Lincolnite

Apparently a crew will be in town filming scenes for an upcoming JIm Carrey movie called Yes Man. The crew will be at Saturday's game against OSU, and they will also shoot around town. Post your sightings here and we'll take some guesses at which parts of Lincoln will appear in the movie.

If you want to know what's proposed for the West Haymarket, check out the open house next Thursday, October 18, at 11:00am to 1:00pm or 5:00pm to 7:00pm. If you're a critic and you plan to go ask questions, here's some advice: make your questions short, specific, and well-researched. Rambling, factually-inaccurate questions are the hallmark of these events, and they're a waste of everybody's time (including yours). If the folks on hand don't have an answer for you, leave your contact information and request a follow-up call or e-mail. If your question is good, you'll get that follow-up call.

I'm a little confused as to how the proposal to tighten the false alarm ordinance will help prevent incidents like the recent Scheel's gun burglary. Let me see if I've got this:

1. A store is broken into and guns are stolen
2. The security company is slow to call the store manager, who is slow to call police, in part to avoid panicking over a false alarm
3. Police respond quickly ... a half hour too late
4. Police and others respond by proposing an ordinance that makes similar slow responses more likely in the future

How's that again? Don't get me wrong. I'm sure false alarms are a pain in the butt, and they're very expensive to me as a taxpayer. I want to eliminate false alarms. I just don't get how a situation that highlights the problems inherent in trying to prevent false alarms is a poster child for tighter false alarm penalties. Instead, in my mind the Scheel's burglary raises questions about a company's liability when it hires morons to provide security. That's the issue that needs to be addressed. As for a false alarm poster child, how about the business which has already had 37 false alarms this year?

Lovers of Indian food, a new option is coming to town. The Peacock is opening at 27th and Pine Lake, among Starbucks, Chipotle, and Quiznos. Given its neighbors I've got to guess that The Peacock is part of a chain, but I can't find any "Peacock"-themed websites that match the look of the logo on the restaurant's window. Given the work left to be done on the interior, I'd guess a December opening.

I was so excited when I discovered Mexicali Bullfrog, the tiny Mexican eatery tucked away near 70th and O. I went there three times in three weeks. Then they went and closed up shop. Fortunately, I then discovered Smokehouse Deli, just a stone's throw from my house on the southeast corner of 48th and Highway 2. It's another tiny place, easy to miss but impossible to forget. Thinking about Bullfrog and Smokehouse, I realize that there are probably several similar tiny joints all around town that only the privileged few know about. Sadly, the small size that gives these places their charm is also one of the major reasons so many of them don't last very long. What other "unnoticeables" -- those special, hidden restaurants you hold near and dear -- are hiding around town that the Lincolnite community should know about?

It is Homecoming week at UNL, and that means an excuse for a mid-week tailgate party. HuskerFest takes place Thursday night from 6:00 to 8:00pm at Ed Weir track just North of Memorial Stadium. There will be free food from Valentino's, cheerleaders, drawings and giveaways, games for the kids -- the works. Plus, you can meet Mike Rozier and Johnny Rodgers. And if you're among the first 300 Alltel customers to whip out your phone or phone bill, you can win autographed items from Rozier and Rodgers. If you need a fresh shot of Husker enthusiasm -- and who doesn't right now? -- or if you're just looking for some free food, stop by tomorrow night. Psst: While you're on campus, don't forget to check out the Homecoming floats.

If you haven't already had your fill of Dawes- and Hawthorne-related proposals, Keith Prettyman has another one for you: keep Dawes open while Goodrich undergoes renovations. I don't frankly care which route the School Board chooses. I want them to pick the option that creates the most efficient and effective school system possible. Problem is, nobody seems to be able to describe with any clarity how any of the proposals -- including retaining the status quo -- achieves that goal. There are lots of lofty claims, but very little substance. In fact, the only claim anybody has made that seems to hold any water is that neighborhood schools offer benefits to the local area over larger, more distant schools. Until somebody starts providing facts that clear up the uncertainties around the various school closing options, it's going to be very difficult to support closing Dawes and/or Hawthorne.

Congratulations to Stephen and Jennie Mossman of Lincoln, 2007 Angels in Adoption award!

I think most drivers have a "secret" road or two they rely on to speed up their travels around the city. Well, I do, anyway. The roads aren't actually secret, of course. It's just that folks don't seem to use them as much as they could. Instead, most people stick to the classics -- the 27th Streets and the O Streets of the city. Suckers. Here's one example: During the evening rush hour, Capital Parkway can get clogged up coming out of Downtown, with slowdowns stretching as far as 48th Street. Why bother with that mess, when it is much easier and faster to take 16th Street to South to Sheridan? That's just one of my examples. Do you have any speedy "shortcuts" you utilize in certain situations? What are they?

Don't worry, they aren't closing down the O Street bridge just yet. Instead, construction will begin soon on a new bridge at 21st to 22nd Street. That's right, over dry land. One of these days there will be some water under there. Hopefully.

I want to congratulate The Missus for donating yet another ponytail to Locks of Love, "a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis". This was The Missus' fourth donation, putting her well on her way to donating an entire hairpiece (each of which requires 6-10 ponytails). If you have the ability to grow a ponytail measuring at least ten inches, please consider donating it.

The Journal Star reported on Sunday (article not online) that some land purchases near 20th and R may be for a new Assurity Life Insurance headquarters. The headquarters would replace Assurity's two current sites at 15th and K -- which will likely go to the State -- and 40th and Pine Lake. If true, it would be a nice boost for the Antelope Valley Project and may help change some cynical Lincolnites' perceptions that the AVP is little more than "a ditch and a road". (Nope, I'm not telling who said that.) Any headquarters Assurity builds would have to be relatively large; their current facilities house 400+ employees in 150,000 square feet. Presumably they would want a larger facility, plus room for expansion.

Finally, got my new Rebel XTi in the mail the other day. This is just an outstanding digital SLR, and I am very pleased with this purchase. Score one more for image stabilizing lenses. Kudos to anyone who can identify where this photo was taken by the way. I'm going to be a photo posting doofus like Jwilt soon.

Interesting decision at North Star High School, where Principal Nancy Becker decided to bar students from other schools from attending the upcoming Homecoming dance. The move is safety-related in response to the recent theft of guns from Scheels. At some level the school's response makes sense. It's easier to sniff out trouble when you know everybody than when you are among strangers. Fair enough. But among the kids arrested so far in the theft, most attended North Star, and one didn't attend school at all. Perhaps they should invite students from other schools but not their own for maximum safety. I really shouldn't second-guess the decision. Dr. Becker has an excellent track record with LPS. And really, it's not so much that I disagree. It's more that I am not convinced that the move provides anything more than an extra sense of security, rather than security itself. That, and it creeps me out that a bunch of administrators sat around and had a discussion in which the words "Virginia Tech at North Star" were probably uttered. I'm glad I don't have to regularly think about those things.

95 Rock -- formerly 95.1 on your FM dial -- is dead. In its place say hello to ... 95 Talk! Woohoo! Well, ok, I'm not actually all that excited. Talk radio on FM? Yawn. Not that it made sense to have two classic rock stations in town owned by the same company. On the plus side, 95 Talk played some awesome transition music this evening: a techno version of the instrumental theme -- not the pop song -- from The Neverending Story. No really. Instantly, my 1993 Ford Tempo turned into a giant, flying white dog. I raised my arm in the air as I shouted, "Falcor!". Together Falcor and I swept through the air and scared all of my old elementary school bullies. Then ... wait, what was I talking about again? Oh yeah. 95 Rock is dead. 95 Talk is born. Whoop.