Policy wonking met the real world this week when two Triangle pols, one from Durham and the other from Raleigh, compared their leg-shaving practices at a regional water policy forum in Cary.

Durham Mayor Pro Tem Cora Cole-McFadden launched the exchange by saying, "I believe that we as elected officials have to lead by example."

So, Cole-McFadden said, she has two rain barrels at home. And she preaches conservation nonstop, wherever she goes.

"My children came home for Christmas -- and said, 'We're not coming back,' " she recalled.

And then her clincher:

"I do a military shower," she said. "It's, like, two minutes."

That prompted an incredulous Mary-Ann Baldwin, a new Raleigh City Council member, to inquire of her fellow panelist: "How do you shave your legs?"

Cole-McFadden said she doesn't shave. Laser treatments have made it unnecessary, she said.

Still, Baldwin applauded.

"I can't top the two-minute shower," she said. "I'm impressed."

TRIVIAL PURSUIT? What does Raleigh City Council member Rodger Koopman do in his free time? Play trivia on the radio, apparently. Last week Koopman appeared on the National Public Radio quiz show "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" as a guest caller.

Before being asked three rather easy trivia questions, Koopman was asked about the recent Democratic primary in North Carolina and whether he'd met any of the candidates. Koopman described a brief meeting with Hillary Rodham Clinton but said he hadn't met Barack Obama.

Raleigh listeners used to Koopman's outspokenness may have been disappointed that he wasn't asked about garbage disposals or the competence of city staff. (A cynical Raleigh listener may have wondered why Koopman wasn't spending Saturday reading backup material prepared by city staff.)

TriPol can only hope that Koopman walked away with the ultimate prize: A Carl Kasell answering machine message.

POLITICAL TRAIL

* REPUBLICANS: The Western Wake Republican Club will meet Monday at Bentley's American Grill, 2007 Walnut St. in Cary. The meeting is free and open to the public.

Dinner is available from 6 to 7 p.m., and the meeting is 7-8:30 p.m. Speakers will be Don Frantz, Cary council member, and Ron Margiotta, school board member.

For more information about the Western Wake Republican Club, www.westernwakegop.org; about the Wake County Republican Party, www.wakegop.org.

Or call Vinnie DeBenedetto at 363-1967.