Lincolnite

The other day the Journal Star featured an editorial praising college students who opted to use their Spring Break for volunteerism, rather than heading south for beaches, boobs, and bacchanalia. Skyler Bartels, a student at Drake University from Harvard, Nebraska, spent his Spring Break at a much more mundane location: Wal-Mart.

Every weekend morning I walk my dog along Beal Slough near my house. The creek and the native grasses along its banks can be surprisingly beautiful and calming, even with trucks rumbling along Highway 2 just a hundred yards away. Unfortunately, there is a lot of trash along the creek and nobody seems to do anything about it. So I figured, what the heck, I'll do something about it. I decided that some Sunday morning this spring I'm going to put on some gloves, grab some trash bags, and go clean up the area along Beal Slough between 40th and 48th Streets. Then I figured, heck, why not see if anybody else wants to join in. So here is my invitation to you: Join me and Clean Your Corner of Lincoln the weekend of April 22 and 23. You are welcome to join me along Beal Slough, but I encourage you to pick a public place that means something to you. It may be the Holmes Lake dog run, Wilderness Park (calling beerorkid!), a bike trail, Downtown, or a neighborhood school. There are no rules, no organization, and no prizes. Just do it because it's a nice thing to do. Give an hour, a morning, a day, or even the whole weekend. Or even just bend over to pick up that Mountain Dew bottle sitting in the sand at the playground. I plan to give the morning of Sunday, April 23rd to the cause. I figure a pretty decent clean-up of the area I've selected should take 4-6 hours. I hope at least a few of you decide to chip in your time and energy. Think about it, and let me know which corner of Lincoln you plan to clean.

The Missus, The Mother-in-Law, and I went to Blue Orchid last night. (Read my Blue Orchid review.) It was the first time I had been back since my bad experience back in early February. I'm happy to report that most of the restaurant's service hiccups seem to have been addressed. The servers were well trained and prepared, and they looked nice in their all-black outfits. The only glaring mark against them: the servers at a nice restaurant should not call a table of customers "guys", especially when 2/3 of them aren't. Leave the "guys" lingo to Applebee's. The food was, as always, outstanding. The Missus went with her favorite, yellow curry, The Mother-in-Law opted for pad thai, and I tried the green peppercorn entree. My meal was incredible, and the women had nothing but praise for their dishes. I have eaten five different entrees in four trips to Blue Orchid and I have adored every single one. No other restaurant has ever hit five-for-five for me. My only major complaint about last night's experience was the temperature. We were seated near the big windows on the south end of the restaurant and the temperature was very chilly. A couple customers wore their coats throughout their meals. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the windows, with the insulation, with the air handling, or something else, but it really should be addressed. Overall I was very pleased with Blue Orchid's continual growth and maturation. Assuming they keep gradually improving, I fully expect Blue Orchid to settle at or near the top of most Lincolnites' list of great restaurants.

Heaven on earth may exist....on the outskirts of downtown Lincoln. The newly-opened Jerusalem's Bakery on 19th and "M" St. does robust business in various Mexican and Central American pastries. Actually they are not "newly-opened" but have relocated from a few blocks away to this new location. But this family operation does have a new, small, take-out only food service with various Middle Eastern style-fare (kubbe, falafel) as well as tamales, .75 cent flautas, and other Latino foods. The $1 fried empanadas are very tasty. They are homemade and filled with potatoes and other vegetables and a little beef. Four of these slices of heaven, with some hot dipping sauce, a complimentary side salad and a small horchata rice drink for another buck makes for a nice $5 comfort-food break/meal anytime of day. I should note that, Jerusalem's is NOT a "restaurant." There is no sit down space, the kitchen is tiny and lacks a lot of industrial restaurant equipment, and most of the staff members work in the bakery. The owners are very friendly as well. Its a small Mom and Pop place and you can expect a somewhat long wait if you are coming for the take-out service at the wrong time. But the wait is worth it for those tasty empanadas.

I just got back from a trip to Doughboyz Bistro with The Missus and The Mother-in-Law. (Read my Doughboyz Bistro review.) It was my third visit to Doughboyz, and for the first time it was packed, noisy, and definitely happening. For one thing the pre-teen-girl-to-everybody-else ratio was extremely high. (A Girl Scout outing, perhaps?) The staff were harried, but they did a good job trying to keep up. We started with a garlic loaf ($3.85) and marinara sauce ($.89) for an appetizer. The bread was buttery (but not soggy), cheesey, and very flavorful. I really enjoyed the marinara sauce, which had just a bit of a zing and was pleasantly different from the usual. The Missus and The Mother-in-Law ordered side salads ($2.49). They expected boring, but instead they each received a nicely presented plate of mixed greens (no iceberg here!). For our appetizer we went with a medium Chipotle Orange Shrimp Xperience pizza ($20.25). It was topped with -- are you ready for all of this? -- orange chipotle sauce, shallots, mandarin oranges, basic, oregano chiffonade, garlic, pepper, buffalo mozzarella, goat cheese, and parmesan. Whew! Both The Mother-in-Law and I summed up our first impressions thusly: it was...different. Don't get me wrong, it's a tasty pizza. I would definitely add a slice to my plate if it were an option on a buffet. But for a whole meal it just wasn't for me. I can certainly see some folks falling madly in love with this incredibly original pie, though, so I encourage you to give it a try. (For the rest of you, I recommend the DBQ Chicken pizza. Mmm.) If you haven't already picked up on the theme, Doughboyz Bistro is unlike any other restaurant in Lincoln. "Original" is a word that gets thrown around too often, but I think Doughboyz has earned the title. Stop by and let me know if you agree.

The Mother-in-Law is coming to town this weekend, and she and The Missus plan to do some baby shopping while she is in town. The Missus and I have done a little browsing ourselves, but we haven't actually purchased anything yet. Buying baby stuff is a little weird when you don't know if your kid is going to show up tomorrow, next week, or next year. The actual purchase of, say, a crib says "hey, we're really going to have a baby". That, in turn, generates the usual thoughts and emotions. But what if the baby doesn't show up for another 6 or 12 months? It's a lot of mostly unavoidable emotional roller coastering. I'm sure many of you have baby experience, so I have a quick query for you: Assume we just found out that our baby would arrive tomorrow. What do we absotively posolutely have to have on hand for the arrival? What do we need to have within the first week? Within the first month? Feel free to throw in brand recommendations if you've got 'em. And just to head off the questions, yes, this is a hypothetical exercise, and no, there will not be any Wilson babies showing up at 625 Elm Street tomorrow. The adoption process is filled with "what if" questions ("What if they call with twins?", "What if the baby has [some disease or syndrome]?", "What if the birth mother insists the baby's middle name be Sasquatch?"), of which this is just one.

Fully one-third of Nebraska's economy relies on agriculture. That's great news for those individuals associated with the industry, but Nebraskans as a whole ought to be concerned. Nebraska should be striving for more economic diversity, not less. And yet, if you listen to Nebraska's noisiest politicians (Governor Heineman, Rep. Tom Osborne, Pat Ricketts), you get the impression that there is no such thing as too much dependence on agriculture. Nebraska is an ag state, and will be for the forseeable future. We should be proud of agriculture's history and future in our state. But where others see the upward slope of agriculture's rise, I see the downward slope of the contribution of Nebraska's other assets. Excessive reliance on any one piece of the economic machine can be extremely dangerous for our state, especially in the long term. It sure would be nice for Nebraska's economic development plan to emphasize the importance of products and services other than ethanol and cows.

Few people even know they have a basketball team, but the Hamilton College Aliens are headed to the Division II junior college championships in Danville, Illinois. Congratulations, guys!

It's interesting to me that the Lincoln Journal Star seems to think that our country's budget woes are the Republican Party's fault. Have they forgotten all of the other groups who deserve blame? I'd say the political pachyderms are about 40% at fault. The Democrats carry about 30% of the blame. And the remaining 30%? I assign that to Americans generally. The editorial hints at assigning blame to the citizenry, but instead opts to let them slide due to ignorance (or something). That's not to take any heat off the GOP, though. We ought to be plenty ticked off at America's so-called "conservative" party (ha!) and their fiscal management skills (double ha!). But the Dems aren't exactly putting up a fight, and we Americans apparently don't give a damn. Placing the blame entirely on the shoulders of the Republican Party smells more like petty partisanship than exercising principles.

How much snow are we going to top out with, folks? Toss in your guesses! I'm going to go with 11 inches.

The current trend in pop culture -- that's the culture of pop (soda), of course -- is that bigger is better. Why drink a 12oz can when you can drink a 20oz bottle? Heck, why not go for an entire liter or more? So it is fascinating to me that Yia Yia's has so far resisted the urge to enlarge their drinks. They continue to serve pop in big glass mugs that probably hold about 16 fluid ounces, a good chunk of which is taken up by ice. That doesn't sound like a big deal. You can just get a refill, right? Wrong. Yia Yia's charges $.25 for drink refills, a practice that is practically unheard of these days. It's tempting to ask why Yia Yia's continues to engage in such a practice. Surely the modern American consumer (and especially the fatter-than-the-average-American Nebraskan) would revolt, right? Wrong. Obviously the method used by Yia Yia's is sustainable. If it weren't, they would have changed. Their customers haven't forced them to change, so they haven't bothered. Their small servings and extra fees for refills still work. I wonder: why do Yia Yia's customers put up with this? Is it because it is seen as "quaint", and therefore acceptable? Is it because the other things that make Yia Yia's such a great restaurant are so overpowering that the pop issue doesn't matter? Is it because most everybody drinks from Yia Yia's large beer selection, rather than going for boring ol' pop? From my perspective, I think it's kind of neat that Yia Yia's does their drinks that way. I've found that I can nurse a pop for an hour or more through an entire meal and post-meal conversation. In the end I drink significantly less than I would if the glasses were larger and refills were available, and yet I don't leave Yia Yia's feeling any thirstier or less satisfied than I would had I had a super-sized drink instead. I'm not anti-pop by any means, but I try to keep my empty calories and caffeine consumption to a minimum. I wonder how often customers complain about Yia Yia's practice. Or does anybody really even notice how unusual Yia Yia's is in this respect?

Jeff Korbelik has finally discussed Doughboyz (Korbelik's articles aren't really reviews) in today's Ground Zero. His conclusion: their pizzas are tied with those at Yia Yia's for best in town. Compare and contrast with my review of Doughboyz and then head on over and check it out for yourself.

A bomb-sniffing dog identified a potential bomb threat at Cox Arena at San Diego State University, hours before the start of NCAA men's basketball tournament action there. Was it an explosive device?

"A bomb-sniffing dog noticed something in a hot dog cart," [college spokesman Jack] Beresford said. "They got a hit on something that was in the cart itself.

Hmm...

More good news: LES will benefit from the new 790 megawatt coal-fired power plant being built just across the Missouri River in Iowa. Coal technology is getting much cleaner, and it's one of the cheapest and most reliable forms of energy available. (Not as clean, cheap, or reliable as nuclear power, but that's a whole other kettle of fish!) The Journal Star article describing the plant was written by Algis J. Laukaitis. I think he must have been hurting for filler, because I had to laugh out loud at the sheer awfulness of his opening paragraph:

Coal plants are like dragons: They breathe fire. But instead of burning things to a cinder, they generate electricity.

Fortunately the rest of the article reads much more easily.