Lauder — Check; Quinn — Check . . .

The Sunday of a holiday weekend is not a bad time to wedge in a guilty admission:

In a complete about-face, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn today embraced legislation to extend term limits for city officials and all but endorsed Mayor Bloomberg for a third term, citing the tumultuous economy.

“I have decided to change my position because I believe the opportunity, the potential of consistent leadership by this council and this mayor, would be in the best interests of the city,” Quinn said, citing the “global economic crisis.”

Until now, she adamantly opposed extending term limits through legislation.

And that brave stance pays off:

Mayor Bloomberg praised City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to the high heavens yesterday, and didn’t deny a Post report he could offer her a job — a day after she publicly threw her support behind the mayor’s plan to extend term limits.

“Chris Quinn, if she wasn’t in government, would have enormous opportunities in the private sector as well as the public sector,” Bloomberg said.

He was reacting to a Page Six report that said Bloomberg is prepared to hire Quinn as a deputy mayor if she loses the speaker’s post in 2010.

Mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser flatly denied the report. A spokesman for Quinn described it as both “untrue” and “malicious.”

Bloomberg didn’t address the question directly. Instead, he made a strong pitch to council members to keep Quinn in her powerful post.

“I just want, for the sake of the city, particularly during tough times, that we’ll have Chris Quinn leading the City Council,” the mayor said.

Halal Of An Economy We Have Here

On second thought, maybe these guys were on to something. More leading economic indicators:

The Federal Treasury isn’t the only group looking for an innovative way out of the current financial crisis. The food carts around Wall Street have also felt the markets distress.

Sayedi Abdellah met tough times by adding a free soda to his $5 chicken or lamb with rice. Business is up 30 percent, he said.

“To be honest, we’re doing better than what we were doing before things happened,” he said of the halal cart he’s run on the corner of Wall and Water streets for a year.

“If you go in there,” Abdellah said, pointing to a nearby café, “you end up paying at least $10. Now, people I never expected to see are standing here.”

Remember, More Democracy, Not Less

And spending $80 million is a celebration of free speech, not bullying your way into office with unlimited piles of cash:

Even as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his advisers await a City Council vote on a measure that would allow him to seek a third term, they are mapping out an aggressive re-election strategy that involves spending $80 million or more, according to people involved in the discussions.

Shh . . .

. . . don’t tell them that they probably replaced all that “dirt” a long time ago:

When they move across the street to their new stadium next year, the Yankees will leave behind the ghosts of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio. And also Ned Marvin.

Mr. Marvin was a lifelong Yankees fan who could remember the starting lineups from when, as a boy, his house was a short walk from the House That Ruth Built in the Bronx. The Yankees were such a cornerstone of his life that after he died in 1999 at age 86, his grandson Jeff scattered his ashes in Monument Park.

He was not the only grieving relative to leave a family member’s ashes in a New York major league baseball stadium — usually in Monument Park or behind home plate in Yankee Stadium, or on the mound, the warning track or left field at Shea Stadium in Queens. Doing so was a very private act carried out on the sly, because officially, the teams have never permitted ashes to be scattered in their stadiums.

When the two stadiums are being razed in the coming months, demolition crews will be working where Reggie and Mookie once played. But the ashes, apparently, will stay where they were scattered. And that means that relatives who believed they were giving their loved ones a resting place have had to accept that in New York, the quintessential tear-down-and-build-again city, nothing is forever.

“It’s sad,” said Jeff Marvin, who works in film distribution in Manhattan. “I’ve been thinking they’ll be tearing up where he is. The question is, can I convince myself they’re taking the ground to the new stadium, so that’s Grandpa?” (The Yankees say they have not decided whether or not to move dirt from Monument Park along with the plaques that honor Yankee greats.)

Drugs? Eh, It’s Just Kids. Sex? Whatever . . .

. . . but crapping on park benches . . . now you’ve got my attention:

At Lindower Park in Mill Basin, the grass and the trees are being uprooted by the birds and the bees.

But underage sex is just the tip of the iceberg at this park, located on Strickland Avenue, Mill Road, and East 60th Street, according to those who are familiar with the situation.

Teens aged 13-17 have allegedly been congregating at all hours in groups of up to 30, drinking — and later, driving — smoking, and using drugs.

Used condoms are becoming a more routine sight, and some kids even defecate on the park benches, according to a person whose relative is among the youthful congregants.