Lincolnite

I've done more than my fair share of raving on various Mexican restaurants around town and their tacos. (Mmm, El Chaparro ....) Well how about something a little different? Lincoln's Indian Center is hosting an Indian taco fundraiser next Friday from 11:00am until 2:00pm. Walk-ins are welcome, or place a preorder (PDF). There's free delivery for those who order five or more tacos, which sounds perfect for offices on campus or Downtown. The Indian Center is at 1100 Military Road, which is just west of Devaney Center.

Coming up on May 17 is Give to Lincoln Day, a one-day giving event put together by Lincoln Community Foundation. Mark your calendars. If I heard correctly, some seventy local nonprofits have signed up so far to participate. Groups have through May 16th to get on board, although signing up earlier gives more time to set up and promote the organization. The event is part competition and part cooperative effort to maximize visibility of area nonprofits. The competitive part is for $200,000 in matching grant funds offered up by Lincoln Community Foundation. But mostly it's about raising awareness. Smaller nonprofits in particular benefit. Many small nonprofits, for example, don't have an infrastructure set up to accept online donations. Give to Lincoln Day gives them that piece, not only for May 17 but also beyond. I will participate in Give to Lincoln Day on behalf of Foster Care Closet. We have set for ourselves a modest goal that will allow the Closet to serve approximately 200 kids with the funds raised through this event. In the coming weeks I'll talk more about the Closet, its role in the child welfare system, and how far it is able to stretch donations while providing quality clothing. Which reminds me: we are looking for somebody who can provide video production capabilities to help the Closet tell its stories. If you or somebody you know can help, please let me know.

Our oldest son Joey is on several medications. Unfortunately, several are highly-controlled medications. In addition, as a former ward of the state, he's on Medicaid. Many of you already know where this is going. Thanks to obnoxious Medicaid rules -- which were created thanks to people who abuse the system plus a healthy dose of bureaucratic quackery -- acquiring some of Joey's medications is a royal pain in the butt. We jump through all sorts of hoops on a regular basis. The prescriptions have to be hand-written by the doctor (no electronic or phone-in prescriptions). Refills are limited. Prescription renewals require a visit to the doctor. We can't order the next batch of medicine before a certain time, despite knowing when we're going to run out. We're treated like drug dealers if we lose a pill. And so on. It all makes for a wonderful case study on inefficiencies and absurdities in America's health care industry. But let's not delve into that mess. Instead, I want to focus on the awesome folks at Hy-Vee's pharmacy. (Specifically the Williamsburg location.) We're currently involved in a situation where Joey is out of a med. We can't just go in and get a refill because apparently a generic is now available and Medicaid requires the use of generics if they exist. No big deal, right? Except Hy-Vee can't give us the generic because their supplier is giving them the run-around and being slow, so Hy-Vee doesn't have the generic to give us. That leaves us in a pickle. We're out of an extremely important pill, Joey's health (and our sanity) is at risk, and Medicaid won't bend to make a temporary exception to help us out. Fortunately the folks at Hy-Vee stepped up. They've given us some of the name brand pills to hold us over until an alternate supplier can provide the generic equivalent. That means Hy-Vee is eating the relatively substantial difference between the cost of the pills and the amount that Medicaid will actually reimburse. In the grand scheme of things the financial impact on Hy-Vee is virtually nil. But the value to us is significantly higher than that. In addition, the direct financial impact doesn't include all of the time and energy put in by the staff at the pharmacy in trying to resolve this. (Phone calls. So, so many phone calls.) Furthermore, this isn't the first, second, or even third time that pharmacy staff have gone out of their way to help us. Joey's situation is extremely complicated, and without an excellent pharmacy to help us over the past 20+ months, there no doubt would have been many more headaches and hurdles. I don't know what the service is like at other pharmacies around town, but no way will you see us leaving Hy-Vee any time soon. We are grateful for their help.

It's nice to see that the "cash mob" concept has made its way to Lincoln. The idea is that a group of people "mob" a local business to give them a one-time boost in sales, and hopefully to create a few new repeat customers in the process. It can be a jarring or even destructive activity when done wrong -- a business caught off guard might not perform up to its standards, and a horde of new customers can scare off the regulars -- but when done well, it can make for a pleasant marketing opportunity. Actually, I'm not so sure that Professor Jeff Mohr's class was in fact the first to pull off the cash mob idea. I can't point to any specifics, but I could swear I've heard of other groups doing similar things around town. Not that it matters who was first, of course. I just have a feeling that somebody out there is stewing over their Cheerios, growling under their breath, "How dare those bastards claim to have been first. I was first!". That person will eventually go on to become a super villain. The ultimate point of cash mobs is, of course, to get new customers into local businesses. Many Lincolnites will see this article about cash mobs and think "I want to be a part of that!" ... only to sit around waiting for another one to come along. But other than the social aspect of a cash mob event, that attitude misses the point. Go support local businesses today, and tomorrow, and any chance you get. That's more valuable to a local business than mobbing it, anyway. Please do participate in any future cash mobs, but as a supplement to your normal habits, not as a replacement for being a good participant in the local economy.

Five tornadoes hit Lincoln, Nebraska You know, it has long been said that Lincoln "can't" be hit by a tornado because we sit in the middle of some sort of weird geographical quirk. Perhaps that's true in this universe, but maybe there's a Lincoln in a separate universe that isn't so lucky. And maybe the linked news article leaked from that universe into ours. Or maybe we shouldn't get our weather reports from the Russians.

High school soccer's ridiculously short season -- the Journal Star says it's 3 months long, but it's actually just two -- starts up today. This morning's LJS features city soccer capsules. On the boys side, East and Southwest are surely the favorites for the City championship again this year. Pius X is in a position to make a strong run in Class B. As for the girls, Southeast returns a whopping 10 starters from last year's State runner-up team, including five D1 recruits. That'll be a handful for the rest of LPS. Interestingly, three schools have new girls coaches this year (Northeast, North Star, Southwest). That's a pretty sizable shakeup. As always, there's a limit to what I can say about all of this since I'm a referee, so I'll stop there. Best of luck to everybody this spring! EDIT: Here are schedules for every team in the state. Class A boys | Class B boys | Class A girls | Class B girls.

Steve Smith reminded me of my post on trail etiquette from two years ago. With all this weather and with so many Lincolnites venturing onto Lincoln's excellent trails system, it has some good reminders. Most of the points are common sense, but if everybody followed them we wouldn't need the reminders, would we? Happy walking / running / biking, everybody!

It may not be Chik-fil-a, but for many Lincolnites it's surely a close second place. That's right, Dunkin' Donuts is coming to Lincoln. I'm told Dunkin' Donuts is incredible. My experience, extremely limited though it may be, is that it's just another donut shop. I have no doubt that the lines out the door when the first store opens will prove me wrong. (Fun fact: the last time I ate at a DD was in some town outside of Boston when we were in the area to pick up Robbie.) I'm trying to think where I would locate a DD if I were involved in such a decision. There will be 9 stores divided between Lincoln and Omaha, so there's a good chance we're eventually looking at at least three locations here in town. I have to think that Downtown on P Street offers some pretty compelling advantages. I could also see 84th Street being a strong possibility, perhaps somewhere around Adams. Are you looking forward to Dunkin' Donuts's (Donuts'?) arrival? Where would you locate the stores?

Downtown workers, near south residents, and UNL students may already be in the know about the Capitol City Barber Shop on 13th and K streets near the Cornhusker Hotel. The Downtown Lincoln Association recently wrote a nice article about the shop and owner Max Starcic. Max is joined by Dave Kreifels, another barber with over 20 years experience. Rather than a strip mall-type of cookie cutter salon, Capitol City is definitely a traditional, neighborhood Barber Shop that specializes in personalized cuts. Additional services include straight razor shaves, neck shaves, mustache and beard trims, shampoos, grooming and skin care advice, and more. The cost of those services is included with the price of a haircut: $15. Better yet, mention that you read this on Lincolnite, and for the month of March you get an additional 20% off. Capitol City Barber Shop is open M-F, 10 AM - 6 PM and Saturdays 10 AM - 3 PM.

While setting up a demo for a client I needed a sample YouTube video. I chose this classic from Wilson history: The book is Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee. We used to read that book to Robbie ALL. THE. TIME. Ahh, daddy nostalgia.

A sign has popped up on the former Wilderness Perk just outside Lowe's on Highway 2 indicating that "Hometown Cafe" is the next occupant of that storefront. I haven't been close enough to it yet to see if there's any other signage indicating an opening date or a menu or anything like that. Despite knowing only the name, I'm curious. I can't help it; I love food, and this just happens to involve food only a mile from my home. The name has me wondering if we're looking at another Hi-Way Diner or the next Stauffer's, for example. Or perhaps the name is deliberately misleading, conjuring up specific emotions but delivering somewhat different grub. I suppose we'll find out soon enough.

10/11's headline absolutely slayed me: Keno Bill Is A No Go - While Nebraska Could Be The Next Hollywood Ignore the first part, it's the Hollywood portion that's priceless. The Unicameral advanced LB863, a bill designed to make it easier to shovel taxpayer dollars into film projects. That, apparently, is going to turn Tecumseh into tinseltown. I can't help but think of a particular Andy Griffith Show episode: Plenty of states and localities have tried to lure "Hollywood" over the years. It's an arms race of sorts. Heck, it's not even just a domestic issue; countries around the world have gotten into the act. But like all economic development arms races, the results far too often don't match up to the promises. (Ask Kearney how that Archway panned out, for one example.) In short no, 10/11, Nebraska is most certainly not going to be the next Hollywood. Reality just doesn't work that way.