Lincolnite

Anyone here planning on caucusing this Saturday? I am. I have never done it before and am interested to see what its like. I am a registered Republican, but I can switch over the night of the caucus in order to participate. You can find your caucus location here. Mine will be at the UNL City Campus union, which I imagine will be pretty interesting to witness.

Whether you're a Bread & Cup fan, or you're thinking about trying it, you'll want to read about the Camachos' recent experience.

This Sunday at Duggan's Pub (440 South 11th) there will be a benefit for the family of George Landolt, the infamous George of George's Red Pepper Grill and Crawdaddy's fame. You know, the guy behind quarter tacos, mofo salsa, and the big ass burrito. Landolt died last year of complications from diabetes at the age of 50. George's tacos will be available at the day-long event. Unfortunately, I can't find the details online and our Sunday newspaper already made its way to the recycling bin. I believe the timeline was something like Noon until 10pm. A number of bands will perform, and there will be a silent auction. If any of you happen to still have your Sunday paper handy, could you look up the article and post the details? If nobody posts, I'll give Duggan's a call later today.

The entire time I read about Taco Inn's move to ditch trans fats I shook my head. Does anybody really think trans fats are the biggest problem with Taco Inn's food, or with the restaurants in general? I enjoy the occasional trip to Taco Inn and, frankly, the type of fat attacking my body is one of the last things that worries me about eating there.

The Farmers' Almanac swung for the fences and missed big-time with its prediction of "heavy snow (a foot or more) for North Dakota south to Kansas" between February 1st and 3rd. There has been some snow in the region, but nothing approaching a foot. Drat. I like a good heavy snowfall. Lincoln hasn't had the sort of snow yet this season that gets neighbors outside and working together. Maybe next week.

In an opinion piece for today's LJS, Francis Moul proposes a green 2015 vision of sorts. Mr. Moul is no newby when it comes to environmental issues, so I read the piece with interest. Then I read that Mr. Moul wants to eliminate all gas-powered vehicles from Downtown by 2010. He calls such a move "simple, but traumatic". Traumatic indeed. Talk about a good way to destroy nearly all economic activity in the area, promote sprawl and, ironically, encourage even more driving. Many of Mr. Moul's other ideas are just as unrealistic. Moving sidewalks in our climate? If he can, in our climate, (a) get people to stand on the things and (b) get the things to work reliably, then more power to him. He even goes so far as to claim (without explaining why) there will be less crime in a green Lincoln's future. I honestly can't tell if Mr. Moul is actually serious about this stuff, or if he's just trying to stir the pot a bit. It's tempting to brush aside Mr. Moul's pie-in-the-sky vision as the rantings of a tree-hugging kook. Many of you already have, while others of you are drafting a fiery comment to condemn my use of the term "tree-hugging". Whatever you think of the piece's reasonableness, I suppose it raises some discussion points. First, Lincoln certainly could be more "green", and a "2015 Vision-like" plan wouldn't hurt. If somebody wants to jump in and build support for such a thing, more power to them. But good luck getting much buy-in from Lincolnites for anything but the most basic greenification efforts. Lincolnites will help pick up trash, and you might even talk us into recycling and composting more of our trash. Beyond that? The image of Sisyphus comes to mind. Second, Mr. Moul's goal of making Lincoln "unique" isn't such a bad thing. He wants us to be the greenest city; others want us to be the most wired (or wireless) city, or the city with the best recreational opportunities, or whatever. It could be pretty neat having a national reputation -- as opposed to a single ranking from some magazine or thinktank nobody has ever heard of -- for something like that. Perhaps it's worth having a discussion about what we want to be the best at. Or maybe Lincolnites are perfectly content having Lincoln just be a nice place to live.

Good news, I think: The county jail you had planned to pay $100 million for will now cost you just $65 million. It's not clear to me where 1/3 of the cost disappeared to, but no matter; I don't trust this new number any more than I've trusted any of the figures tossed around by the County Board since this whole thing started. I've been pretty negative about this jail, so let me emphasize the one thing I do agree with. I like that the jail is being built to plan for the county's population 25 years from now. It's always good to plan ahead of course, but that's not the main reason I think it's a good idea. It's a good idea because need estimates seem to almost always come out too conservative. Consider new school construction, where portables pop up the day after a new school opens. Furthermore, legislators are finding more and more reasons to put people in jail for longer. Unless the Drug War ends in the next decade or so, we're just going to need more and more beds in our jails and prison.

A few years ago, I made the prediction that $3.50 was the magic number required to get American drivers to change their driving habits. We just might get there this year. Will my prediction hold true? I don't think so. For one thing, too much time has passed and my prediction hasn't been adjusted to account for changes in the interim. More importantly, $3 gas just isn't all that scary any more. Three bucks, three fifty ... what's the difference? I suspect the magic number is well above four bucks now. By the way, over the past couple weeks gas prices in Lincoln have run about $0.15 higher in Lincoln than in Omaha. Not that I blame the gas stations; I think they should charge as much as people are willing to pay. I just think it's interesting.

Steve Sipple wants to see the AAFL come to town, and he thinks the league would do well here. A new league in any sport is going to have a rough go, as a general rule. Indoor football has had an especially tough time getting a foothold in Lincoln. On the other hand, the Stars and the Salt Dogs are doing just fine, thankyouverymuch. Could a professional football league like the AAFL make it in Lincoln? If you could vote on a team name, what would you vote for? Personally, I don't see how there's any way we could pass up ... The Bugeaters.