Latest Blog Posts
Uni Place Hy-Vee Shrinks, Becomes Heartland Pantry
Remember that University Place Hy-Vee that closed, bringing down the neighborhood’s ire on the Iowa-based grocery chain? Hy-Vee recently announced that store will become “Heartland Pantry”, a smaller, simpler store specializing in private label goods and grocery basics.
I’m very interested in seeing how the concept develops, as are many neighborhood residents. In particular, I’m curious what proportion of the products will be from Hy-Vee’s own labels. Hy-Vee stores sell generic versions of just about everything. For the most part, the products match up well with their name brand competitors, and some are even better than the name brands. In my experience, Hy-Vee has the best private label products (on average) in Lincoln.
Heartland Pantry is scheduled to open in November. If all goes well, hopefully the 48th and Leighton location won’t be the only one to open in Lincoln.
One Book, Thirteen Tales
And the 2008 One Book, One Lincoln selection is ... The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
How many of you participate in OBOL events? I never have—nearly all of my reading comes in the form of news and opinion pieces—but The Missus participates on occasion. Her reaction to this year’s selection was pretty amusing. She has read all but one of the candidate books (she hasn’t read The Memory of Running), so when I saw the announcement in this morning’s Journal Star I asked her which book she thought had won. She replied something along the lines of, “Well, every book had something ‘different’ about it, except one. That one—The Thirteenth Tale—was your standard, formulaic mystery identical to every other mystery you’ve ever read, where you figure out what’s going on in the first quarter of the book. So that’s probably the one they chose.” Hmm. I guess we know where she stands on that.
Help Me Buy a Car
I’m taking my 1993 Ford Tempo into the shop on Wednesday. My gut tells me the news isn’t going to be good. Then again, I know next to nothing about cars, so hopefully I’m wrong. In any event, I’m not going to put much money into the ol’ Tempo.
If I do end up bucking the national trend and purchasing a new vehicle, I’m looking at the Camry / Accord / Sonata / etc. class of cars. Do any of you have any experience with vehicles in that class? What recommendations do you have?
Furthermore, do you have any recommendations on local car dealerships?
Thanks for your help!
That’s Pea With an A
At supper last night:
Robbie: What’s that?
Me: That is called a pea, Robbie.
Robbie paused and looked at his plate with a confused look on his face. He pointed to a carrot sitting next to the pea.
Robbie: Poop?
Me: Er, um, no ...
In other poo-related news, I must ask: How do kids figure out that farts are funny? Robbie often follows his gas-passing with a joyous “Tooted!”. We didn’t teach him that, and we’ve never seen anybody teach him that. Is it some sort of inherent boy thing, like crashing toy cars into each other?
Buy a Piece of Power
When I first heard yesterday that the NU regents will vote today on privately funding some NU administrators’ salaries, I thought to myself that it seemed like a potentially dangerous step. I decided to withhold judgment overnight to give myself some time to think about it.
Well, it’s morning, and I still don’t like it. The plus side seems to be that certain top dogs’ salaries will increase without any extra tax dollars, making the salaries more competitive with peer salaries. On the flip side, introducing private funds into the salaries of public employees—with barely any opportunity for public input—increases the potential for shenanigans. Even the perception that private dollars are buying influence over the administrators would be damaging to the University. (Sure, that perception already exists, but do we need to make it worse?)
This is just a simple, quick look at the proposal. Most of you, like me, have barely had any time to think about this idea. What are your initial impressions?
Lincoln’s Elvis
How many of you have been watching Lincolnite Joseph “Elvis” Hall on America’s Got Talent? I see he made it into the top 20 last night. He’s lucky. His out-of-breath performance on Tuesday was pretty mediocre.
How far is he going to make it?
Big Red Arena
Last night’s public open house at Memorial Stadium marked the first time (I think) that UNL and City officials have confirmed that the Huskers will play at the Haymarket arena. Well, ok, they didn’t technically confirm it. But they came as close as they’re going to come without all the contracts being signed. The next step will be waiting for more details to be released. How will alcohol availability be handled? How much flexibility will each of the parties have in scheduling events? Who will control the box seats? And so on.
Gateway, Revisited
The Wilsons stopped by Gateway last night, and I went in with yesterday’s questions on my mind. In particular, I was thinking about Dave K’s suggestion that Whole Foods would make a good replacement for Steve and Barry’s. I don’t think it would work. The logistics are all wrong.
Which is too bad, because Dave K’s idea is pretty good. I think there is a reasonable alternative. That is, move Circuit City into the Steve and Barry’s spot and place Whole Foods in the former Circuit City location. Who’s with me?
Yeah it’ll never happen, but these “what ifs” are always fun to think about.
Check Out the Latest Haymarket Plans Tonight
The latest Haymarket plans will be on display tonight at Memorial Stadium from 5:00 to 7:30pm. Do you plan to go?
Big Trouble at Gateway
Yikes, Gateway Mall sure is in trouble now that Steve & Barry’s is closing. The mall has already seen several tenants pack up and move away, and now a relatively popular anchor tenant is pulling up stakes. It’s a bit of a shame. Westfield has really been sprucing up Gateway since it bought the mall several years back.
What sort of anchor tenant do you think would be a good fit to replace Steve and Barry’s? What changes would you like to see Gateway make to help business pick up again?
Recipe for a Great Night’s Sleep
- Outside temps 60 degrees or lower
- Windows open
- Ceiling fan on low
- Blankets / comforters to suit
Oh boy, I love sleeping in the kind of weather we had last night. Raise your hand if you followed this recipe and slept like a log last night!
Governor Heineman Sits Out
Is Governor Heineman chicken for refusing to take a stand on the Affirmative Action ban that will appear on November’s ballot? Chicken or not, is his silence wise?
I’m really surprised that ban opponents—not to mention the state Democratic party—haven’t made a bigger deal out of Heineman’s hush hush attitude. It seems like a missed opportunity to get in a few easy jabs. Maybe everybody is too distracted by the national party conventions right now.
An Above Average Summer? Could’ve Fooled Me
I don’t know about you, but I was pretty surprised to read that Lincoln’s summer weather was just a hair above average this year. I would have guessed temps were below average overall. As the article notes, I probably think that because there weren’t many “blazin’ hot” days, and more importantly, there really weren’t any extended series of really hot days. The weekend of the Cornhusker State Games was probably the longest stretch of unpleasant hot weather we saw, and that stretch only lasted a few days.
I wonder if perhaps lower average relative humidity levels could have also contributed to the feeling that the summer was cooler. Does anybody know if those averages are tracked, and where they can be found?
Where in Lincoln is this?
Congratulations again Nikkidemas, you correctly identified where this was! Nikkidemas now leads the pack in knowing Lincoln geography.
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