What else is going down the toilet? Page 2 staff

Now that you've voted on what's going down the toilet in sports, check out our list of what needs to be dumped from the rest of the world: "Friends" Let's see, Monica and Chandler got married, Rachel is carrying Ross' baby and now Joey has come to the realization that he has feelings for Rachel. To paraphrase Chandler, could they be any more out of storylines. Apparently, these people live in the country's largest city yet they never meet anyone outside their coffeehouse clique. Of course, the show's ratings are still strong -- and they'll probably get even better when Phoebe and Ross hook up next fall and they change the name of the show to "More Than Friends." Reality TV In the post-Sept. 11 world, Americans no longer seem to care who will win "The Amazing Race" or what "Big Brother" is watching. Even heavyweight "Survivor Africa" finished consistently behind plot-challenged "Friends" in the Thursday night ratings showdown, including an unheard-of dead-heat on the night of the "Survivor" finale. And we won't even mention the new lows that "Fear Factor" has sunk to. Britney Spears' good-girl rep Admitting that she regrets ever saying she was saving herself for marriage, the pop princess prompted many to question whether she was still "like a virgin" when she recently bought a house with boyfriend Justin Timberlake of *N Sync. Then, the foreign press had a field day with Britney's comment that chocolate and sneezing could both be very "orgasmic." Then, came a steamy new album and that racy video for the song, "I'm a Slave 4 U." Then, there was that striptease routine on the MTV Video Music Awards and that snake ... oh yeah, where were we? Anyway, she ain't that little girl in pigtails who slid down those high-school hallways, singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time." Mariah Carey's career "Glitter" was certainly not gold for Mariah. The movie tanked after being universally panned by critics and the album of the same name was by far the biggest disappointment of Carey's musical career. Just when it appeared the diva might be making a comeback from her reported breakdown last summer and that bizarre message on her website, along came the news Wednesday that Virgin Records was dissolving the four-album contract it signed with Carey last April. So this morning, one of the most successful commercial artists of her era finds herself without a record label. Kmart Once the nation's largest-volume retailer, Kmart is now eating Wal-Mart's dust to such an extent that it has filed for bankruptcy and some experts predict the 2,100-store chain will be out of business by the end of the decade. Recent developments include a severe drop in stock price, a refusal by Kmart's food supplier to deliver product to the chain until it pays its bills, and the implication that only an expansion of the chain's involvement with uber-hostess Martha Stewart can give it the kind of identity that will allow it to continue to exist -- which, if it were to happen, would be one of the most unlikely cases of the tail wagging the dog in business history.

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