Lincolnite

I just want to give a quick shout-out to the guys from Uribe Refuse who do our route every Tuesday morning. Robbie really looks forward to the weekly arrival of the garbage truck. Every Tuesday morning we wait until we hear the truck. Once we do, we go sit outside on the front porch and watch. When they get to our house, the guys are good about waving to Robbie and hamming it up for him. Today, Robbie even got to "help" one of the guys drag the trash can up the driveway. It's a little thing, sure, but it made Robbie's morning. I appreciate it when somebody takes a moment to humor a little kid.

My old barber just packed up and left town in a flurry. If anyone knows of a good barber (preferably someone who specializes in men's hair) please weigh in.

Some of Lincoln's bicyclists are complaining about a section of the Jamaica North Trail. It's easy to see why: That is one screwed up trail. It's very unfriendly to bikes in two ways. The first is its crookedness. You could get seasick on that thing. More importantly, it crosses many streets and driveways. Crosswalks and driveway crossings are very dangerous for bicyclists. Not to mention the problem of cars parked in driveways blocking all or part of the trail. Others have already noted that this portion of the path probably should have been on-street, either with or without a marked bike lane. There's nothing wrong with an on-street bike path, especially in a neighborhood like the one shown. What do you think? Have you used the trail?

OK all you Cornhusker State Games participants ... how did you do? Did you rock the foosball table? Leave the other disc golf competitors in the dust? Don't be shy; brag away! Or are you like most Lincolnites in thinking, "the Cornhusker State Games were this weekend?"

Yahya over at Holy Land Cuisine just told me he *may* convert Holy Land's original North 27th location into an Ethiopian/Southern Sudanese restaurant. This strikes me as being a good business move as it would be - to my knowledge - Lincoln's first restaurant exclusively offering such fare.

Nebraska, like Texas, has oodles of potential for generating wind electricity from electricity wind. Could you ever see Nebraska taking on a wind power initiative like Texas' $5 billion project? Is it even a type of "green" energy worth the money, or should we put our money elsewhere if we're going to spend that kind of dough?

I see Lincoln is due to greet its first Staples in 2010 near 50th and O. I have never been in a Staples. Should I be excited, or is it just another run-of-the-mill office supply store?

You have no idea how tempted I am to start calling Ken Svoboda by a new nickname" [last item]. Ken "The Hammer" Svoboda. I like it. UPDATE: Thanks to West A Dad for the comment that inspired the image.

Husker blurbs hit the New York Times this morning in the Quad Countdown blog:

Husker fans, just try to forget the last four years ever happened....

The Missus, Robbie, and I dropped by the new Texas Roadhouse [Warning: audio] in Apple's Way last night. It opened for business on Monday. We were eager to go because TR was actually one of Robbie's first restaurants. We went to the location in Methuen, Massachusetts when he was just 4 weeks old. Here are some quick reactions to last night's visit. Two things about TR are obvious right away:

1. It's new. Customers don't quite know how it all works, and the employees are green. Plus, the peanut shells haven't had time to get ground into every surface. Patience is a virtue.
2. It's not from Texas. In fact, it's from Indiana. This is a Texas-themed restaurant, not a Texas restaurant. There's an important distinction there, like the difference between Disney's Main Street USA and an actual main street.

The restaurant is very polished. From the television and chalkboard floor in the waiting area, to the nifty extendable tables, it's obvious somebody has put some thought into how a restaurant should be put together. Then again, they also placed POS machines and server supplies in the path of major walkways. Why do designers do that? It didn't take me long to come to despise TR's birthday celebration shtick. There's a lot of hootin' and hollerin', the birthday boy or girl sits on a saddle, and then, on the count of three, everybody is supposed to yell 'Yee haw!". It's the sort of thing that might be cute once, but it's really intrusive, and it happened no fewer than five times last night. Five times! Apparently 10% of Lincolnites were born on July 16. Who knew? Did I mention that TR is loud? It's LOUD. Forget about having a conversation. OK OK, but how was the food? [PDF] There were highs and lows. The Missus ordered the mushroom jack chicken sandwich ($7.79). The sandwich received a thumbs-up. The fries, on the other hand, were 25% potato and 75% seasoning. Those puppies were salty. I love salt, but a single bite of one fry was enough to make my eyes blink. I went with the 10 oz. Fort Worth ribeye ($13.29) smothered in mushrooms and onions, with mashed potatoes and baked beans on the side. I ordered the steak medium, and it was fantastic. It was tender, it was juicy, it was cooked just right. Two thumbs up. The mashed potatoes, complete with lumps and skins, were good, too. I wasn't a big fan of the baked beans, though. The flavor of the sauce just didn't do it for me. So let's sum it all up: The joint was loud; the entrees were tasty; and the sides were hit and miss. Overall, it's a place Lincolnites are going to love, not unlike the arrival of Famous Dave's several years back. It's going to be busy for a while, so if you go, you might want to give the call-ahead seating service a try (420-0155).

The Fair Vote Nebraska folks came up short in their drive to get the matter of the State Fair's move on the November ballot. Now they're exploring their legal options. Great. I admire their spunk, but I really loathe the notion of a drawn-out legal battle on this issue. I wonder what their argument will be? Whatever the case, supposedly we'll know the group's next move within the next couple days.

This won't come as a shock to most of you, but once again the Feds have made matters worse -- not better -- with a new crop of laws and regulations. This time it's a law that prevents public transit systems from using their vehicles for special events. In Lincoln, that means Star Tran can no longer offer Christmas light tours, and Husker game day Big Red Express buses might be out, too. The purpose of the rules is to protect private mass transit operators from unfair competition by the government. That's all well and good. But the law harms rather than helps when no private entity is willing or able to step in and offer the same services. The holiday light tour isn't any big loss from a transportation perspective. Losing Big Red Express, on the other hand, would force hundreds more cars onto Lincoln's already-clogged game day streets. That's probably why it sounds like Lincoln will modify the service rather than eliminate it. That'll mean a net loss of $140,000, but it's plausible that the direct and indirect costs of not offering Big Red Express are higher. If any of you amateur economists out there want to take a stab at the numbers, please go right ahead.

I recently heard about two odd decisions. The first was at the Panera Bread at Southpointe. Apparently "corporate" told them they can no longer sell local newspapers in the store. That's according to an employee who was asked where the newspapers disappeared to. Why can't you get your Cindy Lange Kubick fix along with your morning muffin and coffee? Beats me. I'm told that store management is trying to get the Journal Star to put a vending machine just outside the door. I wonder if Southpointe will let them do that? The other was just a few steps away at Cold Stone. There, apparently "corporate" has told employees to cut back on the friendliness with guests. They are to sing for tips ... and nothing else. Considering that jovial employees -- some might say they are excessively so -- are one of Cold Stone's trademarks, this order is especially baffling. If you're a Cold Stone regular, be sure to let us know if this actually goes into practice.

Lincolnite Karen Tumeh is suing McDonald's because employees at the 27th and Pine Lake location wouldn't let her order at the drive-thru window. Ms. Tumeh is hearing-impaired. Drive-thru speakers don't play nicely with her hearing aid. She could have gone inside, but why should she have to? Notably, the one location is the only one that has caused her problems. On first glance, this sure looks a lot like two stubborn mules going head-to-head. How else can you explain such a small and easily-remedied situation leading to a lawsuit? Surely two phone calls (or letters) -- at most -- should have been enough: one call to the location's manager should have done the trick, but if not, a follow-up with the corporate office definitely should have ended the problem. It's a simple employee training issue. It isn't clear if those phone calls ever happened. If they (or an equivalent) never occurred, then shame on Ms. Tumeh and her attorney for bogging down the courts with a lawsuit when simpler methods should have been tried first. If they did happen, it is unclear how McDonald's responded. I wouldn't be surprised if Ms. Tumeh's complaint was simply the victim of the "It's somebody else's problem" mentality so common in large corporate and bureaucratic structures. If you're into that sort of thing, check out the comments on the article over at journalstar.com. There are leaps to conclusions and boneheaded statements aplenty, and even a little bigotry thrown in. Over 100 comments so far. And over something so very insignificant. ::sigh:: You know, if I were the rabble-rousing sort, I would encourage all of us to gather up at noon, head on over to 27th and Pine Lake, and order at the window in the drive-thru lane. Good thing I'm not that ornery.