Wherein the potentially Brawny Bengal comes forward. Or at least his nominators do.

A Bengals offensive lineman, please recall from Tuesday's column, was one of 4,000 nominees to replace 37-year-old Eric Solie as the Brawny paper towel cover boy. You know, the lumberjack-looking guy on all the packages.

Anyway, Brawny parent Georgia Pacific had a contest to find the new guy. It required a 150-word essay describing the nominee's character - integrity, generosity, wealth of spirit, that sort of thing.

Wellsir, the local nominee is Mike Goff, say nominators Doug and Kelly Fisher. "Because he's about the best friend anyone could ever have, an obvious success and an extraordinary guy who will do anything for anyone," Doug says.

And yeah, Goff did know he was nominated: "We asked him if it was OK before we did it because sometimes players like to keep their private lives private. But he said sure, go ahead. He's rather proud of it.

"Me, I think he should have made it as one of the five finalists, but I guess it wasn't in the cards."

Case closed.

Stepping out: So, you were wondering, what do American Idols do when not onstage being, well, idols, as they were Friday at U.S. Bank Arena.

They shop, that's what.

That from Catherine Hamilton, owner of Hyde Park's upscale Soho boutique. "Friday afternoon, a big limo pulled up and two of the Idols got out, along with managers, some crew and friends.

"Ryan Starr bought a beautiful two-piece outfit by French Connection," Hamilton says. "Nikki McKibben - she's the punk rocker one - bought a very nice $400 black Nicole Miller outfit. She actually wore it onstage that night."

What's more, Hamilton adds, "They were really nice. We had some customers in here, and they gave them free tickets and backstage passes."

Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

Bring it back: Three ever-so-busy downtown activists are gearing up for a do Saturday that they hope will bring a whole heck of a lot of people back to struggling Over-the-Rhine.

City Councilman Jim Tarbell is throwing open his Grammer's restaurant for a 4-7 p.m. Avril's meats feast. It'll be all kinds of German sausage and assorted exotica you can buy at the store, but why bother when somebody else is going to cook? It's a $12-a-head buffet.

Down the block a ways, the tireless Katie Laur is helping Kaldi's owner Sonya McDonnell celebrate the coffeehouse's 10th anniversary with a sort of double-header on Sunday.

She'll be doing her WNKU-FM radio show live 7-10 p.m. and making some music, along with the All Girl Bluegrass Band, Jake Speed and Little Mountain Jackass. "Hillbilly Performance Art" she calls it.

A third plan, to marshal carriages for rides through the neighborhood, fizzled.

E-mail jknippenberg@enquirer.com.