Lincolnite

The Missus and I grabbed a quick bite at Skeeter Barnes last night before helping a couple friends move. My meal, the three meat combo, was excellent. The shredded pork was flavorful, the brisket was tender, and the chicken was tasty as always. The Missus, however, was "underwhelmed" by her salad. I'm not a salad guy, but her lettuce looked like something I'd add to our compost heap. She also said the chicken it was topped with was "hard". I don't know how chicken gets hard, but I suspect that's not a good thing. We actually wonder if management (and/or ownership) has changed. Skeeter's has taken a step down a notch or two over the past few months. Although my food was excellent this time, on our two previous trips I was unimpressed. There seems to have been a staff turnover recently, because many of the faces we had come to recognize over the years are now conspicuously absent. The staff that are there today are adequate, but they didn't seem to have been as well trained as one might hope. And the manager on duty (or at least a guy who acted like a manager) struck me as a bit of a bully. The staff members he interacted with were visibly uncomfortable. I should make one thing clear: these are just impressions, and they may have no basis in reality. It's entirely possible that Skeeter's is still the same restaurant The Missus and I have come to love over the years, and that this recent "down" period is in fact nothing more than the bad luck of catching the restaurant on a couple rare off days. Likewise with the management. That can happen. In fact, I hope that's the case. We'll see.

Larry Claassen doesn't want runners in the streets:

I'm not sure how the mind rationalizes that running in traffic is a healthy or wise activity, but let me tell you that neither of us wants you as a hood ornament. Running in the street is definitely bad for your health and my nerves.

Actually, Larry, it's pretty easy to rationalize running in the street, albeit in limited situations. Granted, Lincoln is blessed with a great network of trails and a pretty respectable sidewalk infrastructure. But trails and sidewalks aren't available everywhere, and they have their downsides. Trails and sidewalks themselves are quite safe for pedestrians, but crosswalks can be incredibly unsafe. I'm not sure how safe crosswalks are in other parts of the country, but in Lincoln, drivers almost always blow through crosswalks without a second thought. When approaching, say, a stop sign or a stop light at an intersection at which they want to make a right turn, most Lincoln drivers pull through the crosswalk and then look both ways. Now imagine you're a runner entering that crosswalk right about then. Sure, running in 'O' Street is probably unwise. But running in the street in residential areas with lots of intersections can actually increase a runner's visibility to drivers, and therefore his safety. That can be especially true at night, when pedestrians approaching crosswalks can be very difficult to see until the last second. Assuming, of course, that the runner in question does her part to be safe, such as wearing bright clothing and obeying the law. To the extent that Mr. Claassen is concerned for safety, I agree with him. But I disagree that sticking to the sidewalks and trails ought to be a runner's only option. If street runners are really so bad for Mr. Claassen's nerves, perhaps he just needs to pay a little more attention while driving.

The paper boy is dead, or at least nearly so. Once every boy's dream first job, the task today is more often than not handed off to an anonymous adult. I was a paper boy for several years, beginning in fifth grade and continuing all through junior high. I began with the Lincoln Journal and I experienced the gradual merging of the Journal and the Star. I used to walk the route every day with my dog, Jodi, the ten-pound black schnoodle I never had to put on a leash. On Sunday mornings my dad would drive around with me in our old Ford conversion van, and when we finished we would have breakfast at Hy-Vee with the hunters in their orange vests. I delivered papers in sun, rain, sleet, hail, and snow. Once it was so icy and windy that when I accidentally dropped a newspaper, I had to skate after it for two blocks as it slid down the street. I even delivered papers through a couple tornado warnings. My mom wasn't happy about that. In a way it's a little sad that my kids won't at least have the chance to have such a cool first job. But then again, by the time my kids are old enough to want a job, all sorts of new opportunities will have opened up. So long, paper boy.

Jane Jacobs, author of Death and Life of Great American Cities is dead at age 89 (subscription or BugMeNot required). That won't mean anything to most of you, but those of you who study the urban form know that Jacobs was a legend in her field. RIP.

Swoof, over at Eatin' in Lincoln, recently made a trip to Super Taco, located near 56th and Holdgrege. Looks like I might be heading over that direction for a bite to eat one of these days.

My apologies if Lincolnite loads a little slowly or oddly (i.e. the page doesn't load entirely) today. I'm told there's a bottleneck somewhere leading to Lincolnite's server. There is no problem with the server itself.

All in all I had a pretty decent weekend. I didn't get nearly as much trash pick-up done as I would have liked, but I think I had a pretty good excuse. I received a last-minute plea to help train some new Little League umpires for the upcoming season. At first I was pretty bummed that I wouldn't have a photo of a big stack of trash bags to show off today, but the training session went really well, despite the fact that I ad libbed the entire thing. Trash pick-up along Beal Slough will just have to continue indefinitely until I get it all collected. On Saturday I had the pleasure of centering the Lincoln Lutheran vs. Elkhorn boys soccer match, featuring the top two teams in Class B. As I expected it was a great match. Elkhorn ended up winning 2-0 with goals in the 75th and 76th minutes. Look for an exciting rematch at the State Tournament. An assessor was present in the stands so my assistants and I received some great feedback following the match. The assessor seemed pleased with my performance overall. He only really dinged me for two things, both of which I agreed with, and both of which are easily fixable. He must have thought, after seeing me a couple times this season, that I'm doing fine, because Saturday night I received my assignments for districts. I'm not only assigned to the state's strongest district (4 teams in the top 10 in wildcard points), but I'm assigned to two centers, including the district championship match. That bodes well for some good assignments at the State Tournament, including my goal for the season, earning a center in one of the four State Championship matches. On Sunday I umped a couple baseball games, both of which went extremely smoothly, save for a 30 minute lightning delay. My partner was a Wesleyan student who was umpiring in Lincoln for the first time. He did a great job. I finished off the weekend with a trip to Crawdaddy's with The Missus and Husker Pilot, who just returned from AMS (Academy of Military Science). Welcome back, HP!

Can we please declare an end to the overuse and abuse of headlines in the form of "Opponent Hooks 'Horns" and "'Horns Hook Opponent"? Pretty please?

I am disturbed. Somebody arrived at Lincolnite looking for yak urine fertilizer. Not only that, but Lincolnite is the #1 result. Which was the offending page? Why, a rant about bad chili at Bison Witches, of course. And just to clarify, I finally got up the nerve to go to Bison Witches again about a month ago. The chili was excellent.

Ugh, it's that point in the soccer season when referees who have been doing a lot of games start to feel tired and worn out, and injuries start popping up. I am surprisingly energetic, despite a history of problems with in-season fatigue. But I've been bit by the injury bug. First came what appears to be an anterolateral shin splint in my right leg. It doesn't bother me much when I walk or run forward, but changing directions, running backwards, and side-stepping are all somewhat painful. Then last night I developed what could be a much more serious injury. (Where "serious", in this case, means that it could really screw up my ability to referee for a while.) Not five minutes into my first game last night I felt a twinge, and I instantly knew what had happened: groin strain. The last 75 minutes of that game were not especially enjoyable. I then had to go ref a youth game immediately afterwards. The muscle felt like it loosened up a little, but I still had to be pretty cautious. I hoped that a good night's sleep would magically cure me. It didn't. So here I am, a referee with a respectable chance of earning the honor to center one of the state championship games, and I'm injured. Just to make things fun, I'm scheduled to center what should be a great match between two of the state's best boys teams on Saturday, and last I heard an assessor plans to be there. (That's a good thing, by the way. It's hard to get better without being critiqued by an assessor now and then.) I don't want to, but I may have to bail out of some of my game assignments next week to allow myself some time to heal. If anybody has any magic healing potions or techniques, I'm all ears!

I am going to withhold commenting on Mayor Seng's proposed concealed carry ban for a while, but I couldn't pass up this quote from the Journal Star article on the topic:

[Police Chief Tom Casady] said it's rare for citizens to protect themselves with concealed weapons. He can only recall one incident in 32 years of law enforcement.

Uhh, Tom? That's because concealed weapons were illegal during that time.

Five Lincoln restaurants I miss:

1. King's
   A chili cheese dog and chocolate shake (with the tin!) sounds mighty tasty right now.
2. Jabrisco
   Black and white soup, anyone?
3. Rock 'n' Roll Runza
   I miss the original RnRR, not that crappy fast food version.
4. Eighth Street Iron Works
   I only got there once, mere days before it closed, but the experience was memorable. Anybody have their meatloaf recipe?
5. Jax
   The Missus and I went to Jax for many of our "formal" dates.

Don't forget to Clean Your Corner of Lincoln this weekend. When I first decided to do this I didn't realize I had chosen Earth Day weekend, but all the better I suppose. Pick your favorite corner of Lincoln -- any public area -- and do your part to clean it up. As I originally announced I'm going to clean up along Beal Slough between 40th and 48th Streets. I'm just not sure when I'm going to be able to do it. I should be able to get in an hour or two both Saturday and Sunday mornings, but then I have two soccer games to ref on Saturday, and three baseball games to ump on Sunday. To achieve my goal of a complete clean-up of Beal Slough I may have to extend my work over several subsequent days. It's not what I had originally planned for myself, but ultimately what's important is that the job gets done. I will be at the creek on Saturday morning for at least a few hours. I hope to see you out and about this weekend. Whether you pick up a lone cup blowing in the breeze, or a truckload of trash, I hope you take some time to Clean Your Corner of Lincoln.

Today is 4/20. Giggle. The Missus and I supped at Outback last night. We hadn't been there for ages, nor had we been near 48th and 'O' since the construction began. It felt strange blowing through that intersection without stopping. The food at Outback was pretty decent, and the service was very good, if a tad too perky at times for my tastes. We ended up sitting next to two middle-aged women having a girls night out, which was a bit of a downer. They bitched about, well, just about everything, but as far as I could tell none of the stuff they talked about was really that big of a deal. Smile, ladies! You're eating good food, you're with nice company -- quit complaining about stupid crap and enjoy the moment. Today through the weekend look to be beautiful spring days. I hope you have plans to get outside and enjoy them.