The city and this site is abuzz with news of new public restrooms that cost only $.25 and are self-sanitizing. The standalone units give one 15 minutes to do your business before scrubbing itself down in advance of the next user. Sounds like a nice convenience, although some people wondered who needs 15 minutes in a restroom other than those with gastro-health problems, drug users, and couples looking to engage in some quasi-public-private sex. Commenter......

The plastic bags that New Yorkers walk away with after shopping have many functions in their 2nd lives - picking up dog poop, reuse as garbage bags, or even getting caught in trees - but there's one especially novel usage. In today's entry on the city's new plastic bag recycling bill, which awaits Mayor Bloomberg's signature, we learned that plastic bags can also be used as toys for children: The best way to reuse plastic......

Today we looked at Mayor Bloomberg's snacking habits. Was the banisher of trans-fat recently seen with an open bag of Cheez-Its on his desk? We'll likely never know (at least, not until his greasy fingerprint-laden desk set is back from the lab). While we await the results of the faux cheese traces, let's take a look at what some of our commenters had to say: WesTheYeTi calls out the loophole Bloomberg clearly created so he......

Mayor Bloomberg's trip to the University of Oklahoma to caucus with a bipartisan group of current and former politicians and grouse about Washington gridlock only fueled the fires of speculation that he is preparing a Presidential run. People are already strategizing about who his ideal running mate would be. Bloomberg is sticking to his (anti-)guns, however, and still claiming that he is not a candidate. But his pollster told the LA Times that our Mayor......

Today we wrote about the discontinuation of the requirement for subway conductors to announce a train's arrival at the 47th-50th St. Rockefeller Center station with a plug for the "Top of the Rock" observation deck. Most commenters found the idea of corporate sponsorship of subway stations distasteful, let alone the fact that this was an enforced and required announcement that generated no revenue for NYC Transit. Some people do enjoy when their conductors deviate from......

Today we wrote a post on one-time Long Island Lolita Amy Fisher's contention that she was not appearing publicly to celebrate the release of her sex tape, but simply that she got paid a lump sum of money for the video of her having sex with her husband and that she agreed to talk about it publicly as part of her deal with the porno verite's distributor. She also didn't appreciate the editing that made......