Lincolnite

After previously announcing cuts of 50 jobs over the next 3 years, Nationwide Insurance will eliminate an additional 90 jobs over the next year and a half. Nationwide's current workforce in Lincoln is in the range of 700 employees.

Nebraska's official website placed in the Top 10 in the Best of the Web awards in the category of state government websites. First place went to utah.gov, while first place in the "city portal" category went to Tampa, Florida.

It looks like there may have been another murder in Lincoln over the weekend. The victim was Andrea Williams, a man apparently familiar to LPD. Details are pretty slim at this point.

Robbie is quickly advancing in the kitchen. First he simply observed The Missus at work. Then he progressed to assisting her. Today, a new milestone: he created his own recipe. Now, I can't pretend to replicate the master chef's work, but here is my best attempt at sharing his recipe with the world. Chef Robbie's Graham Cracker Surprise

1. Gather all of the bowls you can find. Big bowls, little bowls, glass bowls, metal bowls ... get them all out and scatter them across the floor.
2. Pull a chair across the kitchen and position it near your workspace. You'll need to be able to reach the countertop, after all.
3. Place the bowls on the counter. This may require several trips onto and off of the chair.
4. Once the bowls are on the counter, look around for ingredients within arm's reach. Grab that box of graham crackers over there.
5. Empty the contents of the box into one of the bowls.
6. Open utensils drawer and find a spoon. (I hope you didn't block the drawer with the chair! If you did, get off the chair and move it out of the way.) Use the spoon to stir the ingredients around the bowl.
7. Now use the spoon to serve yourself. Bon apetite!

Sounds delicious, doesn't it?

I know the recommendation to hold off on city-wide wi-fi will disappoint many of you, but I, for one, am relieved. Wi-fi is dead. Investing millions of dollars to turn Lincoln into one giant hot spot tomorrow using yesterday's technology isn't too far removed from just throwing those millions down the toilet. New technologies -- WiMAX among them -- are better for many different reasons. If Lincoln wants to hop aboard the municipal wireless bandwagon, doesn't it make more sense to go with a technology at the front end of its lifespan, rather than near the end? I wonder what sort of technologies Alltel, Time Warner, and even Verizon are working on...?

Drat. After a few days of gorgeous autumn weather, we're going to get a dose of good ol' Nebraska wind to start off the week. I don't like Nebraska's stiff spring and fall winds. Never have. When asked what they least like about Nebraska's weather, most people say either "the cold" or "the heat". I say the wind. (As does Mike Rozier.) Oh well, at least soccer season is (almost) over. All this wind makes me wish I were into kites.

OK, boys and girls, you can stop harassing me now. (You know who you are!) Here it is, the horrible, awful, offensive comic that the Lincoln Journal Star refused to print yesterday: I don't get it. The justification for not printing it, that is. (Although, as with many Bizarro comics, I don't really "get" the humor of the piece, either.) Is there something about lesbian witches that crosses the line? Is the fact that she's riding a golf club and wearing a plaid shirt offensive to lesbians, or golfers, or ... uhh, well, somebody? I'm stumped. <aside>If you want to talk about offensive comics, let's talk about Adam@Home's awful parenting skills. Adam is to fathers what Britney Spears is to mothers. As a man and a father I take tremendous offense. No really. I wish he were real so I could punch him in the nose.</aside>

Have you ever wondered what goes on inside your neighbors' houses? Here's a peak inside one Lincolnite's house, also known as The Museum of the Odd:

I've heard nary a peep about Haymarket new arrivals jtk, Magnolia, or Crabby Bill's. Have any of you hit any of those restaurants, or do you know somebody who has?

The Lincoln Police Department is going through a re-accreditation process right now. As part of the process, the public get to come out and tell why they think LPD should or should not be accredited. How do you think LPD is doing? Personally, the only interaction I've had with LPD since high school was getting fingerprinted as part of the background check process before we adopted Robert. The folks doing the fingerprinting had a nice sense of humor about the fact that I have (almost) no fingerprints. I am proud to hold the distinction of "Worst Set of 10 Fingerprints Ever" according to one woman who had worked there for many years. Outside of my own experience, it's rare to hear more than a minor complaint about LPD. Sure, some people think they're too picky about parking enforcement, or maybe they don't do traffic enforcement the way you'd like. But has there been a major LPD-related incident since Mr. (Carlos?) Renteria's death? Major incidents are so rare, the use of a Taser was big news earlier this year. (A friend of mine from high school was the Taser-er, incidentally.) There are things about LPD I wish were done differently, and there are things about Chief Tom Cassidy's law enforcement philosophies I don't necessarily agree with. But they are pretty small items. And in Chief Cassidy's case, at least he has the chutzpah to post his thoughts for the world to see. How many police chiefs -- or even government officials generally -- write such honest and unsanitized prose on such a regular basis? So what do you think, should LPD keep its accreditation? What are the big issues LPD needs to work out over, say, the next five years?

This new county jail is starting to look like as big a boondoggle as the LFR firetruck fiasco. Let's run down a partial list: we paid way too much for the land; the location is iffy at best; the projected cost is 50% higher than a new jail in Iowa that is twice as large as our proposal; and today the Journal Star tells us that nobody has bothered to consult the Sheriff, who makes no bones about not liking the plan. Anybody with full confidence in the County Board on this one raise your hand.

It's official, the Wilsons will be trick-or-treating at Gateway tomorrow night. I apologize ahead of time to the 8 kids who will find our porch light turned off. You aren't missing much; it's not like we would have had good candy for you anyway. The real treat would be if The Missus baked you some tasty desserts. But if she were to do that, some moron parent would call the cops on us: 9-1-1: 9-1-1, what is your emergency? Psychotic Mother: OHMYGOD SOME WOMAN TRIED TO GIVE MY KID DELICIOUS HOMEMADE FOOD! 9-1-1: She didn't give your kid pre-wrapped, heavily-processed candy? PM: NO! IT'S HOMEMADE AND WRAPPED IN SARAN WRAP! 9-1-1: Does it contain a dangerous item, such as a needle? PM: NO, BUT I'M PRETTY SURE IT HAS SOME TRANS FATS! 9-1-1: The SWAT and HAZMAT teams are on the way, ma'am. Having one count of "alleged attempted poisoning of trick-or-treaters" on our record would make it darn near impossible for us to adopt again. If you plan to take your kid(s) to Gateway tomorrow, we would love to say hi. Let me know if you plan to be there.

I'm still not sold on all of the new routes, but as for StarTran finally making changes -- any changes -- to its stale and anachronistic routes, it's about time. The new routes will go into effect next summer. Ultimately, however, I wonder if the changes won't make things worse for StarTran rather than better. There will still be empty buses and the routes still don't do a good job of moving people around the city efficiently. Most critically, StarTran continues to believe that (nearly) all buses should circulate through Downtown. Until somebody gets it through the StarTran folks' heads that doing so is a tremendous waste of time and resources, Lincoln's bus service will continue to be crummy. Imagine instead a system with, say, three hubs scattered across the city. Such a system would require more transfers, yes, but it would also serve more destinations more quickly, meaning more passengers, and thus more money. Also holding down bus service in Lincoln is the notion that big buses running infrequently (every 30-60 minutes) are better than small buses running frequently (every 15-20 minutes). For years StarTran has claimed that large buses are just as cost-effective as small buses. I'm not in a position to judge that contention. But I can declare with full confidence that the public would be far less put off by five people on a small bus than five people on a full-size bus. Furthermore, let's not overlook the notion that the perception of success and popularity helps breed success and popularity. I won't explore that in detail here, but it's a powerful force to be reckoned with. Take a look at the presidential campaign if you don't believe me. Anyway, I'm hopeful next summer's changes lead to at least some improvements in efficiency and effectiveness for StarTran. But I won't hold my breath.

I love Pioneers Park, and I'm happy to see some investment going into the Nature Center. I have oodles of fond memories at Pioneers Park. I remember racing my dad up the hill to Smoke Signal. I remember having picnics with the family on Sundays. I remember playing Frisbee golf among the trees. I remember when the concession stand used to be open every day, and occasionally my parents would buy me a frozen malt. I remember sledding down Choo Choo Hill, weaving and dodging the other sledders, and occasionally crashing and eating snow. I remember running cross country races through the park. I remember the only cross country race I ever won, a JV race on a cold, wet, autumn day. I remember taking walks with The Girlfriend all throughout the park, and I remember the walk during which I was so nervous I was going to lose the ring or forget my words, I barely said a peep. I hope Robbie grows up with fond memories of Pioneers Park. It's a different place than it was when I was a kid, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I often wish that, in addition to planning to make a splash for Lincoln's future entertainment options with a new arena and convention center, Lincolnites would also plan to make some noise with another great recreation and leisure option. Some sort of Pioneers Park II or Wilderness Park II, perhaps in the vicinity of Stevens Creek. I wonder if such a park will ever see the light of day?