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Maine Maine ... the antidote to big-town America. Maine's largest town, Portland, boasts only 64,000 people. Traffic jams are unheard of. Life is just a bit slower and more friendly up here. After all, it's "the way life should be"! The big 2003 story of the year in Maine was the news that 16 people became sick after being poisoned with arsenic at a church reception.

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New Hampshire New Hampshire ... is one of Becky's least favourite states, purely on political grounds. The state's slogan "Live Free or Die" says it all. Small government, few laws, free living etc are the order of the day here. Richard actually quite likes it because there is no state tax levied there. (It's 5% in Massachusetts). The consequence is that the state education system, among other things, is "allegedly" underfunded, which particularly annoys Becky.

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