Another Bond

By: Mr. Wilson on February 28, 2006
The City Council last night voted to place another bond issue before voters. This time it's a $2.7 million project to purchase 130 acres of green space adjacent to the South Beltway. The land will resemble the narrow green strip that follows Highway 2 from 17th to 56th Street. I can't help but be disappointed. In earlier discussions Lincolnites had set their sights high, proposing to extend Wilderness Park around the city as a massive and unprecedented green belt. The South and East Beltways were the perfect routes for this massive urban woodland. The bond issue that will go before voters in May is a joke in comparison. The costs of the earlier grand vision would have been astronomical, of course, and it's nowhere near certain that enough land could have been easily acquired to make the project worthwhile. But boy, wouldn't it have been fun to try? I think Lincolnites could have latched onto that vision far more easily than they've latched onto the vision of a revitalized Antelope Valley, a renewed Downtown, or even a new convention center.

Just Decide

By: Mr. Wilson on February 28, 2006
Douglas Theatre Company President David Livingston just wants the Lincoln City Council to make up its darn mind. I can't say I blame him. I often feel the same way about our noncommittal City Council. In this case, Livingston simply wants the City Council to say for certain whether the city's theater policy is going to stick around for good. Councilman Jon Camp's halfway solution -- scrapping the current policy in seven years -- has yet to be voted on. Even if it passes Douglas will have no guarantees. What's to prevent the council from extending the restrictions indefinitely? Ultimately the theater policy is driven by the government's fear of its constituents' decisions. It's all too paternal for my tastes. More broadly, David Livingston has hit upon a frustration many Lincolnites have with the City Council. The Council, for whatever reason, is terrified of commitment. It's not that I want seven inflexible automatons, but is it too much to ask for them to make up their minds now and then?

Mayor Seng’s Nicknames

By: Mr. Wilson on February 27, 2006
I attended a gathering last night and somehow the conversation suddenly shifted to Mayor Colleen Seng's many nicknames. Some of the nicknames included:
  • Edith Bunker
  • Grandma
  • Old Mother Hubbard
  • Mother Goose
  • The Great Ribbon Cutter
What are some of your favorite Mayor Seng nicknames?

The Diagnoses

By: Mr. Wilson on February 22, 2006
Are you ready for my official diagnoses (plural)? Here we go:
  • Influenza
  • Ear infection (both ears)
  • Conjunctivitis (pink eye) (both eyes)
  • Strep throat
I had already self-diagnosed the first three. I've had my share of ear infections and pink eye over the course of my life, so I recognize those symptoms pretty easily. Strep is a new one for me, though. I'm pretty ticked at my body's immune system. This sort of breach of homeland security is inexcusable. I mean, who's running this operation, the Michael Brown of white blood cells? Any one of those illnesses would be bad enough alone, but all four at once? Unacceptable. I just fired off an e-mail to work telling them that I won't be in at all this week. I will probably try to remote in for a couple hours tomorrow and Friday. I have plenty of sick hours, but I don't want to blow any more of them than I have to. I just added up all of the calories I've consumed this week. Up to now I've put only about 1,000 calories into my body, most of those from juice, and I'm not the least bit hungry. That's a pretty strange reality for somebody who enjoys food as much as I do. Somebody call the all-you-can-eat buffets and tell them to watch out, because if I feel better this weekend, I'm going to have to make up for lost time. Blah blah blah, enough about me. Hopefully I'll feel well enough tomorrow to yack about Lincoln again. Oh, and congrats to the Powerball winners. What an interesting mix of Lincolnites! They made Lincoln look pretty darn good on a national stage. We owe them our thanks. Oh, and we should thank them for all of those tax dollars, too.

The Flu, Day II

By: Mr. Wilson on February 21, 2006
Good news: I slept like a rock. Bad news, when I woke up, my temperature was 101.8, the highest it has been so far. I don't feel like I'm on my death bed or anything, which is nice. Just really fatigued and sore. At least I'm not puking. Instead, today's new symptoms are a nice dry cough and sore throat. Fantastic. Already today I've watched Saved By the Bell, The Littles, and now I'm half-way through Tim Burton's excellent Big Fish. Next I might try to watch The Lord of the Rings straight through. That's, what, 9 or 10 hours? Whatever I do, I just have to make sure I catch Jeopardy! Yesterday I think I would have come in second, but I could have won if I had wagered enough in Final Jeopardy because all of the contestants missed the final question. (Err, answer?) It was something like:
This Prime Minister, assassinated in 1995, was his country's first to be born in that land.
I thought it was pretty easy, but two people guessed Indira Gandhi, and one didn't guess at all. Do you know it? Answer: Yitzhak Rabin. In all fairness, the wording was pretty tricky. Rabin wasn't actually born in Israel. He was born in Jerusalem before Israel existed. Note the use of the phrase "in that land", not "in that country". (Highlight the text to read the answer.) Okey dokey, that's enough typing for now. I'm freezing. Back to Big Fish.

The F Word

By: Mr. Wilson on February 20, 2006
I'm celebrating President's Day by staying home with the flu. Wheee. It kicked in late last night. About 11:45 PM I moved to the guest bedroom because I was shivering uncontrollably and I didn't want to bug The Missus. Right now I'm operating on about three and a half hours of sleep; I figure I'll catch up over the course of the day. Headache, body ache, fever, dry cough. Should be a fun day! On the plus side, I've already watched two episodes of Saved By the Bell. Sweet.

Write About

By: Mr. Wilson on February 19, 2006
I think it's about time I gave my readers some say in what I write about. What do you say? What Lincoln-related topics should I cover?

Please Stay Away from Lunarpages

By: Mr. Wilson on February 17, 2006
I'm merely adding my voice to an already boisterous crowd, but I want to encourage all of you here at Lincolnite to stay away from Lunarpages web hosting. Lunarpages used to host Lincolnite, but I left back in December after some unplanned downtime and a subsequent horrible technical support experience. That was followed by another tech support nightmare involving another domain I support (but do not own), related to the first nightmare. Well guess what: I just wrapped up yet another tech support nightmare, related to both of the first two nightmares. To make a long story short, Lunarpages' backend housekeeping is incredibly shoddy, and it resulted in a number of e-mails intended for this domain disappearing into the abyss. But as Levar Burton always says, don't take my word for it. Find out why so many others think Lunarpages sucks.

My Weekend Plans

By: Mr. Wilson on February 17, 2006
The Missus and I are headed to Nebraska City tonight for a relaxing stay at the beautiful Lied Lodge and Conference Center. We'll have a nice dinner, spend some time in the hot tub, and then I'll sit back and watch a little Sports Center since we don't have cable at the house. What? Why are you giving me that look? Jesus' geneology, from the St. John's Bible Saturday we're going to head to Omaha. We haven't set a plan yet, but we're thinking about either going to the Henry Doorly Zoo and checking out the indoor exhibits, or perhaps going to the Joslyn Art Museum to see the St. John's Bible exhibit. The Bible's creation is funded by St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, a school I very nearly attended. On Sunday The Missus and I will get together with my parents and my sister's family for my sister's birthday dinner. She has requested one of my favorite meals: meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Mmm, nothing like comfort food to finish off a cold weekend. What's everybody else up to this weekend?

A First Look at Doughboyz

By: Mr. Wilson on February 16, 2006
The Missus and I just arrived home from Doughboyz Bistro ("fun Italian food"). Some of our quick and unorganized thoughts after our opening night visit:
  • The name struck us as a little misleading. "Bistro", to me, translates to "small, dark, and snooty". Doughboyz is indeed small and cozy, but it's not dark and it is definitely not snooty. It's closer to a pizzeria in my mind, although that isn't entirely accurate either. Cafe, maybe?
  • The front doors are great. Big, curved, and very unique. Nice first impression.
  • The interior is smallish, but definitely not cramped. As you might expect, the color theme centers around red and green, along with a cream. Peppy big band music played in the background.
  • The servers are young, friendly, and energetic. Then again, it's easy to be energetic on opening night!
  • There were very few patrons. I think the lengthy opening delays helped to scare folks off. They will come eventually.
  • The Missus and I started with the Artie Spin spinach and artichoke dip, served warm with crunchy bruschetta. Good stuff with a little zing. A bit pricey at $7.85.
  • For our entree we ordered a small DBQ chicken pizza. It was a floppy thin crust pizza topped with a homemade zippy barbeque sauce, onions, chicken, and feta and mozzarella cheese. It was very tasty, and it had a little spiciness to it that separates it from some of the sweeter bbq chicken pizzas in town. We would have liked a few more pieces of chicken on our pie.
  • Watch out for the pizza stands. The Missus managed to dump half of our pie on the table. She blamed it on the stand, but I suspect an element of user-error. (Just kidding, honey!) Spilling a pizza is a good way to get every server in the joint to jump to action lickety-split.
  • There are three sizes of pizzas, 14", 16", and 18". They are labeled as feeding 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 people, respectively. The 14" easily feeds two people. (Well, two non-teenagers, anyway.) With appetizers, drinks, and desserts, you might even fit three people on a 14 incher. Which raises a problem: a single person can't really order a pizza without having a ton of leftover slices. That might scare a lot of people off. I would like to see, perhaps, a 10" option for singles.
  • The pizzas were on the pricey side. Ours was $15.50 (another factor that discourages singles from ordering a pizza), and a couple crossed the $20 barrier for the 18" size. In fact, a lot of the prices were on the high side. Clearly Doughboyz has a target audience in mind. Hint: it isn't the daVinci's and Valentino's audience.
  • We were served a complimentary "Piezookie", a large, warm chocolate chip cookie topped with ice cream. Mmm.
  • Other items on the menu included a number of unique pizzas; a couple pastas; several sandwiches; and a kids' menu. I'm going to try to get my hands on an electronic copy of the menu to share with y'all.
  • The owners are very interested in your feedback, so let them know what you think about any little detail. How do I know? Because one of them spent some good time chatting with The Missus and I. (By the way: sorry I didn't introduce myself at the restaurant, guys. I wanted to be Joe Public on my first trip so as not to bias your interactions with me.) Lincolnite is read by the folks we talk about, so if you don't get a chance to talk to the owners personally, feel free to speak to them indirectly on here.
Overall The Missus and I enjoyed Doughboyz, and we will definitely go back. After our second visit -- whenever it comes -- I will write up a more formal review. (I don't write reviews until after at least two visits to a restaurant.) [UPDATE: My Doughboyz review is now up.] I encourage y'all to give Doughboyz a try. You may even want to check it out early (i.e. before it gets written up in the Ground Zero), because it looks like you won't have to worry about a huge crowd. What say we start our own Lincolnite-generated buzz for Doughboyz, shall we?

Finally Open

By: Mr. Wilson on February 15, 2006
After a long wait, The Missus and I are headed to Doughboyz tonight on our weekly Date Night. I'll give y'all the skinny later tonight or tomorrow. Or better yet, stop on by and celebrate opening night with us.
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