Lincolnite

I have been known to criticize Lincoln's too-frequent use of blight designations, and I'm certainly not the only one. This time, I think we got it right. Let's hope some good comes out of it.

Those of you who still read the dead tree edition of the Journal Star may have noticed something familiar about the front pages of the two "Directions" sections in Sunday's newspaper. It was familiar enough to me that first thing Sunday morning I texted Mr. T a short message: "You've been plagiarized!" Well, no, he hadn't really been plagiarized. But he had been imitated in a very flattering way. Mr. T's popular weekly Where in Lincoln series apparently inspired the front pages of the two sections. The LJS even kept the name, and they featured two of the same locations (this one and this one) that Mr. T has featured in past weeks. Let me be clear: I'm not actually accusing the LJS of plagiarism or stealing Mr. T's ideas or anything serious like that. I'm just having some fun at the LJS's expense. It's not like Mr. T was the first to take cryptic photographs of items and have people guess what they are. Personally, I think the theme is a great idea for the front of the Directions sections. However, if a local blogger were to take what has clearly become Mr. T's niche and use the same name for it that Mr. T uses, and if he were to do so without so much as a tip of the hat to Mr. T, I think I would be justified in calling that blogger a turkey. So I'm going to do just that. The Journal Star is a turkey. There, I feel better already. On a more serious note, if the Journal Star really wants to get into the "Where in Lincoln" spirit they should hire Mr. T to do a weekly "Where in Lincoln" feature for the LJS itself. I think it would make a fun addition to their new 402/411 section. Any takers over there at the LJS?

Since beginning my at-home employment I have been pretty good about starting the work day at 8:00am every morning. Lately, however, I have noticed that even though my backside may be in the chair at 8 -- or soon thereafter -- I often didn't become productive on paying, work-related activities until as late as 10. This weekend I vowed to change that. Today I crawled out of bed at 6:15 and I was in the office at 6:20. I am going to get all of my "miscellaneous" activities -- blogging, filtering through my RSS feeds, reading the news -- done, head upstairs for breakfast with the fam, and then be back here to start "real" work around 8. Hopefully that will open up a little time mid-day for working out in anticipation of the spring soccer season, which is quickly approaching. I always feel better when I am more fit, so I expect exercise to help me increase my productivity a bit. Assuming it doesn't just make me want to take a nap. The point of all of this is to increase the number of billable hours I work to help increase our savings rate. We hope to have a big expense later this year, circumstances willing. But more on that some other time.

Mayor Chris Beutler wants to spend $9.3 million worth of "stimulus" money on roadway repair and street signal replacement. It's not exactly spending that will stimulate the economy, but if you've been following the debate over the Federal "stimulus" package at all, you won't be surprised; there's not nearly as much stimulation activity in the bill as the Feds would have you believe. I digress. Mayor Beutler makes a valid point when he asserts that roadway repair will take the money farther than new roadway construction. And repairs are needed: Lincoln has seen barely a dollar go toward major street repair since 2004. We do need new construction in parts of the city -- South 56th Street between Pine Lake and Old Cheney comes to mind -- but is it wise to build more roads when we can't maintain what we've got? Do you concur with Mayor Beutler's assessment? Or should we take the money in a different direction?

While flipping channels last night I caught the tail end of a report on KETV on illegal gambling machines that are showing up in Omaha-area convenience stores. The Nebraska State Patrol has been confiscating the machines as illegal gambling devices because they are entirely games of chance, not skill. Possession of one of the machines is a class 3 misdemeanor in Nebraska. Unfortunately, I know of a local business which has had one of these machines on site for the past few weeks. It was still there on Tuesday, the last time I stopped in. I doubt the owners have any idea the machine is illegal so I will try to get in touch with them and encourage them to investigate the legality of their particular machine. The KETV report suggests the machines in the Omaha area are all coming from the same distributor, though it doesn't name that distributor. It's possible the machine I'm aware of isn't the only one in Lincoln. If you know of a local business that has one of these machines, I encourage you to contact them immediately.

I am a couple days late to this, but I just noticed that Leora Platte, the artist who painted the mural in Mr. T's latest Where in Lincoln? post, left a couple comments on that post. I'm not sure why but I have always loved murals, and even good graffiti. I guess I just like my walls to have a little personality. Anyway, one thought led to another, and soon I began to think about how neat it could be to have a new "Tour de Lincoln" -style event, but this time feature murals instead of bicycle sculptures. There are plenty of walls around town that could use a pick-me-up. You know what would really make me happy? If the grain elevator operators around town were to get on board with the plan. A life-sized "Godzilla Eats Lincoln" mural would really draw some attention, don't you think?

That's what you'll be hearing a lot of around Lincoln if the rumors are true that Cheesecake Factory is finally making its way to Lincoln. Lincolnites have been buzzing about CF for years so the grain of salt that accompanies the latest round of rumors is pretty hefty. No doubt Cheesecake Factory will eventually make its way to Lincoln. Will it be soon?

Reading about the death of Silas, the resident cat at A Novel Idea, made me think about all of the other businesses in town that have an animal as an "employee" of sorts. It's driving me nuts because I know I have run across several animals over the years, but I am having a difficult time remembering most of them. I know there's a big, friendly dog at Southside Auto Tech, and I think there's a pup at the flower shop in College View. What other animals greet customers across Lincoln?

It seems like we've heard talk of making the City's retirement plan less generous for years. Currently the City matches employee contributions 2-to-1; every now and then somebody proposes decreasing that to 1-to-1 or something in between. City Councilman Ken Svoboda is the latest to bring up the idea of shrinking the City's contribution, at least for new hires. What are the odds the proposal gets any traction this time?

When I was in school I interviewed my dad about his childhood on the farm. I interviewed my great-aunt and -uncle about their (very) brief courtship before World War II and life in the war and at home. I interviewed my grandma about Grand Island's "night of the twisters" (the house across the street was destroyed; hers was untouched). But I never did an interview as cool as the one Taylor Headley did. Seriously, Clarence Thomas? That's a pretty sweet interview to snag. Had I been there I probably would have shook his hand for his opinion in Kelo. Then I would have given him a dirty scowl for Hamdi.

The semi-aborted digital television transition isn't the only news in local media today. The Journal Star lost some weight beginning with today's edition, trimming about an inch and a quarter off the width of each page. (I know it comes as a shock to some of you that they still publish a print edition.) They also bumped up the size of body type. From the Journal Star's perspective that means lower costs and higher profitability. For us the readers? It means even less news in each edition. Other big changes include the elimination of many of the special daily sections. Most -- all but the creatively-titled Food and local favorite Ground Zero -- will be heaped together into a daily section called 402/411. For the LJS that means more flexibility in what they present each day. It's less clear what it means for the reader. It's not a stretch to guess that we will gradually see less variety and more wire stories over time. We'll have to wait and see. On the plus side, the Sudoku is positively huge now. For a full run-down of the changes check out editor Michael Nelson's columns here and here.

Have you ever wanted to own your very own restaurant and bar? Now's your chance! Scrumpy Jack's and Crabby's (Crabby Bill's) are up for sale. Both are businesses that had the potential to be successful, but which never quite caught on in Lincoln. I suspect the Crabby's location is likely to sell much more quickly than Scrumpy Jack's thanks to its Haymarket location. But I think the right business could be successful in either location. Hat tip: Josh Wiltshire

I would like to purchase some Pogo Cards, but I would very strongly prefer to purchase through a group's fundraising efforts as opposed to buying them directly through the Pogo Card website. If you or a group with which you are affiliated is selling the cards, please drop me an e-mail at mrwilson at lincolnite dot com. Thanks!

In case you missed the news, here's the latest: KOLN (10/11) will begin their digital broadcast on Wednesday Tuesday. Despite their desire to join KOLN, KLKN (Channel 8) will not switch until June 12 thanks to Federal decisions designed to confuse and confound as much as possible.