Lincolnite

Is there anything in this article about a recent altercation at a Russ's Market that isn't hilarious? Even the Police Chief thinks it's funny.

Thanks to an invitation from Lincolnite regular Nikkidemas, I will be participating in 10/11's liveblogging of the election tonight. You can participate in the liveblogging event by going to kolnkgin.com, or you can participate right here on Lincolnite. You will be able to ask questions and provide feedback throughout the event, which begins at 8:00pm.

In case you haven't heard, there's an election tomorrow. Yeah, I was surprised to hear that, too. This is just about your last chance to make your case for your favorite candidates or issues. So have at it. Tell us why we should vote for your guy or gal. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm genuinely curious to see what you have to say.

Could tomorrow bring more bad news to Gateway, the corridors of which are starting to look a tad empty? Rumors are circulating that the locations of 155 soon-to-be-shuttered Circuit City stores will be released on Monday. I don't have any specific information suggesting Lincoln's lone CC is on that list. Lincoln's Circuit City could be the company's most profitable for all I know. But Gateway's momentum has been decidedly negative lately. If bad news travels in packs, the outlook for Lincoln's CC doesn't look good. UPDATE: Unbelievably, Lincoln's store is not on the list. Thanks to Jeff R for the link.

You might want to avoid Holmes Lake, the neighboring dog run, and nearby portions of Antelope Creek. It seems you might run into the meatloaf your neighbor ate earlier this week after wastewater backed up into Antelope Creek. Eww. Here's hoping for a good rain to flush (ha!) things out.

OK, folks, what are the best Halloween activities going on today and tonight? The Wilsons are headed back to Gateway for some safe and relatively bland indoor trick-or-treating. Robbie will no doubt think it's the coolest night ever. Unfortunately, it means the poor neighborhood kids won't be getting any candy from our house. Sorry kids. It sounds like the weather is going to be pretty darn nice tonight. Couple that with the day of the week, and I suspect you'd best hide your jack-o-lanterns if you want them to see All Saints Day. I'm not saying I ever engaged in any delinquent shenanigans when I was a teenager, but if I were a teenager and I were in the mood to engage in a little petty destruction, tonight would seem a pretty darn nice night to do it. I realized just now that I have given exactly zero thought to what I will wear tonight. Maybe I could whip up a "Palin vs. Clinton 2012" t-shirt. That'd pretty much terrify everyone.

The Missus knows I love the humor behind politics, so for my birthday she got me tickets to see The Capitol Steps tonight at the Lied Center. Are any of you going to the show tonight?

Contrary to assurances that Nebraska's unique "safe haven" law "would avoid all the pitfalls of ... more complicated legislation", Nebraska has become a national laughingstock as the number of non-infant children abandoned at state hospitals approaches two dozen. Funny, it's almost like somebody should have seen this coming. Perhaps Governor Heineman should have listened to his gut. Or to Senator Ernie Chambers, since he was the only person to vote against the bill. (Seven others are in the record as "excused and not voting".) State Senators will return to Lincoln on November 14 for a special session to amend the law.

Now that state law requires communities to fluoridate their water, it's interesting to see the fluoride debate heat up across the state. I've never had a problem with fluoride. I see fluoridated water as being very similar to iodized salt. Yet obviously some people get pretty excited by the notion that the government is pumping "medicine" into the water supply. I figure heck, they may be brainwashing me but at least I'll have good teeth. If fluoridation were brought to a vote in Lincoln, would we keep it?

Start your engines, Segway owners! Assuming Mayor Beutler doesn't have a fear of gyroscopes, Segways will soon be street legal in Lincoln much like bicycles. And there was much rejoicing among approximately 0.0012% of Lincoln's population. Teasing about the small target audience of this ordinance aside, it seems that communities are going to be faced with more and more questions of "Is this vehicle legal?" in the coming years. Rather than having to go through the City Council and Mayor every time, can we find a simpler way to evaluate the acceptability of new and unique modes of transportation? I haven't thought much about the details, but perhaps it would be nice if there were national standards for some sort of urban testing courses for new vehicles. Vehicles that could meet different criteria could then be treated like pedestrians, bicycles, light vehicles, automobiles, or trucks, as appropriate under local law.

If you haven't already done so, take some time to read Deena Winter's six-part series on the Antelope Valley Project:

• Antelope Valley on path to cost millions more than planned
• Costly consultants, big budget lead to price tag
• Seacrest involved in Antelope Valley since the start
• Was state fair always in Antelope Valley's sights?
• Moving Morosin: Perhaps most expensive of Antelope Valley
• Antelope Valley: When city took homes, it paid well

I'm still trying to process it all, so my reactions at this point aren't very organized. I do have a couple thoughts at this point. First, of the six stories I felt like today's two articles (the last two listed above) are the least worthy of concern. The gist is that Lincoln paid "well" to purchase many of the properties in the path of the project. So long as there isn't any apparent corruption -- i.e. the City paid more to politically connected property owners than to unconnected owners -- I applaud the owners for getting a "fair" payment. I put "fair" in quotation marks because it's hard to establish what's truly fair with the government staring you in the face. But overall, I haven't heard many complaints from property owners. As for Michael Morosin, well, there will always be a couple people like Mr. Morosin walking the line between causing trouble and standing up for his rights. Then there's Kent Seacrest. I had no idea how much he was being paid for his work. Two million bucks since 1995? Yowzers. Did you realize he was raking in $280 per hour to give those tours? Just think what the City could do with $280 per hour. Folks worried about the costs associated with the proposed Haymarket arena should pay particular attention to the budget numbers. The Journal Star predicts the AVP will cost at least $34 million than originally planned, after adjustments for inflation. That the project cost more than estimated shouldn't come as a surprise. That the overrun isn't even higher might be a bit of a surprise. After reading the series, very little of the information caught me off guard. As it currently stands, it seems apparent that we could have done the project more cheaply, and Lincolnites probably would have been happy with a far more modest version of the project. The Antelope Valley Project has taken a tremendous amount of resources away from other areas of Lincoln, and it will continue to do so. It's far too early to say if it is all worth it. What good is it, for example, if Antelope Valley is a jewel while the rest of Lincoln's transportation infrastructure crumbles? But it's just as far to ask what damage would be wrought by a massive flood, or by missing the opportunity to build an innovation corridor. Fire away with your praises, rants, and questions.

Next week's issue of The New Yorker profiles our own Chuck Hagel. The online version of the story is available now. (Graphic above from The New Yorker.)

I know I said that The Missus and I were thinking about eating in Omaha on Saturday night. I goofed. Eating dinner in the Big O would have required me to drive up there twice in one day, and I just wasn't in the mood for that. Instead, The Missus and I stayed in Lincoln and decided to give Magnolia a try. We have talked about it since it opened, and we have heard a lot of good buzz. I didn't go into the meal with an "I'm going to review this place" mindset, so think of what follows as a mishmash of shallow reactions, not something I've put a lot of thought into. My focus on Saturday was on my dining companion, not the restaurant. I liked the atmosphere at Magnolia. It's cozy, and it's right at home in the Haymarket. The double doors at the entryway do a good job of keeping cold air out of the smallish restaurant. A trio of musicians played in the back. The music was a little loud despite it feeling like the musicians were trying to hold back, but the live tunes were welcome nevertheless. The TVs over the bar showing Wheel of Fortune felt out of place. Much of the seating up front, where we sat, is very cozy. As in, obese people better watch out. I ordered the shrimp and scallops panang. It included three scallops and five shrimp served over asparagus and accompanied by baby reds. It was preceded by a tasty bowl of ham and bean soup. The Missus went with the chicken cordon bleu. Both meals were delicious, if not in a knock-your-socks-off kind of way. The real story of the night was the service. On a standard grading scale, the restaurant's service gets a D at best. Our server was confused about the special -- we never did find out if the special was duck or chicken, though we're pretty sure it was some sort of bird -- and neither our server nor the one at the table next to us was familiar enough with the menu to know which items came with sides. Both of the tables next to us received their salads and meals at the same time. And so on. The mistakes and miscues were very unlike what I would expect from a restaurant of Magnolia's caliber. How many of you have been to Magnolia? Did we just catch them on an off night, or are service problems a regular occurrence?