Lincolnite

Gary dropped me a note to point out a story about the latest LPD sex sting in Wilderness Park. Ten men were arrested. It is not, of course, illegal to hook up with random strangers for sex. If it were, UNL's entire population of fraternity members would be imprisoned. Unfortunately, that's not all that happens at Wilderness Park and elsewhere. Wilderness is a hot spot for public sex, indecent exposure, and any number of lewd acts. Obviously you don't want to be on a bike ride with the family, only to run across some guy enjoying his own company behind a tree. What is it with men engaging in high-risk sex-related activities in public places? There's no helping the exhibitionist crowd because "public" and "high-risk" are the point. But for the guys who just want to have a good time, don't they know there are websites that help orchestrate these things?

I had to chuckle at this SEVERE WEATHER ALERT on Yahoo! Weather:

TEMPERATURES WILL REACH THE MID 70S WITH MINIMUM RELATIVE HUMIDITIES OF 40 PERCENT. WIND SPEEDS WILL AVERAGE 10 TO 15 MPH.

Oh the humanity! Hide the children!

I can hardly believe it. Did the LJS really miss this story about Husker fans buying up Wake Forest season tickets and donating them to soldiers at the Womack Army Medical Center? If they ran a story about it, I missed it. The gist is this: Husker fans buy up Wake Forest season tickets just to be able to go to the Husker game. But what to do with the tickets for the rest of the season? Well, why not give them to some injured soldiers? Or maybe the local Big Brothers-Big Sisters program? At last count at least 200 tickets had been donated. Not bad, folks. Not bad at all.

Poor Roger Yant. First he lost in his quest for the Mayor's office. Now he's getting picked on at the drug store:

I was standing there not saying a word, and the lady directly in front of me turned around and said, “You’re that stupid Republican, aren’t you?” First I was stunned, and then said meekly, “Yes.” Not wanting to take it further, I just said nothing else. She turned around a second time and said, “I suppose you like Bush, don’t you?” I then said, “Yes, I love him, I think he is doing a good job.” She then went ballistic on me, so I said that at least he wasn’t having sex in the Oval Office like Clinton.

The entire letter is worth a read. Now aren't you disappointed Mayor Yant isn't running things around here?

The news isn't as sexy as Verizon's 800 jobs, but kudos to local company Lincoln Composites on opening a new 60,000 square foot operation at the Lincoln Airport's rail center.

The oddly named Erbert and Gerbert's has opened Downtown in the former Homer's location. Yes, it's another sandwich shop, but hey, competition is good, right? If I can figure out where The Missus hid the menu we grabbed I'll post photos. Until then, there are menus on their website.

You may or may not be familiar with the names Tory Bowen and Pamir Safi, but I'll bet you've at least heard about the rape trial in which the judge banned the word "rape". Yesterday, Ms. Bowen and her attorney got smacked around by U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf for filing a lawsuit against the trial judge regarding the language ban. What surprises me most about this whole mess is that the issue of language bans in the courtroom isn't pretty much settled. It makes perfect sense to me that there should be limits on what an accuser can present as "fact" against the defendant. After all, determining facts is what the court process is all about. I'm no legal scholar so I won't pretend to know where those lines should be drawn. But it seems intuitive that some limits are in the best interest of the justice process. Thus, I'm surprised there aren't some relatively standardized guidelines governing what can and cannot be said in different contexts.

I am stumped. Why would anybody steal speakers from fast food drive-thrus? Is there any use for those speakers? The speakers are valued at $200 and $50. I think the restaurants need to get their money back. I have never run across a drive-thru speaker worth more than about $6.50. What do you get for $200, extra static?

Chuck is out. Bruning, Johanns, and Kerrey are (probably) all in. If the election were held today, who would get your vote? Your preferences aside, who do you think would actually win?

I feel tremendous sympathy for the family of Ivan Havlovic, whose 10-block trip turned into a journey to Kansas. My grandfather did something very similar many years ago. By sheer coincidence, he happened to run out of gas in just the right place. The State Trooper who found my grandfather recognized his name, so he called my cousin, who was also a Trooper, and who lived nearby. Everything turned out well, but grandpa never drove again. Years of mental decline followed. It sounds like a terrible story, and to some degree it is. But my grandpa was happy as a clam holed up in his own little world. That's worth something, right? Anyway, good luck to Mr. Havlovic's family. Keep a sense of humor, folks.

Much to the displeasure of their knew kneighbors, AgeMark's new assisted living center in the Knolls near 27th and Old Cheney was approved by the City Council. I hate to beat a dead horse, but I still don't understand why an Alzheimer's facility is a threat to any neighborhood. "Old folks homes" -- to group them broadly -- are among the best neighbors you could possibly hope for. I think sometimes people just like to be cranky.

UNL's enrollment is up a whopping 3.9% this year, a sure sign that the University's recruitment efforts are working. The upside for Lincoln: more students means more capital of all types coming into town. There's the economic capital, sure, but don't forget about the gains in human and social capital as well. And a certain percentage of each year's class will decide to stay in Lincoln after graduation. Plus, somebody has to keep all those Downtown bars humming.

After five long years I finally get to renew my drivers license today. I think I'm one of three people to still have the old style license. Whenever I show it to somebody they do a double-take, as though it were a fake. But it must be real, because nobody would go to the trouble of making a fake ID that bad, would they? I don't think I look all that different than I did five years ago. I'll have to add 5 pounds to my weight, but that isn't so bad. Well, as long as I don't keep adding 5 pounds every time. That could add up after a while. On hair color I should probably be BLD instead of BLN. I don't plan to let my hair grow back any time soon. I'll be an organ donor again. If any of you happen to run me over, could you be so kind as to make sure my organs end up in some nice homes? My innards are in fine shape, as far as I know. Did I mention it's my birthday today? I guess that was implied. Yesterday somebody suggested I could play in an "over-35" soccer league. Sorry, not quite. I haven't even hit the three decade mark. I've just always looked older than I really am. It's the dark areas under my eyes. I get that from my mom's side of the family. Oh well, it's not how old you look, it's how old you act, right? In that case ... oh crap, I'm 40!

The Missus took Robbie to get his haircut at Lollipops (70th and O) on Saturday. She noted an absence in the shopping center: Mexicali Bullfrog was gone. I have to admit I'm not too surprised, but I am bummed. The food was good and reasonably priced. Ribbit in peace.

The GameDay crew is coming to town on Saturday. On the plus side, the Huskers are 5-0 when GameDay comes to town. On the flip side, we're playing USC. My money is on Lee Corso picking the Powerful Prophylactics over the Huskers, so get your "boo" voice in shape.