diff --git a/ietf/middleware.py b/ietf/middleware.py
index 0c1c3bda9..bd7af951e 100644
--- a/ietf/middleware.py
+++ b/ietf/middleware.py
@@ -1,9 +1,16 @@
-
-# From http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/172/
-# Uses python-utidylib, http://utidylib.berlios.de/,
-# which uses HTML Tidy, http://tidy.sourceforge.net/
-
-import tidy
+try:
+    import tidy
+    tidyavail = True
+except ImportError:
+    tidyavail = False
+from django.db import connection
+from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
+from django.template import RequestContext
+from ietf.utils import log
+import re
+import smtplib
+import sys
+import traceback
 
 options = dict(
                output_xhtml=True,
@@ -16,11 +23,39 @@ options = dict(
 
 
 class PrettifyMiddleware(object):
-    """Prettify middleware"""
+    """Prettify middleware
+    From http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/172/
+    Uses python-utidylib, http://utidylib.berlios.de/,
+    which uses HTML Tidy, http://tidy.sourceforge.net/
+    """
 
     def process_response(self, request, response):
-        if response.headers['Content-Type'].split(';', 1)[0] in ['text/html']:
+        if tidyavail and response.headers['Content-Type'].split(';', 1)[0] in ['text/html']:
             content = response.content
             content = str(tidy.parseString(content, **options))
             response.content = content
         return response
+
+class SQLLogMiddleware(object):
+    def process_response(self, request, response):
+	for q in connection.queries:
+	    if re.match('(update|insert)', q['sql'], re.IGNORECASE):
+		log(q['sql'])
+        return response
+
+class SMTPExceptionMiddleware(object):
+    def process_exception(self, request, exception):
+	if isinstance(exception, smtplib.SMTPException):
+	    type = sys.exc_info()[0]
+	    value = sys.exc_info()[1]
+	    # See if it's a non-smtplib exception that we faked
+	    if type == smtplib.SMTPException and len(value.args) == 1 and isinstance(value.args[0], dict) and value.args[0].has_key('really'):
+		orig = value.args[0]
+		type = orig['really']
+		tb = traceback.format_tb(orig['tb'])
+		value = orig['value']
+	    else:
+		tb = traceback.format_tb(sys.exc_info()[2])
+	    return render_to_response('email_failed.html', {'exception': type, 'args': value, 'traceback': "".join(tb)},
+		context_instance=RequestContext(request))
+	return None
diff --git a/ietf/settings.py b/ietf/settings.py
index c0f898caf..1e97c20d8 100644
--- a/ietf/settings.py
+++ b/ietf/settings.py
@@ -81,6 +81,8 @@ MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
     'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
     'django.middleware.doc.XViewMiddleware',
 #    'ietf.middleware.PrettifyMiddleware',
+    'ietf.middleware.SQLLogMiddleware',
+    'ietf.middleware.SMTPExceptionMiddleware',
     'django.middleware.transaction.TransactionMiddleware',
 )
 
diff --git a/ietf/utils/mail.py b/ietf/utils/mail.py
index 4b85fd88d..a50655f76 100644
--- a/ietf/utils/mail.py
+++ b/ietf/utils/mail.py
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ def send_smtp(msg):
     add_headers(msg)
     (fname, frm) = parseaddr(msg.get('From'))
     to = [addr for name, addr in getaddresses(msg.get_all('To') + msg.get_all('Cc', []))]
+    server = None
     try:
 	server = smtplib.SMTP(settings.EMAIL_HOST, settings.EMAIL_PORT)
 	if settings.DEBUG:
@@ -37,11 +38,15 @@ def send_smtp(msg):
 	server.sendmail(frm, to, msg.as_string())
 	# note: should pay attention to the return code, as it may
 	# indicate that someone didn't get the email.
-    except smtplib.SMTPException:
-        server.quit()
+    except:
+	if server:
+	    server.quit()
 	# need to improve log message
 	log("got exception '%s' (%s) trying to send email from '%s' to %s subject '%s'" % (sys.exc_info()[0], sys.exc_info()[1], frm, to, msg.get('Subject', '[no subject]')))
-	raise
+	if isinstance(sys.exc_info()[0], smtplib.SMTPException):
+	    raise
+	else:
+	    raise smtplib.SMTPException({'really': sys.exc_info()[0], 'value': sys.exc_info()[1], 'tb': sys.exc_info()[2]})
     server.quit()
     log("sent email from '%s' to %s subject '%s'" % (frm, to, msg.get('Subject', '[no subject]')))