Burck has been here since last week, taking care of business, showing up here and there in his tightie whities, singing a few songs and strumming his guitar.

        Before he came home, he was in New York for 123 days, performing daily on Times Square, with the exception of Sept. 11 and a few days afterward.

        “But it was amazing. After I was gone a few days, media people started calling and asking me to go back so they could do some "getting back to normal' stories.

        “So I did. I lost track of how many TV shows, maybe 100. MSNBC and CNN did stories. So did all the local stations and some international ones.

        “And you know what? I'm finally making money. I got a new car and I'm almost out of debt.”

        Times Square wasn't all Burck did in New York. He also turned up on MTV with Ozzy Osbourne on Carson Daly's show, shot a Charlie Daniels video — an “In America” remake — and a commercial for Windows XP.

        Come Wednesday, he's off to Cleveland and the Ohio Independent Film Festival for a screening of American Icon, the two-hour documentary Cincinnati's Lightborne Video made on him. Then it's back to Times Square.

        Domestic diva: And this for people wondering if they should switch off wall-to-wall news and catch domestic goddess Martha Stewart at 9 a.m. today on Channel 12. Yeah, do it.

        Seems Cincinnatian Ray Mongenas, antique dealer and antique show producer, turns up on the show with his collection of log cabin memorabilia.

        Huh? “It grew out of a class project my daughter Cheri had 20 years ago. I helped her and got so hooked on log cabins I started collecting — posters, tins, pictures, paintings, mini-cabins.

        “I have about 400 pieces.”

        Hence the call from Stewart, who found out about him when he was doing a Cleveland show.

        And despite her reputation as, uh, difficult, “She was warm and cordial, but all business. And you should see her operation. It's a studio the size of a Kmart. I looked for a smudge of dirt somewhere but never found one.”

        Squash it: We're going to need a round of applause. Clap it, please, for ex-Hyde Parker Tim Wyant.

        He has been in Australia competing in the World Men's Professional Squash Championships.

        A player since age seven when local coach Don Mills got him involved, Wyant went on to Harvard where he was four-time All-American and team captain for two years. He turned pro in 2000 and is today ranked No. 4 among U.S. squash players.

        Which should surprise no one: He comes from a family full of squash players. Older brother Jack played professionally after being All-American at Princeton. He's now in marketing at P&G. Younger brother Chris currently plays varsity squash as a freshman at Yale. Older sister Missy was also All-American at Princeton and co-captain of her team.

        Tim, meanwhile, lives in England but gets back to town now and then. He spends most of his life on the road.

        E-mail knipenquirer@yahoo.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/knip

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