SO far, the bus shelter ad business is booming, and the displays are extremely well-maintained with diesel-fueled, power-washing machines that routinely roar into action around 2 a.m.
The public toilets, however, are still in the any-minute-now stage.
The visitors from Yankton had taken a 30-hour ride from South Dakota earlier in the week, en route to marching in the Thanksgiving parade in Philadelphia. They went to Radio City yesterday. They shopped. They ate hot dogs from a cart, a high point, until they wandered down Broadway and saw the man in the toilet suit, an actor named J. C. Dunlap. They snapped pictures of each other with Mr. Dunlap.
An entire troupe of cheerleaders welcomed visitors into the toilet rack company’s suite, which featured plasma screen videos, toilet-paper-company-branded sweatshirts to buy as souvenirs of the visit, and a master of ceremonies, Michael LeMelle, who recently finished a tour with “American Idol” and was flown in to keep the crowds entertained as they waited.
“Welcome to the best show on —— ” Mr. LeMelle said, dramatically stopping to correct himself. “The only show on Broadway.”
Very true: The young men and women from Yankton had tickets for “The Phantom of the Opera” last night, but discovered that much of Broadway had been shut down by a stagehands’ strike. They brushed it off. There were a million other things to do.
“I would come back here,” Alissa Van Meeteren said outside the toilet palace.
She thought for a minute.


