Toilet

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

Summer is all but officially over. Fall is all but officially here. That means stuff is happening. Let's get right to it, shall we? There's nothing bigger happening than Hampdenfest 2012, which takes place Saturday, Sept. 8, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., on The Avenue (West 36th Street). I just realized this is my 12th year attending and my 10th year as one of the organizers of the festival. Ten years. Wow. This year, there will be three stages of music and a tent. The Crazy Viking Stage will be located at Elm Avenue and 36th Street and will feature the bands Chelsea Graveyard and the Screams at Midnight, Bet The Devil, South Carey, Old Lines, War On Women, Slow Bull, The Pilgrim, Ryan Shelkett, and Northernmost.

The Towson "toilet bomb" case came to an end Thursday when a jury found Duane Gerald Davis Sr. not guilty of leaving a phony destructive device in front of a courthouse. Police charged Davis in February after he left a porcelain toilet decorated with newspaper clippings, an electronic transmitter and a cellphone outside the historic Baltimore County Courthouse about 8 a.m. The toilet triggered a police reaction that included a bomb-sniffing dog and a small robot. Workers from nearby businesses streamed out to watch as police closed nearby streets, including the 400 block of Washington Avenue, near the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue.

A Cockeysville woman was charged in her mother's January death after authorities found the 91-year-old woman on a toilet, where she had been left for two days. A Baltimore County grand jury on Aug. 15 indicted Sharon Caslow, 65, for manslaughter for leaving her mother in a bathroom in their home in the 1000 block of Hidden Moss Drive. Medics were called to the home Jan. 17, where they found Audrey Caslow seated on a toilet and determined that she had been there for two days, police said.

Of course you can have the plumbing of your dreams. You can have a new whirlpool tub, and you can move the toilet over to accommodate it. You can drop a new porcelain sink into an antique dresser. You can trade a battered tub for a sleek new shower stall. You can switch the places of sink and toilet for better use of space, and you can add a bath in a former closet. You can have a new sink and dishwasher -- new faucets with a sprayer that works, a refrigerator with an icemaker.You can have just about any plumbing you want, no problem.

"Most of the people who ask me to design bathrooms for them have one major request," says architect Tom Clark. "They don't want to see the toilet."As hard as designers try, toilets still aren't attractive and, while they are necessary, not many people want to draw attention to one of the few tasks still deemed private.So a growing group of people are building water closets or toilet rooms.The 1994 Remodeled Homes "Consumer Remodeling Survey" found 17 percent of respondents planned to add a toilet room to their bathrooms.

BOSTON -- Further proof that this is a great country: If you stuff an American flag in a toilet and invite people to look at it, Uncle Sam will send you money. Do we have an enlightened government, or what?Well, maybe Uncle Sam won't send you money. But the National Endowment for the Arts just granted another $35,000 to the Phoenix Art Museum, up from $15,000 last year. That's quite a vote of confidence, considering that Congress has sliced the NEA's budget by 40 percent and is thinking of defunding it altogether.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday granted a trial postponement to a man charged with leaving a device that police said appeared to be a bomb — a toilet equipped with electric gadgets — outside an administration building in February. Duane G. Davis, 51, whose trial was to have begun Tuesday, dismissed his lawyer and asked for the postponement so that he would have time to prepare for trial with another attorney or, failing that, to represent himself. A new trial was set for Sept.

Part of central Towson came to a standstill Monday morning — for a toilet. The porcelain toilet — festooned with newspaper clippings, an electronic transmitter and a cell phone — was left outside the historic Baltimore County courthouse about 8 a.m., triggering a police reaction that included a bomb-sniffing dog and a small robot. Workers from nearby businesses streamed out to watch as police closed nearby streets, including the 400 block of Washington Ave., near the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue.

A Cockeysville woman was charged in her mother's January death after authorities found the 91-year-old woman on a toilet, where she had been left for two days. A Baltimore County grand jury on Aug. 15 indicted Sharon Caslow, 65, for manslaughter for leaving her mother in a bathroom in their home in the 1000 block of Hidden Moss Drive. Medics were called to the home Jan. 17, where they found Audrey Caslow seated on a toilet and determined that she had been there for two days, police said.

An image of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's face on a roll of toilet paper recently circulated on the Internet has sparked turmoil within the local firefighters union whose members created it. The image, and another of Fire Chief James Clack's face in a toilet bowl, were determined to have been created and distributed online last month by two members of the Baltimore Firefighters Local 734 union who are now being disciplined, president Rick...

Inside one of the nicer portable toilets in the Preakness Infield, Christine Johnson cleaned up and attended to the ladies using the restroom Saturday. The 50-year-old Baltimore resident said she lucked out in getting assigned to one of the three restroom facilities at the turfside terrace, where patrons pay a premium for a gourmet luncheon, beer and wine. Her facility featured air conditioning as well as five stalls and a granite-textured, three-sink basin. Johnson described it as the Cadillac of portable toilets, usually known as a one-person station without any amenities, let alone ventilation.

Maryland-based jockey Mario Pino says he once heard that the great race rider Laffit Pincay would wear his underwear inside out. For luck. Ramon Dominguez, Eclipse Award-winning jockey the last two years, likes to have Perrier water and animal crackers in his jockey room stall. And he puts his left boot on first. Always. They call horse racing the fastest two minutes in sports, but a jockey's preparation begins the night before and continues until the moment the starting gates clang open.

The Towson "toilet bomb" case came to an end Thursday when a jury found Duane Gerald Davis Sr. not guilty of leaving a phony destructive device in front of a courthouse. Police charged Davis in February after he left a porcelain toilet decorated with newspaper clippings, an electronic transmitter and a cellphone outside the historic Baltimore County Courthouse about 8 a.m. The toilet triggered a police reaction that included a bomb-sniffing dog and a small robot. Workers from nearby businesses streamed out to watch as police closed nearby streets, including the 400 block of Washington Avenue, near the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue.

Jason Savedoff may not have just stolen notable documents from the Maryland Historical Society, as police have charged, but prosecutors say he may have flushed at least one down a toilet as police closed in. Assistant State's Attorney Tracy Varda told a judge Tuesday that the document could not be recovered and it is not clear what it was. The new twist came during the first of separate Baltimore Circuit Court bail hearings for Savedoff and...

Catonsville's Fourth of July parade is bound to be an impressive event Monday afternoon, with 17 marching bands, Lone Ranger look-alikes, wailing firetrucks, color guards, 25 floats and a renowned local waitress drifting by in a long red gown. But before that, unfolding as you read this, goes the spectacle of the chairs. To be more precise, the chairs, blankets, tarps, ropes, twine, steel cable, yellow "Caution" tape, bricks, stones and, at last count, two seated mannequins — one torso only, one whole figure — intended to reserve parade viewing spots.

A man with a history of railing at political figures of all ideological stripes has been charged with leaving a fake "destructive device" — a toilet equipped with electric gadgets that police feared was a bomb — outside a former courthouse in Towson. Duane G. Davis, 51, was being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. He is scheduled to appear in court March 4. The discovery of the toilet Monday morning outside the former courthouse — which houses the County Council chambers and administrative offices — prompted a shutdown of surrounding streets and the attentions of a bomb disposal squad.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday granted a trial postponement to a man charged with leaving a device that police said appeared to be a bomb — a toilet equipped with electric gadgets — outside an administration building in February. Duane G. Davis, 51, whose trial was to have begun Tuesday, dismissed his lawyer and asked for the postponement so that he would have time to prepare for trial with another attorney or, failing that, to represent himself. A new trial was set for Sept.

A man with a history of railing at political figures of all ideological stripes has been charged with leaving a fake "destructive device" — a toilet equipped with electric gadgets that police feared was a bomb — outside a former courthouse in Towson. Duane G. Davis, 51, was being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. He is scheduled to appear in court March 4. The discovery of the toilet Monday morning outside the former courthouse — which houses the County Council chambers and administrative offices — prompted a shutdown of surrounding streets and the attentions of a bomb disposal squad.