I waited a few weeks after the debut of the new ABC sitcom set in rural Nebraska - “Bless This Mess” - to write my review of the program in hopes that it would get better. It hasn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty good show if you enjoy watching Nebraskans depicted as flannel shirt-wearin’, tobacco chewin’, watermelon seed-spittin’, cousin-kissin’, outdoor pissin’ rubes who are wholly disinterested in anything not having to do with crops, cows and...well, that’s it, just crops and cows.
You’re probably familiar with the four large, unusual sculptures, two of which are pictured below, adjacent the South 24th Street Bridge on Interstate 80 in Council Bluffs. The somewhat confusing work called “Odyssey” cost $3 million, much of that taxpayer money, when it was commissioned in 2010. But did you know there are many other lesser known works of art on the streets of Council Bluffs that are frequently located off-the-beaten path? Check out my compilation below highlighting some of these hidden gems.
I spend too much time watching TV news channels CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Lately I’ve grown so sick of the political rancor and finger-pointing that permeates these networks that I vowed to stay away and watch nothing but MeTV for one entire day. Last Thursday I viewed the classic TV network almost nonstop from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Below is a diary of my experience.
The most exciting sporting event I’ve ever watched was not a Super Bowl. It wasn’t a World Series seventh game. It had nothing to do with the World Cup. It wasn’t the Big Ten Network’s six-hour salute to Ohio State - “BTN Hearts Them Buckeyes!” It wasn’t that hot day in Peoria when Joey Chestnut ate 14 live goats in 27 minutes. No, the greatest, most thrilling event I ever saw - and arguably the biggest upset - occurred 30 years ago this week: the world heavyweight championship fight between Iron Mike Tyson and journeyman Buster Douglas on Feb. 11, 1990.
The report last week that Omaha will host the 2020 Major League Baseball draft got me to thinking about a time when Omaha did even better than that. This city was once home to a major league professional sports team.
Even the most diehard NBA fan may not realize it but Omaha, Nebraska a place better known for steakhouses, Warren Buffett and “horizontal sleet” once had an NBA team. It actually shared a team with Kansas City, a city better known for professional baseball and football and for erecting fountains everywhere including in front of mortuaries and inside dental offices.
This is the story of how Omaha landed an NBA team, made a go of it and then ended up losing the team. The Kansas City-Omaha Kings were a thing from 1972 to 1975. It was the old Cincinnati Royals franchise that changed its name from Royals to avoid confusion with the Kansas City baseball organization. Big mistake. Management would’ve been better off sticking with Royals and selling tickets to confused fans thinking they were going to see a young George Brett.
Click here to read story.
I usually hate it when football teams carry the American flag into the stadium before a game.
We’ve all seen the pre-game ritual at a big time college football program, that awkward commingling of sport and patriotism. Ninety thousand fans, some intoxicated and shouting profanities at an out-manned opponent who’s mostly just there to collect a $1 million check. The out-manned opponent’s program has historically been so sad the school fight song is by Sarah McLachlan. There are six different mascots cavorting across the sidelines as the big time school’s student section aggressively chants a rhyming obscenity, many of the students shirtless and inebriated, when here comes the home team with a designated player, perhaps a linebacker who was ejected earlier this season for spearing a guy who was lying prone on the ground, carrying the American flag.
You people are too darn nice.
For as long as I can remember Memorial Stadium in Lincoln has had a well deserved reputation for being kind to visiting teams. Win or lose fans in the end zone often applaud the visitor as players head for the locker room after the final whistle. Fans are also very quiet. Many of them don’t even scream when the visiting offense is backed up on its own goal line.
The electronic and print media around here clearly loves Scott Frost. Never before in history has a coach with a career head coaching record at Nebraska of 4-8 been so revered. However, I don’t think our sportswriters and broadcasters go far enough in their adulation. You can’t just compare Frost to past and current coaching legends. The man transcends mere sport. Now that his second season at the helm of the Husker football team is nigh the time is right to take a few minutes to gauge the brilliance of this shining star. I think the best way to do that is a head-to-head match up featuring Frost vs. renowned historical figures.
The mind-numbing tedium; the absurd repetition; the hatred; the anger; the ugliness; the jealously; the bitterness; the line dancing. Of course I’m talking about Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. Below is my only slightly exaggerated running diary of the 2019 meetings.
My father died a decade ago of congestive heart failure. It wasn’t a shock since he’d suffered a heart attack a few weeks prior (his second) and doctors sent him home after a month in cardiac rehab with a dire diagnosis, an oxygen tank and a whistle to blow if he woke up in distress.
An hour after arriving home from rehab Dad went to take a nap. A few minutes later the whistle loudly chirped. My mother and brother frantically rushed into the room to see Dad lying in bed with a broad smile on his face. He said, “Just testing.” That tells you most of what you need to know about the man.
Dear Fred Hoiberg:
First of all welcome to the University of Nebraska men’s basketball program! The people of this proud state are prepared to embrace you with open arms. I think you’ll find that Nebraskans are some of the nicest, most decent people on the planet. Just make sure that you are always honest and straight forward with them or they’ll rip your head off, chew it into little pieces and spit it into the Platte River. But if you try hard and you’re aboveboard with folks around here, they will treat you like a king.
Bill Moos faces the most difficult decision of his life, with the possible exception of having to decide to leave the relatively temperate climate of Washington state for a place where winters tend to be harsher than on the South Pole outback. I figured I’d lend a hand to Moos and offer up these suggestions for a new head Nebraska basketball coach.
There’s an age-old argument over whether certain activities that we watch and/or participate in are in fact actual sports. It’s time to settle these debates once and for all. My criteria is not readily definable but I know a real sport when I see one.
The city of Omaha is constantly growing, changing and evolving. The future is likely to be quite different from present day. What will Omaha look like, in, say, the year 2100? See below for my bold predictions.
For quite some time there has been much confusion and frustration concerning the city of Omaha’s snow removal plan. It’s time for citizens to know exactly how the whole thing works. Please consider this tutorial your guide to understanding a wrongly vilified policy.
For starters, the night before a potential snowstorm leaders of the Omaha Public Works Dept., affectionately dubbed “the snow-nooshkies” check the weather forecast. Instead of a forecast from the National Weather Service or one of Omaha’s 73 TV meteorologists the Public Works Dept. consults its famed weather-predicting skunk, Stinky.
Nebraska has a new state tourism slogan to replace “Visit Nebraska. Nebraska Nice.” The new, less-than-inspiring-to-me slogan: “Nebraska: Honestly, it’s not for everyone.”
The new slogan is the work of Denver-based firm Vladimir Jones, which is being paid $28.6 million over two years to market the state.
Since there’s no easy way to tell if somebody has been vaccinated for Covid-19 federal officials have put Americans on the honor system. If we have not been vaccinated we are supposed to continue wearing masks indoors. Those who have been fully vaccinated are free to remove their masks.
Frankly, after everything I’ve seen in the past 15 months from Americans, I am not so sure we can really trust our fellow citizens to comply with an honor system. We need to be able to tell whether those around us are anti-vaccine so we can keep our (social) distance. Thus I have compiled this handy guide to help Americans immediately identify whether they are near an anti-vaxxer.
And, to make clear, "anti-vaxxer" is a reference to those who willfully choose not to be vaccinated for political purposes or general distrust of vaccines.
There is a group at the next restaurant table. Someone gets up to use the restroom and when they finally return somebody asks, “Did you fall in?” – we can be reasonably certain they are anti-vaxxers.