> The mayor's going to start taxing your plastic shopping bags, to the tune of about six cents per, to discourage their use. How do we know that's going to work? Because it did in Ireland, where they taxed each bag 33 cents in '02, and bag usage dropped off a whopping 94 percent in a few weeks. Good thing every New Yorker we've seen has bought 19 canvas totes in the last year.
> On the heels of his pet store closing, R.I.P. Banksy's rat murals.
> Want a brownstone? They're auctioning them off by the handful in Bed-Stuy. With what you're saving on plastic bags, you could totally pick one up.
> Call it Kentucky on the Hudson: Did you know Staten Island went for McCain?
> From the Times Are Tough file: A Sixtysomething East Villager on Craigslist wants you to rent out his "very large" bathroom for $400 a month. Apparently you can "easily put a twin mattress in there."
> And speaking of Craigslist, Connecticut is the 40th state to clamp down on offering "erotic services" via its listings. Man, prostitutes are just not having a good week.
> According to Cindy Adams, Kevin Bacon thinks "the men's room is always the best place to meet your admirers." She got the quote from a guy named Gregory Speck (wasn't he in To Nail a Mockingbird?).
> Speaking of porn, an outraged Liz Smith wants her $11 back: She saw Quantum of Solace and Bond "doesn't even sleep with the latest Bond girl." The nerve!
> Park Slope's branch of Beacon's Closet - go-to for fashionable lovers of thrift and vintage, favorite New York store of Brit pop sensation Kate Nash - re-opens today in its new, much bigger space on Fifth Avenue at Warren Street.
> …& ICYMI, they're biting off each other's fingers in Greenpoint. First the riots in the streets, now the human chomping. It's all so 28 Days Later.
