Tor Beginner's Questions

[ffi2fdq02 at sneakemail.com]

Hi, My questions relate to this excerpts from
http://tor.eff.org/cvs/tor/doc/tor-doc.html#installing

> If you have a personal firewall, be sure to allow local connections to 
> port 8118 and port 9050. If your firewall blocks outgoing connections, 
> punch a hole so it can connect to TCP ports 80, 443, and 9001-9033. 
> For more troubleshooting suggestions, see the FAQ.

1)  "allow local connections to port 8118 and port 9050"

     Maybe I'm missing some subtlety in the word 'local' but does this 
mean incoming, outgoing, neither or both should be allowed?  As far as 
I know, I haven't allowed either port incoming or outgoing and yet tor 
client seems to be working.

2)  "outgoing connections... <allow> ports 80, 443, and 9001-9033"

     I've allowed outgoing connections on all (only) these ports.  Why 
does tor still regularly make attempts at other ports.  I blocked them 
all and the tor client still works.  Is there any advantage to allowing 
these too?  Is there a definable range?

My setup comprises:
  OSX 10.3.7,
  OSX built-in firewall (incoming blocking),
  Little Snitch 1.1.1 (outgoing blocking),
  Tor v0.0.9.1,
  Privoxy 3.0.3

Thanks