Toilet

Q. The toilet in our master bathroom is more than 30 years old and needs to be replaced. This is something that we would like to do ourselves. Any recommendations? A. Replacing a toilet may not be one of the most exciting ways to spend a Saturday. But that's the nice part about this particular project; you should be able to perform this little task and still have time to enjoy your afternoon. First, arm yourself with the right tools: an open-ended crescent wrench, a pair of pliers, a screwdriver and a hacksaw.

DOESN'T the editorial board of the Daily News have anything better to opine about than Kimberly-Clarke's new automated toilet-paper dispenser? I hope these machines are installed, and if I don't get an adequate amount of toilet tissue, I'll use the Daily News editorial section. Perhaps you'll help solve this "crime against our humanity" by putting newspaper boxes in the stalls to compensate for anyone shortchanged by the dispenser. Bryan Flannery, Roxborough

A 93-year-old woman was rescued from her own toilet at a senior-citizen apartment building in North Philadelphia yesterday after being stuck there for days, a Fire Department official said. The woman, who was not identified, lives on Tioga Street near 15th, at Tioga Presbyterian Apartments, an independent-living facility for senior citizens, according to Dan Magee, spokesman for Presby's Inspired Life, a nonprofit developer of affordable housing for seniors, which runs the building.

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. - A young mother charged with murder has told police that she hid her pregnancy, gave birth to twin sons and killed the infants by smothering their cries so that her parents wouldn't hear them. Police in this Nashville suburb arrested Lindsey Lowe, 25, on Wednesday after her father discovered one baby's body in a laundry basket. According to a police affidavit, the young mother believes that she got pregnant in January. Police said Lowe told them that said she went into labor on Monday evening while on the toilet at her parent's home.

EVERYONE knows that embryonic stem cells that aren't used for fertilization are eventually discarded - flushed down the toilet if you will. Yet you never hear any complaints about that practice. Take those same cells and use them in an attempt to ease human suffering or save human life, and suddenly "pro-lifers" come screaming out of the woodwork. This simply doesn't make any sense. Robert Leonardo, Palmyra, N.J.

THREE BABIES, TWO BIRTHDAYS Triplets finally have been reunited in West Palm Beach, Fla. Sisters Bernita and Berneta Boldin were born nearly three weeks after their brother, Kenard. The girls were delivered by emergency caesarean section at Good Samaritan Medical Center last week. Bernita weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces and Berneta, 1 pound, 15 ounces. Delvonda Boldin's triplets weren't due until March, but she went into labor and delivered Kenard on Thanksgiving Day. He weighed 1 pound, 5 ounces.

James Gallman told cops he was a "disciplinarian. " Gallman, 32, of Rosehill Street near Indiana Avenue, who weighs 268 pounds, said he beat his 2-year-old stepson, Vladimir Marchuk, "plenty of times" to punish him. The last battering on Jan. 31 killed the little boy, said Assistant District Attorney Terri Domsky. Vladimir died of "blunt trauma to the abdomen," said Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood. Domsky said Vladimir had fresh multiple injuries to the lower back and old bruises and scars on his neck, eye and hip. "This child had bruises from head to toe," said Domsky.

Victor Kubiak, who was convicted of kicking and beating his girlfriend's 21-month-old daughter to death because the child would not sit still on the toilet, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison. Kubiak, 27, appeared sallow after learning that he would be imprisoned for at least the next 30 years. His demeanor was in marked contrast to the raging, violent image prosecutors painted during last month's trial, when they described the Oct. 17, 1990, beating of Ashley Kelchner in the couple's Tabernacle home.

Plumbers working on a clogged residential toilet discovered the remains of a fetus Monday afternoon in the city's Harrowgate section, police said. Two plumbers opened a pipe in the basement of a home in the 800 block of East Russell Street about 4 p.m. and found the remains while removing debris from a pipe leading to a second-floor toilet, Chief Inspector Scott Small said. They dialed 911, and responding officers and investigators determined the remains were human, Small said.

Jack Luby was relaxing in the family room of his Forest Hills home in Monroe Township two weeks ago when he saw his wife, Judy, coming down the stairs with their one-month-old grandson. But when Judy Luby reached the bottom of the stairs, she stepped ankle-deep into raw sewage. A check valve in the laundry room that was supposed to prevent sewage from backing up had burst, sending the muddy mess gurgling up like a fountain, Luby said. A dozen neighbors, some of whom had also experienced problems with their sewer systems, rushed to help.