College town coffee house

Let's face it. Lincoln, Nebraska is not a playpen for old goats. This is the home of four universities, the biggest of which is the home of the Huskers, The University of Nebraska.

And don't think for a moment that being in Lincoln means this is a lilly white university. After all, this is where Tommy Lee decided to sink his reality show roots, or root as it were.

The best part of Lincon is The Coffee House. Yes, I mean "The" not just any because there are more than one. The Mill is good. The one near Weslyan University is OK but kinda lame for my taste, but The Coffee House is the best.

The people who work here are just plain fun and it has atmosphere that you would expect in a big city. It looks worn. It has lame artwork from budding artists hanging on orange walls with old paneling going about elbow high. The tables match. The chairs don't. There is a white tile floor that is just uneven enough to make you rock on if you choose the wrong or right table. The conversation flows between far left to further except for an occasional, non-gloating Bush supporter like me.

You'll find a few foreign students who define countries like France and Italy as cool, including a few Arabs who have lost their Muslim ways and taken up cigarettes, coffee, and I suppose other things, too.

This may be the only place in Lincoln where a Husker football loss goes unnoticed. Imagine that. In Lincoln, Nebraka. Isn't that just the horror of "Whoa Nellies."

There is even a regular guy whose mind is just as toast as the skinny pieces of old toast they sell for you to drop into a cup of coffee, or nuked milk, or hot choc or tea. Do you do that to tea? I said I was a Bush supporter so I always give tea drinkers a second look and think Homeland Security should be watching them more carefully.

But this coffee house is really a study in t-shits. That is what a college town is all about you know. Life is lived in a t-shirt. It should be a fairly exciting t-shirt--something with a bar name on it or some travel destination that had to do with a sport or water.

The Coffee House will change soon. No, not the owner who zooms through here like that bird cartoon character who outwits the coyote; or Reyna who can open with the joint using just one eye at 0 dark thirty; or spiked-haired grumpy who always has a smile for even the hapless non-tippers; or Harper with his bushy head of hair who just drives the girls nuts. (I'm sure they see him as someone to mother or a smart guy who can help them pass something like chemistry or math where you use letters instead of numbers.) The Coffee House will change because the right won and passed a no smoking ban in all public places.

God knows that pisses 'em off. I just sit here in my gray Wal-Mart t-shirt and smile.

It's great when you have been almost everywhere and don't care if you impress anyone.

Give me a cup of something dark Reyna, and on Saturday morning, I'll buy a cinnamon roll, too,

Who are you looking at you French commie?