Lincolnite

A cowardly lion, that is.

Whew, what a busy weekend. I worked late on Friday night and again on Saturday morning. Then I reffed two soccer matches at Doane that night, followed by two youth matches at Den Hartog on Sunday morning. Six hours of running within 20 hours makes Mr. Wilson a tired boy. During the second youth match we had a bit of a scary situation. A player was hit in the head by an errant free kick. I didn't see it -- like a good referee I was watching the "drop zone", not the kick itself -- but I heard it. I turned and jogged to the player fully expecting the usual ball + face = bloody nose equation. No big deal, right? Instead, I found an unconscious player curled into the fetal position. Crap. Fortunately, there one of the parents on the sideline was a physician, so I put him in charge. The paramedics were called, but in the end the player walked off the field under his own, slightly disoriented, power. He didn't leave in the ambulance, but hopefully his parents took him to the hospital to get checked out. (Aside: Why in the world should two firetrucks and an ambulance respond to a simple blow to the head? Shouldn't a single ambulance suffice? Can anybody in the medical community explain to me how that is not a tremendous waste of resources?) In other 625 Elm Street news, Robbie is doing awesome these days. He still doesn't say many actual words, but physically the kid is pretty darn impressive. He has no fear and, apparently, a relatively high tolerance for pain. That's great for brushing aside skinned knees today, but does this mean we have a future X-Games participant on our hands? Dad can probably handle that, and mom could probably get used to it. But grandma and Aunt Brooke will have heart attacks if that happens. For now, he walks, runs, climbs, and tumbles as well as some kids twice his age. If he weren't so shrimpy he could do even more. I've even almost taught him to jump. We almost have liftoff. We'll get there. Last night we had family photos taken. I'll post one once we get them back.

Ahh yes, in the eternal battle between North and South, northerner Daniel Widders has fired a shot (last letter):

South Lincoln is sending a clear message. If alcoholic women and Alzheimer’s patients are threatening to the sacred soil of South Lincoln, then how much more the fight will be over anyone else. I wouldn’t give stray kittens much hope.

About a week ago I decided to check in on KFRX (102.7 FM). I used to listen to KFRX all the time yeeeeears ago. I figured I'd see what was the latest and greatest in Top 40 music. A sample of what I heard:

[Man ] Where'd you get your body from? Tell me where'd you get your body from? Baby where'd you get your body from? [Woman] I got it from my mama. I got it from my mama. I got it from my mama. [Repeat over and over and over]

I'm glad to see Top 40's rigorous quality standards are still being upheld. Anyway, just a couple days into my listening experiment, KFRX went AWOL. Apparently the format has moved to 106.3, "Lincoln's Hit Music". (Such a delightfully generic tagline, don't you think? It goes well with the music they play.) And KFRX? It will become adult contemporary. Why the format flip-flop after literally decades of Top 40 at 102.7? Who knows. I will never understand the radio industry.

If you don't want to see a new arena in the Haymarket, or if you're staunchly against the hundreds of acres Lincoln keeps tagging as blighted, you'd better say your piece soon. There's a public hearing today at 5:30pm -- and probably a City Council vote -- to determine if 403 acres between Salt Creek and the Haymarket should be declared blighted. The reality of the situation is that the area will be blighted. If Lincoln wants a new arena -- it does -- we have to put it somewhere. Considering the absence of proposals to put it elsewhere -- or at least the absence of proposals with any serious backing -- the Haymarket is effectively our only choice. And by most measures, it's our best choice anyway. There is still one very serious sticking point: the cost of an arena. How will Lincolnites respond to funding through TIF, plus, in all likelihood, additional tax-based funding mechanisms? Several members of the City Council appear to be entertaining the notion of letting Lincolnites vote on the arena at some point, so we may find out soon enough. But that's putting the cart before the horse. First we need land. If you have strong feelings about those 403 acres, go say your piece tonight.

Agree or disagree: The Blackshirts couldn't stop Stephen Hawking -- without his wheelchair -- in a game of red rover. Discuss.

Living a stone's throw from El Chaparro on 13th and F (the only place in Lincoln I have found that has a California burrito on its menu), I am pretty well set-up to eat great Mexican 7 days of the week if I wanted to. But I am also happy to say that the King Taco near Robber's Cave is a nice addition to the near, near south area. As Mr. Wilson pointed out in a description of his earlier visit, King Taco will be appealing to some Lincolnites and unappealing to others. This is, in my opinion, a good thing: An indication that the number of Mexican eateries in town have increased to the point where we can pick and choose from a wide variety to fit our tastes and wallet sizes. As King Taco is right on the way to my gym, I stop there frequently. Its cheap, fast food, and the staff there are usually pretty friendly (to make up for the bare atmosphere). I won't dwell into the hits and misses, and like all restaurants there are both at King Taco, but instead I want to encourage you all to give their hard, crunchy tacos a try if you haven't already. In my opinion, hard shell tacos are the staple of any Americanized Mexican joint nowadays. As ubiquitous as they are basic, making a hard shell taco good can be very difficult since - like a burger, slice of pizza, or eggroll - everyone has their own opinion and expectation of what a good one is. I think that the hard shell tacos at King Taco may be the best this city has to offer. Unlike the overly salted and seasoned taco meat you get at Taco Hell or Taco John's, at King Taco the meat there is relatively unseasoned, but this is made up for the fact that their salsa is pretty good. They also use a fair bit of white queso as opposed to only the yellow/cheddar cheese you usually find at other places. Plus, they come with a dab of cool sour cream too, which is a nice touch. The corn shells are really great too, a bit thicker, fresher, and crunchier than in a number of other places. Finally, these suckers are only .79 each, or .59 on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I recently rolled through a bunch of these delicious treats, leaving a heap of greasy wrappers, lettuce strands, and crumpled napkins in my wake. Give this place a try people - it could use some business! In other hard shell taco related news, the Downtown Taco Bueno opened late this week, adding more variety to the city's Industrialized/Americanized Mexican food chains. Their hard shells are OK, not a whole lot different from those at Amigos, and like Amigos it also has a little salsa bar. However, their salsa tasted a bit on the sweet side to me. I know some people like sweet salsa, but I am not one of them, so I don't know how often I will be patronizing Taco Bueno. Otherwise, its a fine place for Industrialized/Americanized Mexican. However, on those days when I am in the mood for some Industrialized/Americanized Mexican food, I'll probably hit the Taco John's on south street.

Sometimes it seems like LIBA -- the Lincoln Independent Business Association -- complains a lot. "We don't like this tax," "Scrap this program," and so on. Whether or not it's true that they respectfully disagree more than the average bear, today LIBA executive directory Coby Mach is in a good mood and has some good words for Mayor Beutler. He even ends his piece with an exclamation point!

If you are feeling bored, go try out Weever, my new nested comments module for ExpressionEngine. The demo is nothing fancy, but let me know what you think. Do you think I should enable nested comments on Lincolnite, or should I stick with the flat, date-ordered comments?

Developers have been saying for years that Lincoln doesn't put enough money into roads in new areas of the city. According to UNL's Bureau of Business Research, they are largely correct. Mayor Beutler supports the report's conclusions and says he is investigating new funding mechanisms. It wouldn't surprise me at all if one of Beutler's suggestions is some sort of tax increase. Depending on this community's long-term plans and goals for itself, I'm not sure he has much choice. Of course, trying to determine the plans and goals of the community as a whole isn't exactly easy.

Tom Nissen, the man who put John Lotter on death row for the murder of Teena Brandon and two witnesses, has recanted his testimony and admitted to the slayings. Death penalty supporters face a difficult decision: Call Nissen a liar today and stand behind Nissen's original trial testimony; or admit that Nissen may have lied during Lotter's trial, demonstrating that death penalty cases that rely primarily on testimony rather than hard evidence are fragile. Of course, die hard death penalty supporters won't necessarily be swayed by this new twist. State law allows accessories to murder to be put to death, so Lotter could remain on death row. That the actual murderer wouldn't be killed is unfortunate, but at least one of the men will be toast. This case may very well turn out to be a perfect example of one of the major flaws of the death penalty. It seems that prosecutors wanted to put at least one of the men in the chair, but they lacked the evidence to do so. So what did they do? They secured a generous plea deal with one man in exchange for his testimony against the other. Despite no hard evidence and only a couple pieces of circumstantial evidence, that testimony was enough to secure the punishment prosecutors sought. Apparently the wrong man was given a deal. In any event, this is a chapter in Nebraska's history none of us wanted to relive. Yet here we are.

Now we know that Mike Johanns is officially running for Chuck Hagel's Senate seat. In order to run, he quit his gig as Ag Secretary. When you think about it, the guy must get a kick out of quitting jobs. Has he ever seen a job through to completion? Mayor Mike left early to be Governor. Governor Mike left early to run the Department of Agriculture. Secretary Mike quit to run for Senator. Let's say Johanns becomes Senator Mike. How long until he gets bored of that job? And what then?

A few miscellaneous observations after Date Night with The Missus: Blue Orchid is still awesome. I have never walked away from there unhappy with my food. I have ordered or sampled all of the curries, most of the stir fries, the pad thai, and a couple other dishes. Yum. (For the record, my favorite is the Panang curry with salmon.) Ivanna Cone? Yeah, it's still awesome, too. I noticed a new store in the building on the southwest corner of 10th and O. My Modern Somethingerother. (Life? Way?) It appeared to be a store specializing in "modern" furnishings. That's not my cup of tea, but if it's yours, go check it out. Paul Daniels Interiors isn't the only business to leave its building and neighboring buildings. Pretty much every space looked empty or had a For Lease sign posted. I've been hearing some bad buzz about the service at Fireworks. In fact, some family members from out of town went there recently and described it as one of the worst service experiences they've ever encountered. Ouch! That's unusual coming from a member of the Lazlo's family which, not long ago, was frequently praised for its excellent service. I have not yet been to the new location. Have you? Is the service poor, or am I just talking to the wrong people?

Hey there, Lincolnites. I'm prepping a brand new Lincoln-themed podcast, but I need your help. I would love to be able to feature music from local bands on the show, but I have virtually zero contacts in the local music world. If you know any musicians who would like to have their music featured on a podcast, please have them contact me at mrwilson at lincolnite dot com, or by phone at 402-432-7215. (And if you happen to know how I can track down Jason Davis of Baby Jason and the Spankers, I would like to ask his permission to use parts of a track or two off of "Rattle" and/or "dreamgirl".) I am open to any musical genre, though I don't promise to play anything and everything. Oh, and the sooner, the better. I would like to get the first episode out this week. Other than music, what else will find its way into the first episode? I'll just say that Husker fans should get a kick out of catching up with one of the greatest college football running backs of all time. (To the three of you who already know: Shh!)

I'm going to take a guess and say this is the first time the Lincoln Journal Star has ever used the word "bitch" in a headline. (The word has been printed in at least 43 articles since January 1, 2003.) Anybody care to guess the number of outraged letters to the editor on this one?