Dress Distress: Saudi religious police went into...

Dress Distress: Saudi religious police went into a tizzy over a woman’s ankles recently. Rep. Beverly Byron (D-Md.) was wearing slacks while touring a Riyadh marketplace when a morality guard spotted her and said her trousers were too snug--especially at the ankles. Byron protested, but in the end retreated to her hotel.

Potty Parity: Long lines for women’s restrooms in Texas could soon end. A state Senate subcommittee has approved a bill that calls for a 2-to-1, women’s-to-men’s toilet ratio at most large public facilities. The bill was prompted by the trial of Denise Wells, who was ejected from a concert at a Houston arena and charged with violating a city ordinance after she could wait no longer for the women’s restroom and used the men’s. She was acquitted.

Not Smart: Juror Alec Beckett of the Pamela Smart murder-accomplice trial said Smart’s own words on secretly recorded conversations swayed jurors to find her guilty. Student Cecelia Pierce in Exeter, N.H., had been wired, and Smart told Pierce: “If you tell the (expletive) truth . . . you’ll send me to the slammer for the rest of my (expletive) life . . . . I’ll admit the affair, but I’ll never admit anything to do with the murder.” With that, Beckett said, the shroud of guilt started closing around Smart, who was convicted last week.

Gummy Boars: Visitors to the Statue of Liberty should give up a precious right--the right to chew gum. M. Ann Belkov, superintendent of the Statue of Liberty, says “the statue is becoming one big glob of chewing gum.” Five members of the daytime maintenance staff do nothing but pick up 1,000 pieces of gum a day, Belkov said.