Lincolnite

Living a stone's throw from El Chaparro on 13th and F (the only place in Lincoln I have found that has a California burrito on its menu), I am pretty well set-up to eat great Mexican 7 days of the week if I wanted to. But I am also happy to say that the King Taco near Robber's Cave is a nice addition to the near, near south area. As Mr. Wilson pointed out in a description of his earlier visit, King Taco will be appealing to some Lincolnites and unappealing to others. This is, in my opinion, a good thing: An indication that the number of Mexican eateries in town have increased to the point where we can pick and choose from a wide variety to fit our tastes and wallet sizes. As King Taco is right on the way to my gym, I stop there frequently. Its cheap, fast food, and the staff there are usually pretty friendly (to make up for the bare atmosphere). I won't dwell into the hits and misses, and like all restaurants there are both at King Taco, but instead I want to encourage you all to give their hard, crunchy tacos a try if you haven't already. In my opinion, hard shell tacos are the staple of any Americanized Mexican joint nowadays. As ubiquitous as they are basic, making a hard shell taco good can be very difficult since - like a burger, slice of pizza, or eggroll - everyone has their own opinion and expectation of what a good one is. I think that the hard shell tacos at King Taco may be the best this city has to offer. Unlike the overly salted and seasoned taco meat you get at Taco Hell or Taco John's, at King Taco the meat there is relatively unseasoned, but this is made up for the fact that their salsa is pretty good. They also use a fair bit of white queso as opposed to only the yellow/cheddar cheese you usually find at other places. Plus, they come with a dab of cool sour cream too, which is a nice touch. The corn shells are really great too, a bit thicker, fresher, and crunchier than in a number of other places. Finally, these suckers are only .79 each, or .59 on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I recently rolled through a bunch of these delicious treats, leaving a heap of greasy wrappers, lettuce strands, and crumpled napkins in my wake. Give this place a try people - it could use some business! In other hard shell taco related news, the Downtown Taco Bueno opened late this week, adding more variety to the city's Industrialized/Americanized Mexican food chains. Their hard shells are OK, not a whole lot different from those at Amigos, and like Amigos it also has a little salsa bar. However, their salsa tasted a bit on the sweet side to me. I know some people like sweet salsa, but I am not one of them, so I don't know how often I will be patronizing Taco Bueno. Otherwise, its a fine place for Industrialized/Americanized Mexican. However, on those days when I am in the mood for some Industrialized/Americanized Mexican food, I'll probably hit the Taco John's on south street.

Sometimes it seems like LIBA -- the Lincoln Independent Business Association -- complains a lot. "We don't like this tax," "Scrap this program," and so on. Whether or not it's true that they respectfully disagree more than the average bear, today LIBA executive directory Coby Mach is in a good mood and has some good words for Mayor Beutler. He even ends his piece with an exclamation point!

If you are feeling bored, go try out Weever, my new nested comments module for ExpressionEngine. The demo is nothing fancy, but let me know what you think. Do you think I should enable nested comments on Lincolnite, or should I stick with the flat, date-ordered comments?

Developers have been saying for years that Lincoln doesn't put enough money into roads in new areas of the city. According to UNL's Bureau of Business Research, they are largely correct. Mayor Beutler supports the report's conclusions and says he is investigating new funding mechanisms. It wouldn't surprise me at all if one of Beutler's suggestions is some sort of tax increase. Depending on this community's long-term plans and goals for itself, I'm not sure he has much choice. Of course, trying to determine the plans and goals of the community as a whole isn't exactly easy.

Tom Nissen, the man who put John Lotter on death row for the murder of Teena Brandon and two witnesses, has recanted his testimony and admitted to the slayings. Death penalty supporters face a difficult decision: Call Nissen a liar today and stand behind Nissen's original trial testimony; or admit that Nissen may have lied during Lotter's trial, demonstrating that death penalty cases that rely primarily on testimony rather than hard evidence are fragile. Of course, die hard death penalty supporters won't necessarily be swayed by this new twist. State law allows accessories to murder to be put to death, so Lotter could remain on death row. That the actual murderer wouldn't be killed is unfortunate, but at least one of the men will be toast. This case may very well turn out to be a perfect example of one of the major flaws of the death penalty. It seems that prosecutors wanted to put at least one of the men in the chair, but they lacked the evidence to do so. So what did they do? They secured a generous plea deal with one man in exchange for his testimony against the other. Despite no hard evidence and only a couple pieces of circumstantial evidence, that testimony was enough to secure the punishment prosecutors sought. Apparently the wrong man was given a deal. In any event, this is a chapter in Nebraska's history none of us wanted to relive. Yet here we are.

Now we know that Mike Johanns is officially running for Chuck Hagel's Senate seat. In order to run, he quit his gig as Ag Secretary. When you think about it, the guy must get a kick out of quitting jobs. Has he ever seen a job through to completion? Mayor Mike left early to be Governor. Governor Mike left early to run the Department of Agriculture. Secretary Mike quit to run for Senator. Let's say Johanns becomes Senator Mike. How long until he gets bored of that job? And what then?

A few miscellaneous observations after Date Night with The Missus: Blue Orchid is still awesome. I have never walked away from there unhappy with my food. I have ordered or sampled all of the curries, most of the stir fries, the pad thai, and a couple other dishes. Yum. (For the record, my favorite is the Panang curry with salmon.) Ivanna Cone? Yeah, it's still awesome, too. I noticed a new store in the building on the southwest corner of 10th and O. My Modern Somethingerother. (Life? Way?) It appeared to be a store specializing in "modern" furnishings. That's not my cup of tea, but if it's yours, go check it out. Paul Daniels Interiors isn't the only business to leave its building and neighboring buildings. Pretty much every space looked empty or had a For Lease sign posted. I've been hearing some bad buzz about the service at Fireworks. In fact, some family members from out of town went there recently and described it as one of the worst service experiences they've ever encountered. Ouch! That's unusual coming from a member of the Lazlo's family which, not long ago, was frequently praised for its excellent service. I have not yet been to the new location. Have you? Is the service poor, or am I just talking to the wrong people?

Hey there, Lincolnites. I'm prepping a brand new Lincoln-themed podcast, but I need your help. I would love to be able to feature music from local bands on the show, but I have virtually zero contacts in the local music world. If you know any musicians who would like to have their music featured on a podcast, please have them contact me at mrwilson at lincolnite dot com, or by phone at 402-432-7215. (And if you happen to know how I can track down Jason Davis of Baby Jason and the Spankers, I would like to ask his permission to use parts of a track or two off of "Rattle" and/or "dreamgirl".) I am open to any musical genre, though I don't promise to play anything and everything. Oh, and the sooner, the better. I would like to get the first episode out this week. Other than music, what else will find its way into the first episode? I'll just say that Husker fans should get a kick out of catching up with one of the greatest college football running backs of all time. (To the three of you who already know: Shh!)

I'm going to take a guess and say this is the first time the Lincoln Journal Star has ever used the word "bitch" in a headline. (The word has been printed in at least 43 articles since January 1, 2003.) Anybody care to guess the number of outraged letters to the editor on this one?

Nebraska Democratic State Senator Ernie Chambers has decided to go straight to the top in an effort to stop natural disasters from befalling the world. Chambers filed a lawsuit against God in Douglas County Court Friday afternoon, KPTM Fox 42 reported.

Read it for yourself. And believe it or not, there is a purpose behind Ernie's actions. There always is.

Foxspit was kind enough to drop me this quick review of Erbert and Gerbert's: Erbert & Gerbert's was good. The sandwiches are HUGE, almost too much to eat. I had the "Narmer," a turkey sandwich with provolone, tomato (which was fresh!) lettuce, mayo (a little too heavy), avacado and sprouts. The sandwich was good. I liked that it filling but not a real mess to eat. The turkey is sliced pretty thin but there seemed to be enough meat. The flavor was good. Side choices of chips or soup were good. If I had a do-over I'd add some mustard. A nice touch would be a condiment stand where you can add seasonings, if you so desire, to your sandwich. The lobby is congested enough, however, that a condiment stand would only make things worse. There is also a Java Zone coffee shop in the restaurant. It wasn't getting a lot of business over the lunch hour but maybe it will draw business when the restaurant is slow. I was underwhelmed when I heard another sandwich shop was opening up downtown. I actually liked Erbert and Gerbert's. The sandwich combo was around $7.50. Not bad. Planet Sub offers a much cheaper lunch option when you order the day's special, but I suspect people will keep E&G's busy. If today was any indication, the restaurant seemed to attract Lincoln's most attractive women for lunch ... reason enough for me to go back and try it again. I'm a simple man. [Note: Oops, I just realized this is already posted over at beerorkid's site. There are some comments over there you may be interested in.]

If you thought it was bad when the trucks tore the heck out of North 40, you're not going to like what you see on the northeast corner of 84th and Holdrege, either. Initial work on Colleen Seng's favorite Wal-Mart has begun. Between the northeast and southwest corners of that intersection, plus all of the other new building activity nearby on North 84th Street, that stretch has the potential to become very clogged. 84th Street already serves as "Highway 84", the only good route on the east side of town to get from the south to Interstate 80. Now that a stretch of it is set to become a substantial commercial hub (with hundreds of apartments nearby), traffic could really become a bear. Lincoln's leaders really screwed up by not starting an East Beltway years ago. Plans now exist for the Beltway, but its arrival date is approximately 2000-never, and its location so far east makes it less useful than it otherwise could have been. Wouldn't it have been nice if the East Beltway could have been built just east of 84th Street?

Local CPA Tom Larsen thinks Harvey Perlman should resign from the State Fair Board and the State Legislature should remove the requirement that UNL's Chancellor has to serve on the Board as a-oficio member. Mr. Larsen's core argument is that Chancellor Perlman's allegiances are torn and he can't possibly be expected to represent UNL and the Fair at the same time. I disagree. I think it's a good thing that one or more members of the Fair Board thinks about the Fair from a different perspective. I believe a substantial number of Nebraskans believes that the status quo isn't good enough for the long-term health of the Fair. But the status quo is exactly what we would end up with were the Board lacking at least one person willing to stir the pot a bit. There are many good arguments to support the changes to the Fair proposed by Perlman (and others). It is positive and healthy that those arguments are being made by a Board member, rather than by outsiders alone. What say you?

LES has an automated power outage reporting system, but it only works if the system recognizes your phone number when you call. Not everybody is in the system, and LES wants to change that. If you have ever called the outage line and received a message that your number isn't recognizes, or if you just want to make sure your phone numbers are all on file, fill out this form online.

The Trojans are coming to town. Will the Huskers stand tall and tear through the Trojans' protection, implanting the ball safely in the end zone? Or will the Men of Troy dull the Husker attack and send the Big Red limping from the field? USC fans in town for tomorrow's game might be wondering what to do in a backward little place like Lincoln. Here are a few things to try:

• Dine at Bread & Cup, at 8th and S in the Haymarket (just southwest of Memorial Stadium). I haven't been there, but everybody I know who has says it is excellent. It's not your usual Nebraska dining establishment.
• What's that? You want a more typical Nebraska eatery? In that case, head out to Lee's Chicken at 1940 W. Van Dorn. Just say "Number 3, all white meat, baked potato, sour cream, salad with Dorothy Lynch, and a large order of onion rings". Bon appetite!
• If you brought your kids, take them to the Lincoln Children's Zoo (27th and Capitol Parkway), Morrill Hall (on campus, east of Memorial Stadium), and the Lincoln Children's Museum (Downtown, 14th and P).
• Two great but unheralded pep rallies take place tonight: at Misty's (6235 Havelock Ave., 7:30pm and 8:30pm) and Grandmother's (70th and A Street, 10:00pm and 11:00pm). Pep bands, cheerleaders, screaming fans, and lots and lots of alcohol.
• Don't forget that ESPN Game Day is taping in Lincoln tomorrow. Memorial Stadium's tates open at 7:30am for the 8:00am start.
• Feeling homesick? Drive on I-80 and I-180 coming into town tomorrow. The heavy traffic will make you feel right at home.