TOURISTS AND SHOPPERS REJOICE!!!

CHARMIN INSTALLS TOILETS IN TIMES SQUARE!

You know what it's like: You're shopping and all of a sudden, nature calls and you gotta go to the bathroom. However, it's almost impossible to find a toilet, let alone a clean, safe one in Manhattan, without having to buy a drink, or a scone, or be a guest at a hotel.

Well, now you have an option. CHARMIN (the toilet paper brand that falls under the PROCTOR and GAMBLE umbrella) will operate a public restroom in the heart of Times Square, stocked with Charmin Ultra, and complete with attendants who are assigned to clean up after each use.

The 20-stall restroom will be at 1540 Broadway, between 45th and 46th Streets, and will be open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. (except for Christmas Day, when it will close at 6 p.m.). Two of the stalls will be accessible to people with disabilities, and baby changing stations will be available. There will also be a seating lounge, with its own photo-op: A six-foot stuffed Charmin bear, just waiting to have its picture taken with a visitor. Woo-hoo!

I think I may have to personally check out the facilities and write a full report in the very near future. In any case, it's a great idea, especially for the holiday shopping season. At the very least, it's a great marketing tool for PROCTOR and GAMBLE.

HAPPY TRAILS...... EVEL KNIEVEL

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.

Although he dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, Knievel always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years. In later years he still made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products. Thousands came to Butte, Mont., every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival.

"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."

His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.

NuFF said