Every four years you hear about the strange world that is New Hampshire during presidential-primary season. How the candidates outnumber the residents, how you can’t walk into a diner without running into a candidate — again and again.

Well, the cliché is true, and the scenes are surreal. Witness this exchange last Friday at the Portsmouth Farmer’s Market, as former Vermont governor Howard Dean was making the rounds, shaking hands, and trolling for votes. In front of a vegetable stand he found himself facing Hilda Fleisher, of Manchester, who also keeps a home in Portsmouth. "The landlady!" Dean said, remembering, without any prompting, that she housed him for a night earlier in the campaign. He gestured at her for the crowd. "This lady has one of the finest art collections in the state!" He asked about her two grown sons.

"I think he’s a terrific candidate," Fleisher said after the encounter. "Since he stayed at my house, I tell everybody that I’ve slept with him."