We crave email here at headquarters, and usually we get it in a steady stream. And occasionally one of those notes comes bearing a small gift — an attachment — like a little sack of mints you’d find beside your plate at a wedding reception.

But in October — with everyone as keyed in to the midterms as they are likely to get — the mail has begun to pour in, and with it more sacks of mints than we can properly count.

Three of these intriguing bits:

1) VDB-compulsive Don writes in with this stunning confirmation of something we theorized a good while back: that Johnny Mac has managed to swing the Big Money, the corporate swag, behind his nascent campaign. Writes Don:

Dear VDB,

This practice of product placement in the movies and
on TV has gotten out of hand. Last night, on “The
Amazing Race,” teams had to fly to Hanoi, find the
“Hanoi Hilton” former POW prison, and then go to a
display of John McCain’s flight suit, etc. The teams
did everything but genuflect before the shrine.

Now as you might remember, I like McCain (he’s going
to clean up boxing), but I’d sure like to know how
this tribute to a presidential candidate got
orchestrated into a top-rated, prime time TV show.

So would we, Don. So would we. VDB has several early moles in the McCain camp — and you know who you are. Any idea how Johnny Mac fires up his own biopic just when he needs to start locking up Iowa and New Hampshire talent?

2) Jim sends us this on how to hack a Diebold AccuVote-TS, the machine of choice in most states using paperless voting. Three students at Princeton walk the viewer through the entire hacking process, from jimmying the lock to spreading malicious software from machine to machine.

If you’re anything like VDB, you’ll spend the entire 8 minutes or so slamming your head slowly against your desk in impotent frustration.

3) And then, of course, there are the photoshopped submissions, which we eat like Smart Food popcorn. To accompany our long diatribe yesterday on Brian Dubie’s reluctance either to debate or perform the duties of his office, A Friend of VDB sends this graphic — a photo that speaks, not only for itself, but for Dubie.

And that’s a lot of talking indeed.