Gold flush
NASHVILLE
The Hermitage Hotel has afternoon tea in the grand lobby. Down-filled duvets (that’s a fancy word for comforters). A presidential suite with 2,000 square feet. And a really nice toilet.
So nice, in fact, that it’s been voted (drum roll please) America’s best restroom.
In the middle of downtown Nashville, the luxury hotel and its ground-floor men’s bathroom are definitely the head (so to speak) of the class.
The redoubtable restroom is art-deco style with gleaming lime-green-and-black leaded glass tiles, lime-green fixtures, terrazzo floor and a two-seat shoeshine station.
More information online at bestrestroom.com.
Speaking of having to go …
DETROIT
A toilet seat that attaches to a trailer hitch has gained national recognition — for a warning label that says you’d better not use it while the vehicle is moving.
“The Original Off-Road Commode” won this year’s “Wacky Warning Labels” contest, organizers announced Wednesday. The contest, now in its 12th year, is intended to highlight claims that frivolous lawsuits have distorted the U.S. civil justice system.
Steve Shiflett of Hampton, Ga., won $500 for submitting the toilet seat’s warning that it’s “not for use on moving vehicles.”
Hippo gets new home
WASHINGTON
Happy the hippo could soon be a lot happier.
The National Zoo’s solitary male Nile hippopotamus is heading to the Milwaukee County Zoo, where his new home will include a pool, a sandy beach and two potential girlfriends, Puddles and Patty.
Zoo officials say they’re sad to see Happy go, but that Milwaukee will offer him a great life.
Happy is 28 and weighs about 5,500 pounds. He has to leave the National Zoo because his home is being eliminated for the expansion of the elephant exhibit.
Happy is expected to move to Milwaukee this summer.
