Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe N.Y. Marathon big day for toilet company NEW YORK, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- More than 2,000 portable toilets have arrived in New York City to take care of the needs of the thousands expected to compete in the New York Marathon. Advertisement The largest group, more than 1,600, are stationed at the Staten Island end of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, The New York Times reported. That's where 39,000 runners will start Sunday morning on a 26-mile course through the city's five boroughs. The toilets are stationed along the marathon route at a rate of about one per mile with 300 more at the finish line in Central Park. The park gets the best-looking ones, colored green to fade into the background. The marathon is the third-biggest portable toilet event in the United States, after the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, Calif., and the Sturgis, S.D., motorcycle rally. Advertisement A Royal Flush, a Connecticut company, has been supplying toilets for the marathon for 15 years. Bill Malone, the owner, said the company has about 8,000 toilets and assembling one-quarter of them or a single event involves intricate logistics. An even bigger headache is removing them quickly. Malone's employees can expect to get to work as soon as the race is over, and by Monday morning most of the johns will be sucked clean and headed out of the city. "It's not a glamorous business," Malone said. Hunt on for Wendell the wandering wallaby OTTAWA, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Towels soaked with kangaroo urine are being hung around a Canadian town in Ontario in hopes of luring a runaway wallaby back to his pen. Wendell, a 3-year-old Bennett's Red Necked Wallaby, escaped from his enclosure at Saunders Country Critters and Garden Center in Kemptville south of Ottawa Tuesday night when a windstorm blew down a 35-foot fence panel, the Ottawa Citizen reported. Several kangaroos and wallabies escaped, but all were captured quickly recaptured, the facility's co-owner Carla Saunders said. Thursday, there were confirmed sightings of Wendell in the town of Athens, 50 miles southwest of Kemptville, she said. Saunders issued an appeal that if anyone spotted the 30-inch "kangaroo wannabe," they should "throw a blanket on top of him, grab him by the tail and drop him into a pillowcase," which she said provides a similar sense of security to a mother wallaby's pouch. Advertisement Saunders said her husband and friends hung his pen mates' urine-soaked towels on bushes in the hopes the familiar odor would lure Wendell into sight, the report said. Study: Beauty needed for women in politics EVANSTON, Ill., Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois say a study they conducted found that physical beauty is a vital factor for a female politician's success. Assistant psychology professor Joan Y. Chiao said the study was conducted by asking 73 respondents to rate 2006 congressional candidates on various characteristics including attractiveness, a release from the university said Friday. After viewing photographs of the congressional candidates, the 38 female and 35 male university students taking part in the study ranked each candidate on 7-point scale in the characteristic categories. Most respondents tabbed male candidates as more dominant and competent than their female counterparts, while female candidates earned higher average marks in approachability and attractiveness. Chiao said the study results, the specifics of which the release did not report, indicated that average voters across gender lines need their political candidates to be both attractive and competent. "Even female voters seemed to tap into the cultural expectation that women who are attractive as well as competent are more worthy of high status roles," she said. Advertisement Ghost investigation firm overwhelmed COLLINGWOOD, Ontario, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A Canadian company that investigates ghost sightings in Ontario is overwhelmed and recruiting new investigators, its founder says. Michelle McKay told the Ottawa Sun her 6-year-old Cold Spot Paranormal Research business has 17 investigators in three cities in the province, but she can't keep up with demand. She said she receives at least 10 requests a week for investigations into spooky occurrences, but her company can only manage about two cases per month, and the waiting list is growing. McKay said paranormal activity is reported in only 1 percent of the cases. She said most unusual events like lights or faucets turning off and on are found to have logical explanations by professionals such as electricians and plumbers she utilizes in the investigations. "We don't do exorcisms on home or businesses at all," she said. Those interested in working for her must undergo various background and criminal checks, and can apply at www.coldspot.org.
