.

It didn't take much for me to accept this dare. There's a place out in Boscawen that'll put your picture on the wall if you finish a super-spicy, 1-pound burger in 20 minutes. So here I am at the Smoke Shack Southern Barbecue restaurant ("Where the Swine is Fine") with my two kids, hoping they don't see me burst into flames.

Invite the right sort of bugs to the party

This has been a crazy buggy year for us. I lost all my winter squash thanks to the combined efforts of the squash vine borers and squash bugs. I can usually count on the mighty Japanese pumpkin Tetsukabuto to survive and thrive, giving us more squash than we can easily consume over the winter but this year none.

The tried and true Waltham Butternut, which is usually a prolific provider, also has succumbed to the onslaught of bugs. The earliest planting of summer squashes are gone and the second planting is starting to kick into production. It is only a matter of time till the squash bugs migrate over to that side of the garden and start their attack.

Convert it to an entertainment hub

Here are three things you can do with an old iPad: pass it along to a family member, sell it on eBay or convert it into a great-sounding portable entertainment system - by spending more than it may have originally cost.

Bang & Olufsen portrays its $549 BeoPlay A3 as an easy solution for those times when you want bigger, better sound from your iPad than the tiny, tinny speaker Apple builds in. As far as "easy" goes, the A3 is pretty much a failure: It's a royal pain to dock and undock your tablet.

But the company's marketers may not quite understand their own product. Its real killer app turns out to be as a permanent home for that unused iPad, turning it into a wireless mini entertainment-and-information center you can take with you from room to room.

Baggage Check

Q: My husband spends all of his free time taking care of other people's computer problems. He enjoys doing it but also has trouble saying no.

Since people know he is a computer geek, they don't think twice before asking him to spend time on something that can take up a whole Saturday afternoon.

I am pregnant with our first child and am wondering if I am going to have to draw this boundary for him.

A: How does he view this? If he knows he needs to say "no" more but has trouble doing it, that's much easier than if he thinks everything is peachy keen.

Discuss this with him before the baby comes, because there will be no lack of other lifestyle changes to deal with at that point. Practice by having the two of you completely block off some weekends for baby preparation, preferably with him turning people down respectfully but firmly.

Rapper Oddisee all about the music

During the early days of the rapper Oddisee's career, he took pride in being an idealistic underground lyricist and producer. He was a self-described hip-hop extremist. If it wasn't strictly, purely, solely about the music, it wasn't for him.

Good for art, not quite as good for business. To really form a connection with listeners, he needed to give them more than just expertly crafted songs; there had to be a lifestyle and a story to go along with them.

That's when Oddisee, who was born Amir Mohamed and grew up in the Washington, D.C., area, decided to open up a little more. He didn't invent a persona; he simply adopted a new philosophy. "Don't fabricate what you are. Simply put a magnifying glass to what you are and blow it up for everyone to see," he said on a recent Saturday afternoon outside a local coffee shop. "And that's when everything changed for me."

India Dalai Lama nudges his followers to higher learning

The shouts of more than a dozen Tibetan monks echo through the small classroom. Fingers are pointed. Voices collide. When an important point is made, the men smack their hands together and stomp the floor, their robes billowing around them.

It's the way Tibetan Buddhist scholars have traded ideas for centuries. Among them, the debate-as-shouting match is a discipline and a joy.

But this is something different.

Evolutionary theory is mentioned - loudly. One monk invokes Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Another shouts about the subatomic nature of neutrinos.

In an educational complex perched on the edge of a small river valley in India, in a place where the Himalayan foothills descend into the Indian plains, a group of about 65 Tibetan monks and nuns are working with American scientists to tie their ancient culture to the modern world.

Concord Exhibit Embraces playful ceramics Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Megan Bogonovich Rider clay Christine Merriman Raging Samurai (detail) raku tiles Ronnie Gould Rabbit raku

Once the kiln is closed, it's Anything Can Happen day. A color the artist thought was blue can take an aqua turn. A crack can form, severing arms from their bodies. Or a piece the artist spent days, weeks, months perfecting may simply explode.

"So that's exciting ," said Concord sculptor Megan Bogonovich, who started her artistic life as a painter. "There's a different level of control you can have, because everything you make does end up going into a kiln, so things blow up and crack. . . . There's a nice amount of transformation in it too, there's surprises and things you don't know that are going to happen that end up happening." Plus it's tactile. It's up close and personal, more like play than work, she said.

Concord Furniture makers exhibit their best Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  "Flowers and Birds on a Mission" by Jeffrey Cooper

Quite often, John Cameron can look at a piece of furniture and tell in an instant who created it. A longtime member of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters and organizer of their annual exhibit, he understands the relationship between a craftsmen and his wood.

"I look at the pieces and I see the maker. You get so you know the people well enough and you know their style," said Cameron, who was helping set up the exhibit in the New Hampshire Historical Society's library this week.

As the furniture makers arrived one by one with their pieces and set them up around the room, it was evident what he meant. United by its stunning workmanship, the collection was as diverse an assemblage as you're likely to find: a Chippendale-style table in burnished mahogany, a 1930s inspired dry bar, a whimsical take on a Shaker-style chair, an ultra-modern

A delicious variety of ways to whip up this bumper crop Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Home Plate: Peaches Home Plate: Peaches Home Plate: Peaches

The hot weather in spring sent all our fruiting shrubs and trees into a panic of flower production. But no sooner did the entire orchard burst into bloom, than a week of hard frosts arrived. I didn't think the peach buds would make it through unscathed, but here we are in August with a bumper crop of peaches, so many that I've been giving them away by the bushel. Wish I could say the same for our northern kiwis, pears and apples, which are all looking pretty skimpy this year.

Fresh inspiration for robust combination

Plenty of people surely will disagree, but I firmly believe that underdressed hot dogs simply aren't worth the calories.

If all you're going to do to a hot dog is drizzle some ketchup, splurt some mustard and spoon some relish on it, it's not worth the effort to eat. I favor a well-dressed dog, a hot dog accompanied by robust and inspired toppings that transform this classic summer food into so much more.

As such, my preferred hot dogs tend to be on the overflowing and messy side. But that's why they are summer food, so you can eat them outside.

But just because they are overflowing and messy doesn't mean they shouldn't have a plan. I like to draw inspiration from other dishes when planning the toppings for a hot dog. An Indian curry, for example, is a fine starting point when selecting toppings. Same for Greek spanakopita (spinach and feta cheese pie), pizza and tacos.

THE CURRY DOG

You'll want to choose large, firm tomatoes for this preparation, because they need to yield enough chopped flesh to add to the filling and because they will serve as edible vessels for the eggs. The stuffed tomatoes are seated on pita or flatbread because: It's a good way to use up those slightly stale pieces; the bread base helps keep the tomatoes upright, and it absorbs some of the tomato goodness; baking intensifies the tomato flavor.

A finishing touch of the earthy Middle Eastern spice blend za'atar makes the dish. You can find it at some larger grocery stores, such as Whole Foods Markets, in addition to Middle Eastern markets.

Serve with a fruit salad. Adapted from a recipe in The New Middle Eastern Vegetarian: Modern Recipes From Veggiestan, by Sally Butcher (Interlink, 2012).

3 whole-wheat pitas or 1 large flatbread

2 or 3 large tomatoes

2 medium cloves garlic

1 small onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

Move to 11:35 p.m. bumps 'Nightline' Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  TV Emmys Jimmy Kimmel

J immy Kimmel Live is moving into the thick of the late-night fight against Jay Leno and David Letterman, ABC said yesterday, bumping Nightline from its longtime perch.

Starting in January, Kimmel's talk show will shift from 12:05 a.m. Eastern to the 11:35 p.m. Eastern time period long held by the newsmagazine, taking advantage of Kimmel's ratings growth and the potential for greater ad revenue, the network said.

Nightline will move to 12:35 a.m. Eastern. ABC softened the blow for its news division by giving the half-hour show a weekly prime-time hour starting in March, and also will find a home for the ABC News series What Would You Do?

The network is rolling the dice, taking ratings winner Nightline out of a competitive time slot and putting in yet another talk show. Besides network rivals Leno and Letterman, the hour is home to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central, Conan O'Brien on TBS and Chelsea Handler on E! Entertainment.

Open your mind to exchanges, and possibilities are endless

Let's say you have retirement looming in the next year or two. Let's say you have an itch to travel, to stay somewhere long enough to settle in and really get to know an area. And now let's say you're a bit uncertain about living on a fixed income in this skittish economy. How can you enjoy, say, Santa Fe, Puget Sound - or even Costa Rica, the French Riviera or the coast of Ireland - all for practically nothing? Easy! You can swap houses.

Scaling Cannon Cliff, where the Old Man used to sit, is a satisfyingly difficult and humbling experience Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Lakeview Lakeview 110703 weissner ac 079 120819 weissner ac 002

My earliest memory of climbing was on a band of 15- to 20-foot cliffs that stretched behind my grandmother's house in Birmingham, Ala. Exploring an area we called the cave, which was no more than an overhang where teenagers had set up a couple of lawn chairs, I had my first real brush with fear. I remember scrambling to a spot and then realizing it was tough to get out of it. The way up was scary and the way down even scarier, but I had to choose. My stomach lurched and my 9-year-old brain froze. I climbed down in the end, but it felt like it took an awfully long time.

The late summer garden can be looked upon as either elegance or blight. It's all about balance and control. When plants and vegetables are healthy and performing, that balance has been achieved through natural forces or properly maintained by our intervention. When plants are not doing well, they are out of synch.

Take the Hydrangea panniculata; it is heavenly in blooming perfection now, nodding to the whispering gods for which it was named. Hydrangea offers such an exquisite dilemma: which of its mop-head flowers to be picked first? Perhaps you have other garden performers, like fragrant late blooming hostas, anemones or roses. But there are also many underperforming plants this year, particularly in the vegetable garden.

North Carolina 'Andy Griffith' fans flock to leading man's hometown

In the town of Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show, a small-town sheriff and his trusty deputy always outwitted big-city crooks, and problems never got much bigger than a trigger-happy kid with a slingshot.

But while Mayberry was fiction, it was inspired by a real place: Mount Airy, N.C., the late Andy Griffith's hometown. And more than a half-century after the series first aired, fans are still coming to Mount Airy, looking for a glimpse of small-town life and the simpler times portrayed on the show.

Baggage Check

Q: My girlfriend keeps her nails super long, and I don't like it. As in it seriously turns me off and grosses me out. She knows I'd prefer her nails shorter, but this has been her "thing" for a long time and I don't think she gets that it's really repulsive to me, to the point where I can't imagine staying with her if they're not cut. Am I being extreme about this?

A: If they were this deal-breakingly hideous to you from the very first "hello," I'm wondering how you ever started a relationship in the first place. Did she wear gloves?

If she really doesn't get how unattractive they are to you, you might try to be more honest with her. (Hint: A diplomatic "I have trouble getting past the length of your nails sometimes" is much better than "You sicken me.")

Graham Nash opens up on music, politics and the NRA

Graham Nash has never been one to hold his tongue, musically expressing opinions about some of the most pivotal events of the past 40 years with his band Crosby, Stills & Nash - and occasionally Neil Young.

During that time, the introspective singer-songwriter has written his share of songs with a political spark. But he doesn't consider his music political, instead saying it's inspired by what he sees happening in front of him.

The 70-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is currently on tour with CSN, which includes David Crosby and Stephen Stills. He spoke to the Associated Press on topics including the band's newest live album and DVD, CSN 2012, captured earlier this year, a project that includes Young and the band's take on political songs. He also spoke of their "40-odd-year bond" and tumultuous journey.

AP: You guys have been together since 1968. What's the secret?