A Shoe on the Freeway

If you haven't noticed, Central Nebraska has talent. I saw the GILT production "The Cemetery Club" a few weeks ago and it was spot on. Great acting. Nice staging. Sparse audience, at least the afternoon I was there. Nevertheless, "TCC"reminded me that talented actors in our neighborhood can carry a terrific script. Props to Mindy Mangus, Mitzi Stinson, and Berice Rosenburg.

OK, so I'm reprising Scrooge on the stage this Xmas. These words are in no way connected to an effort to toot mine or anyone else in the production's horn. Don't get me wrong; we'd love to see you when I'm busting Cratchit's chops or cowering like a gravy-sucking dog under the lash of Future. I'm just disclosing for the sake of disclosing since this blog is about fine arts around here.

Speaking of which, "Cats" was a wonder, with the makeup and the set and some of American theater's most well-known songs. My favorite moment among many was the Benson girls (no relation) Rachael as Gus the Theater Cat and Sarah (I hope I have that right) as Jellyorum. Beautiful song, well done.

Finally, I can't wait for Grand Island Northwest's annual spectacular this spring. Mr. Shack and Carol Quandt and the entire community out on North Road always stage a fabulous show. Between them and GISH in the fall, we are lucky to have such events.

That's just on stage. Lots of singers and musicians from La Camerata Singers at Xmas to City Singers to some of my contemporaries known as BD and the Boys to the beauty of number of individual voices who live, work and perform in Central Nebraska put us on the musical map . Check them out.

OK, playbill and review is over. All that is left is to enjoy.

Enjoy.

Posted by George Ayoub at 03:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t want to wear a helmet when he rides his serious, powerful crotch rocket. Fair enough. It’s his call and he’s a grown-up, I guess.

He was splattered on the windshield of a Chrysler yesterday in downtown Pittsburgh when a 62-year old woman turned left in front of his motorcycle.

I find a little irony in the idea that Big Ben refuses to wear his motorcycle helmet but puts one on when he plays football.

His crash did give Web sites and television news programs their poll question of the evening: “Should athletes be able to ride motorcycles?” I suppose that would be the business of the team and the player and the agent and the union.

I’m sorry Roethlisberger crashed and from every indication he’s a good guy. I hope he heals and returns to the field whole and complete. But the question becomes how much of an investment the guy is if his employer allows him to do what he wants, thereby compromising his profit-making potential. It would seem professional athletes have a small window to return their enormous salaries as profit for their employers. Frankly, if Roethlisberger and his team are cool with no helmet, they are reaping the benefits of their investment. No need for anyone to wring his hands.

CNN is reporting as I write this that Bush advisor Karl Rove will not be charged in the Valerie Palme outing. Rove has testified four times in front of a grand jury about the Plame case. One indictment — that against Scooter Libby, Cheney’s right hand man — has already been returned.

Rove is a political advisor, which in and of itself may not be indictable, but some among that fraternity has stubbed its legal toe over the years. I can think of couple that should have. A few went to jail. That’s because they took the bromide “politics is a dirty business” to its lowest floor.

Rove is a champ at getting his man elected — in this case Bush — but then so what? As we have seen in the last 30 years winning has supplanted governing as the focus in Washington. Until we put the interests of more Americans before those who can foot the bill for a what passes for a winning campaign these days, we’ll probably be seeing more grand juries.

This is my third blog from out in the community, the idea being writing where the public traffics will mean good ideas and an exchange I don’t get parked at my Dilbert station in the newsroom.

That works. Most of what people want to talk about is what’s going on in their lives: family, work, weather. Policy makers in Washington, Lincoln, and around here should come out and listen.

This morning, with those I know and those I don’t, I have discussed the vagaries of coaching Little League, Mediterranean recipes, and historical interpretation. What policy makers would find is obvious: everyone is different and their ideas of what is important, while similar, are as individual as a fingerprint.

Posted by George Ayoub at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I passed on a couple opportunities to do 6-6-6 stories on Tuesday, one a birthday, the other a piece on the notoriety of the three numbers and their potential for damage.

I’m not buying it or rather didn’t. Not that I disregard all superstition. I’m as hinky as the next guy. You know, noticing black cats in my path; aware of Friday the 13th more than is probably necessary; standing too close to the hygienically-challenged. You get the picture.

Of course, 6-6-6, with its biblical origins carries more weight than walking under a ladder (not smart simply for the physics involved) and losing your rabbit’s foot.

The world already has enough evil that we needn’t read the tea leaves or turn the Tarots to see what’s up. Kind of reminds me of the current debate in Senate. If that august group would open a window, it would find war, high fuel costs, and immigration issues about to spill. So what are they talking about? Whom you can marry. Please. This has no chance of passing because too many Americans see it for what it is: a political ploy to deflect criticism of a messy run of policies. We’ve already decided this anyway.

We can see the forest but wonder if those in the political arena (the Senate in this case) keep planting trees.

Maybe they see something in the pattern or the numbers or the different shades of green. Maybe it’s policy making by superstition.

Or maybe they simply don’t get it. Happy 6-6-6.

Posted by George Ayoub at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

President Dubya’s call for troops on the border Monday night framed one of the most difficult issues regarding immigration.

What to do with the charged atmosphere.

He encouraged us to find the “rationale middle ground” — which I applaud — in a highly emotional arena.

Weighing rational and emotional will be key. The president believes, as I do, that there is rationale middle ground among the details that remain to be worked out.

Rational either invites to change or weeds out those at the fringe of debate, those for whom this is all about race or those who believe we can go on indefinitely without some reform or those who believe it is a simple matter to determine someone’s citizenship or those who believe that the border is working.

It is not.

No reasonable person can argue that our borders are not both porous and currently difficult to make otherwise. A wall or a fence will change the landscape, but I’m skeptical about its return. Troops may make headlines but adding agents is the key. Bush said he has added agents, which is true, but a request for more was met with cold water.

According to Calvin Woodward of AP, Bush’s budget last year only requested 200 more agents when a 2004 immigration law set the requirement at 2,000.

Bush was right too when he said we sent back 6 million but, according to Woodward, the overall number of aliens caught dropped three years in a row until 2004 and has never been as high as the 1.6 million nabbed in 2000, the year before he took office.

Still, the president is doing the right thing by pushing the debate and urging it to be reasonable. His pleas for keeping politics out of the debate notwithstanding, we need to do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons and leave expediency for PACs and talk shows.

Securing our borders has to be in combination with other “rational” parts of immigration reform. Stemming more illegal immigration can only go so far. The president wagged a metaphorical finger in our faces when he said it was unwise and unrealistic to think we could send all the illegals aliens home.

True, but it was an economic finger too, as a number of states’ economies are bolstered through cheap labor provided by undocumented workers.

And any plan with some teeth for employers hiring undocumented workers is only as good as a way to determine a worker’s status. Add to that the endless maze toward gaining citizenship and the government all but giving up on determining who is legal and who is not. Hence Bush’s caution of a reality check.

I read a piece recently about a Hispanic activist in California who said illegal workers should be given a choice of punishment: Pay a $2,000 fine or be sent home. She said that a financial consequence, which fits within Bush’s unwise and inefficient framework, will punish those here illegally. It may also set in motion the possibility of citizenship.

Of course for all that to happen many puzzle pieces would have to be in place, including a border that is secure and maintained that way and a naturalization process that works.

Posted by George Ayoub at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After listening to many political hopefuls chirping about running government like a business and professing their own stellar CEOmanship skills, let’s borrow from commerce for a little post-election reality:

You get what you vote for.

No good waking up Wednesday morning with buyer’s remorse. Too late to say “What have we done?” Not good enough to wonder if just filling in the blanks made any difference. We get what we voted for.

Yes, we can analyze what happened (paralysis by analysis?). It might provide insight into the mood of the electorate, such as it is. “Electorate: noun; about a third of the people, on any given election day.”

The upshot of such enterprise is often confounding. On Election Day, a CBS News/NY Times poll indicated people found the Dems more favorable than their GOP rivals by nearly 20 percentage points. But when asked to rate specific Democrats — Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry — the bottom fell out of the donkey.

Political hacks — this is the season for them and their individual renditions of high dudgeon — may fawn over such trends and numbers and percentages. The rest of us, however, have to live with the results.

What is the relationship between what has been promised or bragged about and the real world, where we live. Should we wonder, too, if winning has become more important than governing. But then that is a question that needs to be asked before an election, isn’t it?

Posted by George Ayoub at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had better get back to work, my vacation spent, my money gone, my tan, such as it is, in a perpetual state of fading.

The yard signs have returned, urging us in various shades of red, white, and blue to do our civic duty. Oh yeah, and not be stupid. Vote for …

A few years ago Ellen Totzke, then a candidate for County Attorney had a big pink sign on Harrison. How refreshing. You don’t see a lot of pastels or day-glo in political signs.

They are about as bland as the messages we hear on television and radio. If I hear one more candidate drop “Nebraska values” into moody music and down-home looking folks, I think I’m going to scream. They are always telling us to vote for them because they traffic in Nebraska values, but they never tell us what those values are. Or how they might be different than Iowa values or Colorado values or property values.

Here’s a suggestion for a yard sign — in bright lime green with lemon accents: “Vote for me. I do not lie.”
Of course these days we would also have to list all the candidates that do lie and then we’d have a fight and deal for a reality show on Fox: “Celebrity Lying,” in which a movie star is matched with a local candidate in battle of honesty and ethics.

Right after “Cooking (or is it dancing?) with the Stars.”

I think the forums and debates are great. Anybody who wants to know where somebody stands has a chance to find out. And anybody who wants to put a sign in a yard with confidence can do so … in limited colors schemes, however.

Posted by George Ayoub at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now that we can carry a pistol to the double feature at the Bijou (Are political debates off limits according to the new concealed carry law?), state politicians can turn their attention elsewhere.

They have chosen Dave Hergert.

Hergie looks like he is staying and the sens in Lincoln look like they are going with the biggest diss they have in their briefcases: impeachment. I wrote about this in a column, but, briefly, they have too much to do to pursue something they already know will not work.

Change the system, instead. Hergie has stubbed his and the Regents political toe. The next time somebody mentions that board, remind the speaker that Hergert is a member. Besides, at some point he’ll get the sympathy vote if we keep pounding on him. That would not sit well either.

While we’re at it, what’s up with the Osborne haters? Come on, you can dislike the guy’s policies and positions or favor Nabity (a distant relative of my wife) or the Gov., but the old-man-mired-in-his-dotage image is out there with a flat earth and Elvis at Burger King. The guy is bright and can manage and lead with anyone.

I also do not understand the ex-coach broadsides. Osborne hardly fits the whiskey-swilling, woman-chasing, cigar-chomping stereotype of guy who knows Xs and Os and little else. Hell, he has a doctorate in education.

And if you voted for Reagan — an actor — and are trashing a coach, you had better check your consistency gauge.

Finally, is it just me or is there a noticeable quiet on the state political scene. Or is that apathy? Or are we simply suffering from political fatigue at every level of government?

Posted by George Ayoub at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dear ESPN,

I couldn’t find a suggestion box on the side of my television, so I thought an appeal blog might do the trick.
Hate to grouse, fellas, but I have a couple questions/suggestions. Do you guys really think the potential for labor strife in the NFL merits such breathless, mind-numbing repetition of the same non-report of anything happening.

How many times can Chris Mortenson say the same damn thing, which is nothing?
That’s because nothing has happened. Or if it has, most football fans could care less. Show the games, talk strategy, and show replays. We already know owners are a richer version of spoiled athletes; they just don’t have the skills.

At least you gave it a rest to report the death of Kirby Puckett, a man for whom baseball was indeed life.
Saturday evening, on ESPN radio, the host was incredulous that the NFL labor issue was the top story of its broadcast. Hello? It was the top story because ESPN decided it was. It’s March. The National Football League is a marketing gorilla, but can we give it a rest for a while.

Suggestion #2 has to do with the theory that having Dick Vitale broadcast a college basketball game in which your team wins is only slight better than having him broadcast one in which your team loses. Is there any way you can put him the studio? At courtside he is propelled by the same stale launch codes: “He going to be a star,” “Get a TO baby,” and his endless praise of the obvious. He rarely offers insights but is long on shouting.

Finally, as a sports fan, the game has always been the focal point of my interest. But as your programmers who believe watching semi-clever sports writers argue among themselves is entertaining and the Terrell Owenses of the world, take over your network, please remember that ESPN was a great idea and has been the gold standard for life’s toy department for years.

The suggestion is to find the good in the games again.

Posted by George Ayoub at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Was it me or was there a large sucking sound coming from Detroit Sunday night? The Super Bowl was won by the team that ended up with the fewest errors in skill and judgment. The ads were average at best. And the Stones were, well, let’s face it — older than dirt.

Gazillions still watched, a portion of whom drank themselves into a knee-walking stupor or ate themselves into a assorted cardiopulmonary emergencies.

All those “This is America and this is what we do during the year’s biggest football game” were Hallmarkish enough, but the entertainment/sports value of the event was not that great. And I was rooting for the Steelers.

Big question: Where was Motown? A Super Bowl in Detroit and we get the world’s greatest rock and roll band — from England, where they play soccer and rugby and darts. Why did “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day” keep drifting through my mind when Jagger was prancing the prance of a 62-year old still looking for some “Satisfaction.” Hey, Mick, at that age, lots of folks call it Viagra or an afternoon nap or the ability to figure out a prescription drug plan.

Hey, I’m from the Stones’ generation. I know a Jumpin’ Jack from a Flash. I know I can’t always get what I want, too, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I want somebody older than me (and beginning to look like it) to play at the biggest sporting event of the year.

Chances are really good, too, that next year, regardless of this year’s game or half-time or creatively-challenged ads, more of us will watch again, talk about the commercials, drink ourselves stupid, eat like Caligula, and have a super Sunday.

Hey, it is what we do, regardless of the quality of the game, the show, or the sales pitches. See you in Miami.

Posted by George Ayoub at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you catch Oprah scolding author James Frey? Oh, mama. It was rich. There was Frey, sitting forlornly on the couch in the Principal Winfrey’s office, where Oprah scowled the look of a woman scorned.

Frey is the fella who wrote “A Million Little Pieces,” supposedly a memoir but come to find out he embellished his life story from whole cloth or the lives of others. Hey, anybody who used that long might have issues, right? Who knows? The guy pumped out a huge hit, no denying that.

Nor is there any denying Oprah’s support for the book, including a talk-on during “Larry King Live” when she defended Frey after some careful readers wondered about the “memoir’s” veracity.
A week later Oprah, so important use of her last name is optional, summoned Frey to the office when she publicly caned him and his dishonesty. For his part Frey was contrite, but this show was Oprah’s and the subject was her and the couch was hers and the scowl was hers.

James Frey made some of it up. He’ll have to deal with those literary demons although I wonder if the Oprah dress down will help sales. Why he consented to be on the show, I’ll never know. Yeesh! Scary stuff.
That’s because while Oprah was rightly angry about a fictive memoir, her little session with Frey on the couch was all about her, all about her — like the rest of us — being duped.

I haven’t read “A Million Little Pieces” but friends recommend it. I have read enough about it that Frey claims his recover from drugs and alcohol was apparently a matter of willpower. That’s some sort of will.

But still not enough to have a good response for the Principal Winfrey.

Posted by George Ayoub at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Treasury Department has come to senses, such as they are. The Feds had banned Cuba from participating in the World Baseball Classic, which will take place in San Juan and throughout the U.S. in March.
The government originally denied Cuba from taking the field because it was nostalgia week with foreign policy. Based on Cuba and Castro’s behavior in the 1960s, the U.S. has had a long-standing policy of not allowing certain financial transactions with the island nation.
The Bush administration reversed course Friday. Good. Castro is old and toothless and continued time and energy used to keep him near the top of our enemies list is not well spent. Greater evils exist, and none of them have a anyone who can throw a decent slider.
This is baseball. In an Olympic year, let’s hope we can keep foreign policy and sports separate.

Posted by George Ayoub at 01:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A blade, a blade, my Christmas celebration for a blade!

Or … maybe, I’ll just have myself a watery little Christmas. My little corner (“two icy roads converged …”) of the world is under about 6 inches of freaking water and ice. We have been working three days now to dislodge the biggest chunks near the curb, the logic being we’d prefer not to lose any seasonal revelers headed to our house. Yeah, Grandma can float, but what if she is packing a couple fruitcakes and a case of sugar cookies. And, this being the holidays, the neighborhood Newfoundlands, bred for water rescue, are noshing kibble in some warm kennel downstream.

The intersections in my neighborhood have been particularly gruesome, ridges sharp and deep enough to do some damage to an unsuspecting vehicle and traction about as common as reason in Congress. Crossing one of these crevices, you never know if you will succeed or just be found in the spring, prostrate in a dip, waiting for a thaw, a polysyllabic curse frozen on your blue lips.

But we soldier on, spade and pick in hand, rubber and Gore-Tex on our feet, while the temperature soars in the afternoon and falls maddeningly after sunset, undoing our work. I fall asleep these nights with visions of one big blade in my head, one big scraping, pushing and all-powerful blade solving my watery, icy conundrum …

… Until it snows again. Hey, MWC and HIH. Be careful out there. Boats and skates required.

A blade, a blade …

Posted by George Ayoub at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Associated Press has released its “Little All American Team.” The news service needs to call its publicist — or consult a thesaurus.

This “Little” team comprises the best football players in NCAA, Division 2, schools that include our own UNK and UNO. The Lopers’ Richie Ross was second team wide receiver. You will find neither Heisman Trophy winners nor Rose Bowl foes in the bunch. Shoe deals go begging on these campuses.

But little?

Let’s go to the numbers: The first team offensive line of the“Little’s” averaged 318 pounds compared to their “Big” counterparts, who weighed in at 313 a man mountain. The entire Little offensive team averaged 271 pounds a man including the kicker, whose weight is actually a non-issue in the game of football.

The Bigs, including Vince Young and Reggie Bush, were bigger — by a whooping 2.5 pounds a guy. Must have been the 210-pound kicker.

On defense the Littles were absolutely tiny, too, their 235 pounds “dwarfed” by the Bigs’ 249. Oh, yeah, and the Bigs looked down on their D2 brethren from their lofty perches — a full inch higher.

D1s are larger schools than D2s, with thousands of students, hundreds of press clippings and millions in their football banks. But to be big about it — honest and right-sized — skip the “Little” in the D2 All-American Team.

Posted by George Ayoub at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah, yes. The Alamo Bowl.
Remember?
No, not “Remember the Alamo,” although that has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
Remember the Alamo Bowl.
We have history there. Two chapters in the ongoing drama and occasionally sob story known as Husker football have taken place in San Antonio.
In the 1999 Alamo Bowl, we opened up a serious can on Northwestern, beating the Wildcats 66-17 and setting the stage for a gallop through the 2000 schedule … until the debacle in Boulder.
Since then, we have won only a few more than we have lost.
But remember the Alamo. Remember how we waxed Northwestern like cheap linoleum and how it launched us into a No. 2 ranking before the world blew up in Colorado.
In the middle of that plummet, our boys beat Michigan State in the 2003 Alamo Bowl. That was a month after the sacking of Frank Solich, who lately has been looking for a dependable designated driver but then was clearing out his desk.
Assistant Bo Pelini, everybody’s favorite head coach who never was, steered the Huskers to a 17-3 victory. Pelini punctuated his audition with a Category 4 tantrum after begging to differ with the officials over a disputed fumble call.
Poor guy never got a call back from Steve Pederson. The rest is part Husker Nation apoplexy, part petty plotting to launch Pederson back to Pitt and part digging in our heels as push came to a long downhill slide.
I’m counting on the recent funfest in Boulder to move us to the next chapter, something with “rebirth” in the title and a forward by Bill Callahan.
Either way, we’re writing Husker history again in San Antonio, in the spectral shadows of Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, neither of whom knew a cover two from zone blocking.
But that’s OK. All we need to do is remember.

Posted by George Ayoub at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)