EP #2 - Dave Loves Matt Steinhausen

This is episode number 2 of the Slacker Dave Loves Nebraska podcast and there is video!
On this episode David Rabe, the longtime host of the Slacker Morning Show on KZUM (89.3 on the FM dial in the Greater Lincoln Metroplex or online anywhere in the world on kzum.org), sits down at The Hi-Way Diner with Matt Steinhausen, author of the books The Least Interesting Place and The Unauthorized Biography of Lincoln, Nebraska, about all things Nebraska. Thing go off the rails quickly but topics include: the best patty melt in the state, did the Reuben sandwich show up in Lincoln before Omaha, was the sculpture called "The Protecting Hand" that is located on the front entrance of the old Woodman Insurance Building ever nude, alphabetical order of cities along rail lines, was the "roach clip" invented by a prominent UNL graduate and donor and much more!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:44

And now, Slacker Dave.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Hey, hello. Welcome to the Slacker Dave Loves Nebraska podcast. This is episode gonna be episode number two. Two, as I like to say. I'm at Highway Diner today. I'm with uh Matt Steinhausen. And our food just showed up. Yeah, excellent. Our food just showed up right as we started this. Yes, I have the right toast.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, all the good stuff. Yep, yep, heck yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Is this one yours now?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Patty belt with fries. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Do you need anything else?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

No. This is perfect. No, thank you. Um god. So uh we're doing this interview at the highway diner. I want to introduce uh Matt, Matt Steinhausen, uh author of two books. Direct. Two books. Uh The Least Interesting Place in Nebraska. I don't know if you can see that very well. We can bring it like through this. There you go, there you go. Might be backwards. I don't know. Who knows? And what's the other book called?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

The Unauthorized Biography of Lincoln, Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Unauthorized biography of Lincoln, Nebraska. So uh Matt knows a lot and has done a lot of research on the state of Nebraska and with an emphasis on Lincoln. Would we call it that if we're writing a doctoral? I would say so.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

It's it's uh it's it's diverted into that direction. I've always been interested in Nebraska and Lincoln. Uh, but Nebraska, and I love ketchup. I'm gonna first fill in the speaking of Nebraska, one of my research uh projects. Oh, your latest one? Is this your latest one? But this is this is the latest indoctrination of it. Uh, is my I'm researching patty melts, and everywhere I go in Nebraska, I try the patty melt if it's on the menu.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

And the best one I've had so far, I think, was in Taylor, Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Where's Taylor, Nebraska?

SPEAKER_02 2:54

That's pretty central. Uh, it's west of Burwell, uh, you know, north of Grand Island, kind of maybe north of Carney. Uh, but it they had a Taylor's a cute little town with uh like a hundred cutouts of people around the town. So it looks like there's people walking around town.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Oh, I think I've seen that on like pure Nebraska or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

But they had a restaurant bar kind of kind of place uh on the uh uh southeast edge of town, and uh every time I'd drive past there, I'd get their patty milk. I think it's funny because you go to so many places and you and you order patty milk and they don't have marble rye bread. But in Taylor, they always had marble rye bread, and I thought the one place that I thought wouldn't have marble rye bread was Taylor. But sure enough, every day or every week they got a delivery of marble rye.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Oh my god. That's pretty cool. Oh is there um is there a vast difference in the uh the uh the ingredients or anything in the patty melt? I mean, yeah, what do you wait? I don't even know. Where did the patty melt originate? No, no, it's one of those like Earl of Sandwich kind of things. As I say, the mystery is better than the solution.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

It's better not knowing, maybe. But universally, patty melts should have sauteed onions, hamburger, marble, toasted marble ride bread, and cheese, and whether it's Swiss or another white cheese, like like what's another white cheese other than Swiss? Uh mozzarella. I don't know what kind of cheese it is. Monterey Jack.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Munster, maybe? Munster is like the greatest melting cheese ever. If you don't use Munster in your grilled cheese, you uh miss it up. Well, I'm not, you know, I'm no I'm no food expert, but I truly believe Munster adds to the grilled cheese. Well, I believe that. With even with another cheese. Okay, but we're not here to talk about cheese.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Well, no, I think it's important to note though while we're on the patty melt, I don't like marble rye bread, and I don't like most cheeses. But when you mix whatever cheese that is with that marble rye, there's something magic that happens, and it's it's amazing, and I love it. So, and by the way, the highway diner has an excellent patty belt. Oh, yeah. Two bites in.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah. I wouldn't expect any otherwise.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

But one food is uh the Rubin was invented in Omaha, right? Or maybe Lincoln. Or maybe Lincoln. Oh, come on now.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Yeah, yeah. Um, there are some arguments that the Reuben originally was served at the Cornhusker Hotel in downtown Lincoln.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Because they claim that where it was founded in Omaha, it was served later than it in Lincoln. But the the reason there's a connection there is because both hotels were owned by the same person or company. Or maybe their kitchens were run by the same kind of company. But either way, there was a connection between the two hotels. So it's believed, and there are some people that argue that the original Rubin started at the Cornhusker in Lincoln.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Okay, okay, excellent. I learned something today. I learned something today.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Now, I'm not making that argument. I'm only saying that other people have made that argument.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

What do you have a an opinion? Or are you just going with uh until the facts straighten themselves out? I'm going with that.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Did I already say that the mystery is more important interesting than the solution? Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

I I see a I see a I see a running theme here.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Um I also say always, the truth is stranger than fiction. Even if we knew the solution, there's probably another story that goes along with it. Oh, yeah, yeah. And so where it really was founded? We'll never know.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Okay, that's that's super cool. What other uh oh god, I don't even I didn't even say I was gonna mention anything about this. What but what other are there any other foods that are claimed of uh grow uh of Nebraska? Other than my favorite of all time. So by the way, this is my right now, this is my dream uh interview is with somebody from Dorothy Lynch, by the way. I'll I'll tag you, don't worry. Heck yeah. It's the you know the story about Dorothy Lynch. Not actually Columbus, it's actually uh Duncan is where it's made, just just west of Columbus. Yeah, the home of the uh Ross Schlesinger. That's what I hear.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah, that's what I hear. I did not know that Ross Schlesinger was brothers with Corey Schlesinger, the fullback. I still don't know that, but that's what I was told recently, and I thought that was pretty bad.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

And don't forget uh Scott Schlesinger, yeah, yeah, the uh mastermind of Ezra that's been playing music in Nebraska.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

No, I didn't know that since since like the 80s, too.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Oh yeah, great family, great people, good people. I've never met Corey, but you know, Scott and Ross, great people. Cool, unique. But Dorothy Lynch, tell me more about Dorothy Lynch.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

I was founded there was a uh club in St. Paul, Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yes, yes, that's where I remember starting as actually in St. Paul.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Is that a VFW club? Let me see if I'm I'm I don't know, I don't remember, but uh it was it was it was the uh I think it was Dorothy Lynch who uh either owned it or ran it, made her own dressing, and uh it got popular. And uh her recipe somehow ended up in the hands of the I don't know if they sold it. There's been some controversy about how Dorothy Lynch ended up in Duncan and and whether there was I don't know the whole story, but you know what they say the the uh the mystery is better than the truth. The solution. The mystery is better than the solution. Oh yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you. But yeah, that Dorothy Lynch is made in a very mysterious factory on the east side of Duncan, Nebraska. And I don't even know if it's in operation, but maybe a day a week. But I've driven up to it a couple times before. And it's usually vacant. No, but no cars in the parking lot. Because I don't think they I think the the factory is big enough where they need to start it up.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Probably make a batch.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

We're gonna find out. Don't worry. I don't want to find out. I will I I I want to see the Dunkin', I want to see the the factory.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Um, while we're on Dorothy Lynch, I gotta, you know, a lot of people say they put it on everything. Talked to a guy today, he puts it on pizza.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Oh, yeah, yeah. People put ranch on pizza. Dorothy Lynch is just as great. I put it on macaroni and cheese. Oh, yeah. We uh we make uh our Mac Mac uh macaroni salad. We take out like three-fourths of the mayo and we just use Dorothy Lynch instead. And it's the best, you know. You gotta go like Fermore basement style with the big old chunks of cheese, yeah, you know, and all that kind of stuff. But you know, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

I'm a big fan.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Speaking of Dorothy Lynch, uh, we ate, uh I believe the company owns a restaurant in Columbus in an old car dealership. It's a a beautiful building. Uh they yeah, they did some work to this thing. It's beautiful. And so we went and ate there. And uh pretty dang good, you know, food. And Amanda loves wings, yeah, yeah. And she's eating the wings and she's like, they use Dorothy Lynch in their in their wings.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

And they made them delicious, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

And the guy wouldn't give it up that it was true, but like, you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

I trust Amanda's taste buds.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Heck yeah, heck yeah. Uh yeah, Dorothy Lynch. That's a great lynch.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

I'll tell you another one.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Oh, you got props. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Pure cheese spread.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Oh, let me see. Let me see.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

I was frozen. I froze it because I got it.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

I bought that at a discounted price. Look at the expiration date. Can you see that? It was expired the week after I bought it. Oh so I it was on sale because the expiration date was just a week or two away. But these tubs normally cost about six bucks. Yeah, yeah. And they were on sale for two dollars each. So I stacked up eight of them in my grocery cart and brought them home, and I froze six of them or five of them. And uh I've been thawing them out and eating them ever since. Uh Pure's cheese spread is one of the most unique tasting cheese spreads I've ever had. It takes it's a it's an acquired taste. But once you acquire it, you're hooked for life. It's made in Sutton, Nebraska at Pure's Market. They had like a I think a grocery store and a butcher shop or something like that, and then they they had this cheese spread recipe. And here we are. Probably being from Sutton, my guess is it uh the founders might have originated from the uh Germans from Russia type of family. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh there's a lot of that out in in that area. And where's Sutton at again? Sutton is west of Lincoln. About I would say about 70 miles, 75 miles.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Uh south of Grand Island. Right before you get to Minden area. Closer to probably closer to Grand Island. Um it's closer to uh it's closer to the little town of Henderson, which is more of a Mennonite community, also, though I think a lot of German from Russia connections there. Sutton's on the in fact, I'll tell you about Sutton. I believe Sutton was on the same route as the the railroad, the first railroad that came through Lincoln and continued west all the way out to uh Denver eventually. But the towns that it came after that railroad is the Burlington, Missouri, because that railroad came from Burlington, Iowa to the Missouri River, crossed at Plattsmouth, and then came to Lincoln in 1870, July of 1870, which was three years after Lincoln was named the capital city of Nebraska. And since the Burlington was the first railroad to make it to Lincoln, keep in mind the only way to Lincoln before that was dusty trails.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

The Burlington gets here, now all of a sudden you can get on a train and go all the way back east without having to ride on a horse and buggy or however you want to or walk or but the Burlington caught to Lincoln, and then it was it was the uh the guy in charge of engineering and building it was Thomas Doan, who eventually built a college in Crete to help encourage the development of this area and bring people to Nebraska. Uh the guy that built it was a guy named John Fitzgerald, and he was an Irishman. He brought a lot of Irish to Nebraska, and he was Lincoln's Irish pioneer. But the reason I bring this up is Thomas Doan, who engineered and brought the railroad through, after it went through Lincoln, it went through a little uh place called Burks. It was named alphabetically each town afterwards. So we have Berks, Crete, Dorchester, Fairmont, Grafton, Harvard, T H I Inland, Junietta, Kennesaw, and right in there, kind of before between uh uh Grafton and and somewhere in there is Sutton. But I think Sutton was already a town, so he couldn't name Sutton, but it was in that area. But all they were each town that I just named are alphabetical order, and each one has a connection to the Boston area, whether it's a street, neighborhood, or a town. Boston, Massachusetts. Wow. Think about it. Kennesaw, Junietta, Harvard, all kind of, you know, Berks is short for Berkshire. All connections to Boston. So that's some people call them alphabet lines in the olden days when early on alphabets would just be named each stop. Each stop on the railroad. They'd have to have towns about every eight miles with water tanks, coal, chute, coal bins. It's about every eight miles or then stop along the railroad.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

So uh Wisner had a railroad go through it. It was it's on 275 where I'm from, and that's named. I believe Wisner was some kind of railroad exec.

unknown 16:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

I had to confirm that probably with uh Greg Moeller. Uh hey, while we're on that. Wisner, that should write a book about Wisner.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

You should.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

He should really write a book. You should, you should. No, no, no, I'm not a book writer. Uh but uh yeah, the railroad is a lot of Nebraska.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

While we're on the topic of that of railroads, um the Havelock was originally called Newton. Newton. Newton, but when it came through, when the railroad came through, the guy in charge of that little segment or that part or that part of the project was a guy named Tooslin. Tooslin, there's a street up there named Tooslin that goes to and one of the other guys that he was working with was a guy named Holdridge.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

And they both and they named it Havelock after a uh like a general in the British Army. Uh I can't remember his name, but Havlock. That they so they named it Havelock in honor of him. But yes, the railroad executives were the ones that had all the power.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

And so lots of towns are named after them or their family members or their friends or the people, their heroes. So, yeah. If you want to name a town in the olden days, go to work for the railroad. You can name a lot of them.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Oh my god. I haven't even I that's uh the alphabet thing is just I'm gonna have to look that on the map now.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

There's another one. There's another one uh further south. Alexandria, Bertrand. Um, I can't remember the other towns along that, but along southern.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Okay. I got it.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

But yeah, those uh if you go down by Kansas, there's another alphabet line with a bunch of towns uh that are named after I think it's Alexandria. Is it Bertrand? I don't know, it's Belvedere.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Belvedere.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

I'm glad I straightened that out. That'd be embarrassing. But yeah, that's another alphabet line.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

We're also doing this while we're eating. Yeah. And you know, can't look at the uh phones for backup or I mean you could. Mine's being mine's right there.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

I can't, because I don't have a smartphone. I've never had a smartphone, never used one in my life. So it wouldn't do me much good to try to use my phone to do any research.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah, that way, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Um, but while we were on that, my mind was oh, multitasking. I can't do it. I call it my Y chromosome defect. You know, it it's I I attribute it, and I'm not a sexist, but I do find that men generally are worse at multitasking than women. And you probably I'll bet Amanda can be go to a party and hear four conversations at the same time and remember them all.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

And I can't remember the one conversation I had.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Well, let me give you my uh my quick hack for uh Dave uh and Amanda for me is I'll be working. I worked, we both work downtown. Um we both work at the zoo bar, and she knows a lot of people. I know a bunch of people. And so people come in and they're like, hey, where's Amanda? I'm her friend, and you know, tell me things. And I just grab the phone and I'm like, hey, let's send her a selfie, and then I can send a selfie, and then you know, I forget things, I don't remember the person's name I'm trying to describe, uh, you know, but once you got that. But you send a selfie, they know who you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah. And uh also our minds work better in images.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

We remember things in images and not videos, but flash images. If you think of your earliest memories, it's like a little flash, a little like a snapshot of a moment. And that's one of the reasons I enjoy taking photos.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

When I look at a photo I've taken, I can remember the circumstances around the situation, you know, when I took that photo better than if I had a videotape of it, of that moment. I I can remember what the circumstances were, what I was thinking, what I was doing. There's something about still images. It's back to that multitasking thing, my filing system, which is pretty overloaded right now. The file cabinets overflowing, but when I have an image to look at to bring me back to a reference point, I can usually kind of focus on that. And and it brings me, it it helps me uh remember things.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Weird, uh uh weird uh worth tangent here, but can you remember like what age you were where you really rem where you know what year it was? Can you pinpoint the year? Like like what how old were you on your your uh year? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, four years old. For me, for me, I was a little I really can tell you what year it was by I remember they tore up the street in my hometown. Okay. And I was I think it was seventy-six, like the bicentennial year. Right. So I remember, like I can remember doing things and so like But I have a hard time early ages. Like, how old was I?

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

I have no clue how old I was.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

I have reference points. Like, I remember I learned to ride a bike when I was four without training wheels. So I use that as a reference point.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Side note, training wheels are not a good tool to teach uh how to ride a bike. You should go with the uh the push the the push ones.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

That's good. That's good to know. I hated training wheels because you go side to side and you couldn't turn. I turned them off right away. Like within about a week of riding a bike, uh, I got the training wheels off right away. I brought all the neighbors together. Literally, David. It was like three blocks away from where we're sitting right now on Tipperary Trail.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Oh, Tipperary Trail.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Got all the neighbors out there.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Speaking Irish.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Yeah. I got uh got my training wheels off, and I was gonna show everybody it was gonna be my first ride. And uh I rode my bike down the sidewalk and I started wobbling, wiped out. All the neighbor ladies came over and like came and they're like, Are you okay? And I was I was devastated, I was ashamed, I wasn't hurt, no, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

My pride was hurt, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

You know, and so I kind of avoided the public eye for a long time after that, and I got anxiety every time I had to perform publicly pretty bad, but I conquered it because you don't run away from fear, you're running into it, and that's how I'm conquering my fear of public speaking or doing a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

I've never known you to not be able to talk. I'll tell you, this is a tangent. But I haven't known you for a long time, you know.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

I think silence is awkward, so I fill that awkward void of silence with my own voice. So if I make a fool out of myself, so be it. Never a fool. But I've I've been around a lot of people that were some of the most entertaining people I'd ever known who just would just ramble on to fill that void. Oh, yeah, yeah to get rid of that silence. And every once in a while, I hit gold. So my theory is eventually you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna tap onto something gold.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

I mean, I like the um I love talking to to to to to the random person at a party that you don't know. You might know them, but you don't know them. Yes, yes. And I love getting when I get to ask questions, you know, get get reference points, you know, like what kind of person this is, you know, who are they truly, you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

I'm not a big fan of beating around the bush.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

In fact, I have a saying. My saying is it shouldn't be impolite to ask the awkward questions up front. No, no, yeah. Because that will help prevent us from uh getting to know a person very well and then realizing we don't like them much later on.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

I mean, you can figure out a lot, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

You can.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

You know. Uh I I just don't I I hate being rude. I don't like to be rude. I mean, but you know. Oh no I can be, I guess. I mean, if I'm pushed toward it. You know.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Yeah. Yeah, it's a reciprocation thing usually. You know, you're not gonna be the first guy to be rude, but you might be the last one to do.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

But also, I mean, I'm also I don't like scary movies. Me neither. If I'm gonna watch a movie for two hours, I don't want fear in my in my in my emotions. Same here. I I want uh comedy. I want something, you know. Sometimes I want something stupid. Yep. You know, I love the the Marx brothers, which is not stupid. Don't get me wrong. That's stupid. Well, okay, I'm gonna stop so I don't go on on that one. But you know, the three stooges is not stupid. But I sometimes I don't want to think. And I, you know, it just uh I just sometimes I just don't want to think. Yeah, you want to be entertained. I want to be entertained, yeah. Yep. But uh I I just there's no I just I try not to hate. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

I it makes total sense. What do they say? It's much easier to it takes fewer muscles to smile than frown. Yeah, it's I think it's easier to be nice than rude, but maybe I'm the exception. Or maybe we're just born that way.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

You know, you're gonna figure it out. You're gonna figure it out eventually. Whatever your problem is, you're gonna figure it out if you want to.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

While we were talking about these things and getting to know people and you work in downtown, I was once at the zoo bar, and I and there was this person that I was sitting next to, and I was asking them their story. And they said, Well, I've been kind of moving around the country for the last 25 years, and I'm just trying to figure out where my real home is, and so I'm just taking a break here. And I said, Usually the place you're at when you're trying to figure out where your next home is, is your home.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

But it was someone from Lincoln who left. And I think it's funny and about all the people who we grew up with who couldn't wait to get out of Nebraska. And I'm fascinated by all the people that have come here from other places who are like, this is my favorite place in the world. Because they've been other places.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

I uh I if if if it's a comfortable situation, you know, and not I'm I try not I don't want to, you know, intrude, but sometimes I ask like an like uh somebody I know where they're telling me their story where they're from, and you know, and uh how and I always want to know is like why Lincoln? And they have different stories, but you know, it's uh Lincoln's a welcoming place. Nebraska's a welcoming state.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

One of the things I think is we don't have the mountains, the amusement parks, the crystal clear waters. That's all right by me. I think everything is what you make of it, and you take the advantage of your opportunities. And personally, there's no place I'd rather take photos. I can't imagine anywhere more interesting to me than Nebraska because I love sunsets. Who has a better where name another state with better horizon? Um the other thing I love is old barns, old houses, lots of barns, prairies, insects, birds. We got it all. I love that stuff. Lots of rivers. I love old farm implements.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Getting into a grove, you can like those uh those old things that the tree has grown through the middle of them already.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Oh yeah. Yeah, there's some of those groves I've seen where there's the old plow that now is like five trees.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Yeah, yeah. There's no way you're you're you're gonna you're gonna ruin a few chainsaw chains getting that out.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Yeah. Yeah. But hey, all right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

We've been on for 29 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Oh my god, it just seems like we're gonna take a quick break, and um I made some commercial kind of things for uh some sponsors. So I you know I've got two of them done. I hope I'll have the third one done by the time this happens. Hey y'all, I just want to thank uh Rourke's Tavern for sponsoring Slacker Dave loves Nebraska. Rourke's Tavern is Lincoln's downtown. It's like a neighborhood bar right in the middle of downtown. We're at 1329 O Street, and uh you know Rourke's I've always described is kind of like the backstage to the Lincoln uh musical community. They do fun things all year round, they got specials every day, they got two pool tables, they do dance parties, they got a chili cook-off every year. So you just want a nice, relaxing time, come on down, see Jordy and the whole family down here at Aurora. Hey, want to give a big thank you to Rick Peters for sponsoring the Slacker Dave Love Nebraska podcast. Rick is an independent insurance agent, uh, AMS Insurance Center. The phone number is 402-476-3599. He's a great guy, great personal service. Amanda and I have been uh customers of his for years. You're just a real good guy. You just you want to come see him. But the most important thing about Rick is he is a host of not one but two shows on KZUM 89.3 FM. Uh he hosts Rockin' Bones on Friday nights from 6 to 7.30. Rockabilly and all that kind of related fun music. And then Tuesday mornings from uh 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. It's the Sugar Frosted Chocolate Bomb Diggity Good Time Show. And you never know what you're gonna hear on there, but you know, they call him Rickabilly. I like to call him Rickopedia. He knows a lot. Great shows. Thank you very much. Hey, uh, I just want to thank uh Pete and Amanda from the Zoobar for sponsoring the Slicker Dave Loves Nebraska podcast. Zoobar, wonderful place. Uh live music almost every single night, sometimes most of the weekends, twice a night. Uh Zoo Fest, July 10th and 11th. Put that on your calendars. But thanks, Pete. You rule. All right, welcome back to Slacker Day of Loves Nebraska. I am with Nebraska expert, Matt Steinhausen. You said it, not me. I know, I know. I'm throwing it out there. I'm throwing it out there. Um, we're at the Highway Diner today. Uh they don't, they're not a sponsor or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

They uh we had to pay for our meal.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

Well, you paid for it.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Thank you for coming on. Uh we just both love the highway diner. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Um I've been coming here off and on for 30 more than 30 years. 40 years almost, 30 some years.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

You know, you know it's a hard thing to figure out is the best diner in Nebraska. Because every diner's different.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

But I think highway diner is right up there. Nebraska Lincoln's got good diners. I love a good diner. Uh Amanda and I, like if we're taking trips, we look for diners. Yeah, for sure. You know, I am a I do believe in the holy savior Waffle House. Uh I've never been. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Uh, I love a Waffle House, but I love a good breakfast. But uh, all right, so we're not here to talk about Waffle House. Even though, hey, Waffle House, you want to be a sponsor, want you want to be on my podcast, I'll I'll take it. Uh same with you, Highway Diner. But yeah, yeah, I'm not asking. Uh so first book you wrote, The Least Interesting Place. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Second, second book you wrote was uh The Unauthorized Biography of Lincoln, Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

I love the unauthorized biography uh title. Uh it is perfect. Oh, yeah, thank you. That was a great meal. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Oh, and by the way, the patty melt here.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Delicious. Right up there. Right up there, right up there.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

Right up there.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

Yeah. Um yeah, everything. I can't. I'll tell you what, I didn't have a bad bite. In fact, you know it's great when like the last bite is as good as the first. Oh, yeah. And that's how good that patty belt was.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

When you want the when you want the next bite, yeah, and it's not there.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Yeah, yeah. And that's that's what that's so I was pretty happy about that.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Yeah. I'm uh I love pancakes.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

You had some beauty, they make a beautiful pancake. It was the size of the plate.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Yeah, they they yeah, they make a beautiful pancake, yes, they do. Uh I adore their pancakes. Yeah. Um, but you know, some places pancakes, um, you know, not that good. Right. Um, I had a friend who uh told me every time he went to like a Chinese restaurant or any kind of Asian fast food standard strip mall thing, he always ordered the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Every time he went to someplace for the first time because he knew that he knew he had a benchmark. And if he liked it and he went back, he would order something different.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

You're right, right.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

But he would always order the same thing every time. Just to this is my judge right here. If you can make this good, I trust everything else. Yes. Um but diners, really never, you never really have a bad experience.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

I can't think of that I've ever had one. I mean, I've had uncomfortable stoop seats, yeah, wobbly tables.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

Yeah. But that's a character.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

That's why you know yeah, that's that's what makes it a diner, actually.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I've been to some diners where it's like, oh, do you make anything from scratch? You know, I mean, are your eggs actually, you know, real eggs? But yeah, uh but yeah, most of it. I just I love diners. Me too. All you diners, I love you. Me too. All right. I want a little, I want to know, maybe um, I don't know if I've ever sent you in this direction before, but I've been thinking about like like the state of Nebraska. If we're gonna talk about the state of Nebraska, we've got to talk about the start. Do you know anything about the geography of the how Nebraska, because we're right on that uh ice age.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Yeah, certainly. I mean, that's why we have so many fossils underneath us. That's why we've got the beautiful Museum of Natural History, other all otherwise called Morrill Hall at the university. Um with the all the mammoth.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

Side note. We looked, uh Amanda and I looked the other night. I don't think they do the Pink Void Laser Light Show anymore.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

Okay, side note.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Side note, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

You ever heard of Mueller Planetarium?

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

You ever heard of Mueller Tower? It's the it's the Kerillin tower that plays music outside of uh the planetarium.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Yeah. Outside by the Andrews and all those things.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

Yeah, in the in the in the loop by the stadium off of Vine Street.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Um, so that tower was named after this guy named Mueller, and the planetarium was named after this guy named Mueller because he donated so much money to the university. Because Mueller was a student at the university studying electrical engineering back when electricity was kind of a newer thing.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

And he made an invention and didn't know what he invented. No, he invented the the little alligator clip to clip onto like electrical things. Wait, what? Yeah, so he created the alligator clip for electronics, like when you're testing electronics and trying to connect wires to things, the little the little clamp with a spring in it. Yeah that was that was invented by Ralph Mueller, University of Nebraska graduate. The the irony of that is those clips evolved into lots of things like like jumper cables. Red, go big red, go big red, right? Jumper cables, everything everything that's kind of his pattern, kind of they evolved from that. The irony of this story is that years after uh Ralph Mueller died, which was fascinating, I think he was in his 80s, and he committed suicide off a tall building in Chicago, if I'm not mistaken, or somewhere, and committed suicide, which I thought was an interesting. You don't hear about 80-year-olds plummeting to their death.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

No, no.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

But uh Ralph Mueller was a fascinating guy. Um he took his company a long ways with this, you know. He was working for someone else when he developed it, patented it, and and kept evolving it. But Ralph Mueller, uh, long after his death, the planetarium starts showing laser light shows.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

And the irony of all of this is the people that went to those laser light shows were often using Ralph Mueller's invention before they walked in the door.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

Oh, God.

SPEAKER_02 39:45

To hold their joints.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Ralph Mueller invented the roach clip.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

Yes. The roach clip was invented by a University of Nebraska graduate.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

And we're celebrated. The celebrated university of Nebraska.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

And most of those people that walked into the planetarium, named after the guy that invented the roach clip, had no idea that they just used a roach clip inventing by the guy whose the planetarium was named after.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

That's awesome. That might be my new favorite story ever. Yeah. That might be Nebraska. Go big red. Go big red. I mean, he invented the roach clip. He did, he did. That was not the intended use. But I mean, it's this patent. That's his that's his that's his thing.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Yeah, for sure. Ralph Mueller.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

Nobody, nobody's ever uh adjusted it for well, I guess they have.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

All they did is put feathers on it. That's all they did. It's the same exact thing Mueller invented, but they added feathers. And now you can hang it from your rear view mirror when you're not using it.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

All right, let's go back to Morhall. Where were we at the end of the day? Fossils, fossils, the ice age. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 40:58

Yeah, well, have you ever heard of uh ash fall fossil beds?

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Yes. Uh on the bucket list.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

Uh oh man, what a place. One place, one small place under roof where hundreds or thousands of animals all perished because of a volcanic uh fallout. All the ash uh just covered the earth, and there was no place to get water, but there was one place at ashfall where there was still some water, and so all these animals congregated there and died uh at this one water pit. Wow. And they all died there, and they were all covered by ash. And so they were they were in essence preserved or I don't know, mummified. No, they were fossilized. Yeah, they were fossilized.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Yeah, the yeah. The mummified with the fossilized, all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

Uh there's there are people that can tell that would correct me on that, but uh they're not here right now.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

And sometime I would love to have you on my show if you, you know, if you were an expert. I'll I'd love to have a geology expert.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

There was a guy up there that worked at that place named uh I want to say his name was Vorhees, maybe or something like that, George. Or anyway, I I'd seen him and I even have photographs of him doing his cleaning his fossils, and uh he was a fascinating guy. He worked at the university as a professor, researcher, but in his summers, he'd go up to Ashfall and work up there. Yeah. Taking up this thing. Uh I I can't remember his name. I probably got it totally wrong, but he was a fascinating guy, or maybe still is. He might still be alive. I don't know. But there was a lot of cool people like that in Nebraska that did a lot of cool things and didn't always get the recognition they deserve.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

No, no, no. Ashfalls.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

Ashfall, up by volcanic. Yeah, because the volcanic ash came down and killed pretty much all the animals.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

And they all died in this one place because that's where the last place where there was water for them to drink. But what happened, I believe, they they concluded that the the ash that they inhaled suffocated them.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

I can see that.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

And then uh where are we at with glaciers?

SPEAKER_02 43:18

Okay. What I can tell you about glaciers isn't much. But what I can tell you is all them pink rocks in the fields came from like Wisconsin or Minnesota or something like that. Excuse me. Because as those glaciers work their way towards the south, they brought those big rocks with them. Can you imagine that? And I believe, I'm not positive, but I believe as the water receded, it helped kind of create some of the formations that we have to this day in Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Well, yeah, you can definitely see. I mean, we have a lot of rivers, a lot of You can see where everything. This is where all the water went. You can see if you drive. For example, if you drive uh I can't remember what highway I'm going up, north, and I'm going to North Bend. And south of North Bend is the platform.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

79?

SPEAKER_01 44:21

79, yes. So south of uh North Bend.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

Oh, yeah, that's a beautiful valley.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

It's like a it's like a nine-mile valley. I mean, you you know, you look at this and you know at one time this was the water was coming through here.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

Might not have been for long.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

It might not have been water, might have been ice. Might have been ice. Might have been that glacier just taking out all the soil and creating that that valley, that plane and that valley.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

Uh that's, or it could have been just one big flood that created this wide, but yeah, that was that was one.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

You know, when those glaciers were backing up and all that water's coming out of them, it's gotta go someplace. And you know, probably a combination of both. Side note, there's a nova on uh what is it called now? Oh my god, it's about a glacier broke the water. There was water behind it because it was melting, and the glacier broke the scab lands.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

Out north, like it starts in Montana and then goes to the Pacific Ocean.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

And there's this on the other side of the continental divide.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

Yeah, yeah, but it's going that way, and like where a glacier they figure out. It's a great story.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

I'll I'll but it created its own like waterway from this flow of water.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Just a huge push. Like, and and you can see, like, as they go, they look, there's like, I mean, we're talking giant things flipping in the the the wick carved everything. Yeah, it's amazing. Uh and it just and it was like, you know, it broke and then it went to the ocean so quick.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

I'm gonna I'm gonna contrast the Platte River Valley, which we're talking about that's so wide and flat, with the Niabrara River Valley, which is more or less just a canyon.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

But here's a fascinating little mystery behind the Niabara River Valley that I've never I haven't been able to figure out. I have some theories, but the land and the bluffs on the south side of the Niabrara River are lower than the land and the bluffs on the on the north side. And all the waterfalls on the Niarbara River are on the south side.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

Yeah, so why is it that the north side is so much different than the south side? Was it on a fault line? Was there a geo geo geographical uh excuse me, a geo, was there a formation uh under the earth that caused this difference?

SPEAKER_01 47:05

Was it what are the what are the hills on the uh Iowa side, the Los Hills? Los Hills.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

I think I could be wrong, but I think the correct pronunciation is Los Hills.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Los Hills?

SPEAKER_02 47:18

I don't know for sure.

SPEAKER_01 47:20

I mean, because that's an interesting formation all the way down that road when you're going down. Yeah, I mean Highway 29? Yeah is that what you're talking about? Highway 29.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

Yeah, all those bluffs.

SPEAKER_01 47:31

Yeah, even going up to Sioux City. The north, uh the north-northeast of Nebraska, pretty dang beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 47:40

One of my favorite places. There's a lot of pictures in that book, uh, up in that that region, kind of where the Niagara meets up with the uh with the uh Missouri River.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Missouri, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Oh, it's beautiful up there. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

Ponka.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

Oh, that's as good as it gets up there.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

Yeah. My dream is to have a cabin at Ponka.

SPEAKER_02 47:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

In the winter when it's snowing. I don't know why, but some reason that's when I want to go to Ponka. I think it would be the most it would be like a Christmassy of all Christmassy things if you went there.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

I think it would, and I don't think you'd have too many other people around you at the time either.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

Well, that's always a good thing. When you're camping, you know, you you want to kind of have your spot.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

But you know, up there is that's where the oldest oak tree in Nebraska was. It died here recently. It was over 400 years old. There was that burr oak up there that was over 400 years old up at Ponka State Park.

SPEAKER_01 48:33

Oh, wow, wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

Yeah. I love that place. Taking the family on that whole northeast Nebraska is is a really cool place to go and travel.

SPEAKER_01 48:43

You know, Amanda and I took a weekender in Sioux City. Yeah. It was glorious.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

You were in Sioux City, Iowa, or Sioux City, Nebraska?

SPEAKER_01 48:53

Yeah, we're back and forth.

SPEAKER_02 48:56

Sioux City, Nebraska is called South Sioux City to the state.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Also Sioux City, uh, South Dakota. Sioux Falls. No, I think there, I think actually. Is there Sioux City in South Dakota? I think that actually Sioux City might be. No, I don't know. Don't quote me on this. I've always assumed, I've always done been another assumption. We know when you assume uh that there's three states.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

Well, I know there's a hill up there where you can see like four states.

SPEAKER_01 49:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

I think you'd see Minnesota from up there. Uh, but I don't know for sure. Here we're speculating. We shouldn't do that.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

But well, hey, now we know uh now people can correct us. So when you subscribe and like and all that kind of stuff, you can comment down below and correct us. Yeah. And then like we'll actually.

SPEAKER_02 49:47

That's how we learn. You don't learn from being right. You learn from being wrong.

SPEAKER_01 49:50

Yes. This is what I know. Somebody tell me that I'm wrong, or or you know.

SPEAKER_02 49:55

You don't learn anything if you if if you're not wrong once in a while and get corrected.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

No.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

But while we're on that topic um of northeast Nebraska, I bought a one year I bought a camera and lens to before my trip to Northeast Nebraska. It's gonna be a family vacation.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:13

And I wanted a new camera and lens. And I told everybody at the camera store that I was gonna go on this trip to northeast Nebraska along the Missouri River near where it meets the Niobrera. And my final bill, it's where they, you know, that's where Mary Weather Lewis and Clark, Lewis and Clark expedition went through up there. My final bill on the camera was 1803. I thought that was you know pretty coincidental.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

Heck yeah, heck yeah. Uh explain to people if they don't know.

SPEAKER_02 50:47

The Louisiana Purchase when when that part, that central part of the United States was purchased from from France, uh, it was in 1803, is when the purchase was made. And that's when uh they assigned uh Mereweather uh Lewis and Clark to explore that the Louisiana Purchase territory. Um and that territory went all the way west to the Pacific Ocean.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:12

And these guys went from I don't remember, Louisiana, very southern Yeah, they're like, I think they went from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

And they had this expedition, they had boats, crew, a boat, a crew, dog. The interesting part of that whole story to me is despite all of the hardships they faced, every single member of that group survived.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

They had some help.

SPEAKER_02 51:44

They had lots of help. You know who helped them?

SPEAKER_01 51:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 51:47

Indigenous people.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

Heck yeah, heck yeah. Couldn't have done it without them. That's very true. But uh also those guys went up all the river. Like we're at a fork. Someone's gonna go up this river. They didn't, there wasn't a map. They were making maps uh of some of the uh drawings from the people that were on that are just amazing.

SPEAKER_02 52:13

No, to be clear, there were fur traders and other explorers had been here, but never made the trek all the way up through the north passage to the river.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

They're going upstream.

SPEAKER_02 52:24

Upstream against the flow of the river.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Yeah. Not easy. Have you ever seen the Missouri River?

SPEAKER_02 52:32

Yeah, not easy.

SPEAKER_01 52:33

No. Now they did do a lot of, I believe there's areas where they did have a horse or a pack, a mule, or someone pulling the boat alongside the yeah. But you know, that's just practical.

SPEAKER_02 52:47

I mean, well, and at the time the river wasn't as channelized as it is, no.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

No, a lot a lot wine wind here.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

And so they could probably uh and but I I suspect it was a little more shallow and might have been easier to to perhaps. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

We don't know.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

Uh but I I believe it was now it's more channelized, but back then it would have been wider and and a little more shallow, I suspect. Which made it would have made it easier to maybe pull that thing, maybe made it harder. I don't know. Who knows? We look forward to your comments to correct us. That's how you learn. Please. But I don't want to learn everything because you know what they say.

SPEAKER_01 53:23

Uh the the mystery is sometimes better than the solution.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

That is correct. The mystery is better than the solution. Not sometimes. Always always. Just like Banksy. I don't want to know who Banksy is.

SPEAKER_01 53:36

Yeah, that bums me out.

SPEAKER_02 53:38

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 53:39

Uh but whatever, yeah, good run.

SPEAKER_02 53:42

I love it. It's gonna get found out sooner or later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:44

That's good run. I hope he banked something. I mean, I hope he stole the bunch of his own stuff. You know.

SPEAKER_02 53:51

Well, now maybe, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:52

I mean, that'd be the thing to do, is you go and you uh you get famous as that guy, like uh the squat or something, you know, and you like people did the same thing to him back in the New York. They would take his graffiti and and rip it off the walls and steal it. Uh so you know, you just have to go rip off your own, like, oh, I'm painted this great thing, and now look, someone stole it. It was me.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

What I think is there had to have been a lot of people who knew who he was, and they kept their mouths shut. And I really appreciate that. I respect that.

SPEAKER_01 54:23

Yeah, yeah, I do too. Uh uh He did God's work there. You know. Yeah, yeah. But art is objective to the person.

SPEAKER_02 54:36

Some people are right, and some people are wrong. Speaking of that, I've I've done a lot of uh research on some of the architecture of Lincoln.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

And a lot of people say the NBC bank building, now it's called the Union Trust and Union Bank Trust.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

It's always the NBC banking.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

It's always NBC to me. I am paying IMP, not necessarily the architect, but it was his firm. Firm yeah. In conjunction with the Lincoln firm who helped out, by the way. But um a lot of people say it's shaped like the state of Nebraska. And I've asked a lot of architects. When I say a lot, that means two. I've I've put the question out there to lots of architects, only two have answered me.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:18

Because I pressed them. And they didn't want to answer me. But it was back to what you said about art. I said, was it made to look like Nebraska intentionally? And they said architecture, how you perceive it as the viewer, is what our intention is.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Oh, yeah, they don't want to give answers.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

They don't.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

They're like magicians. What you what do you uh I also see there's an I and a P on the south side of the building.

SPEAKER_02 55:45

If you look at it, it looks like an I and a P on the south side. Well, or this way, I'll do it this way further.

SPEAKER_00 55:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:51

And I have that in the in my book about Lincoln. I have a photo from that angle to show the I and the P. And if you look at the quilt museum from around in Lincoln uh at 33rd in Holdridge.

SPEAKER_01 56:03

Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 56:05

It also is in the shape of Nebraska. And so, and I I think if you look at it from just the right angle, it very much resembles the shape of Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 56:15

Okay, I'm gonna have to drive by there.

SPEAKER_02 56:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:18

Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:20

You you just from right from around just uh to the to the west of 33rd in Holdridge.

SPEAKER_01 56:26

Okay, okay. Back to the NBC Bank building. Yes, the Union Bank and Trust building. You, in your opinion, think it looks like State of Nebraska?

SPEAKER_02 56:39

It resembles the state of Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 56:42

I'm gonna go with that. I I will accept that.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

Uh and I do believe it's intentional.

SPEAKER_01 56:47

I d I I that's to me, I've always seen it. I mean, you lose the curve around speaking.

SPEAKER_02 56:54

It doesn't have the curve. But when you look at it from that angle, when you're looking at it from uh 13th and oh, uh you can't you wouldn't be able to see that angle of desert anyway.

SPEAKER_01 57:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:06

So I I've also read this is back to where misinformation is everywhere. I've also read that there were 93 windows on the on the east side of the building.

SPEAKER_01 57:18

Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 57:18

One representing each county in Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 57:21

So I started counting the windows. A lot more than 93 windows. Yeah. So uh just so to put that myth to rest.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

Yeah. Well, is that now or now? No? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 57:38

I don't think it's changed. Okay. Speaking of changing, we're kind of getting away from Nebraska and Lincoln here, but I love talking about the naked people on the Woodman building.

SPEAKER_01 57:48

I was gonna, you know, I was in my head as we're talking about. I'm like, uh, I don't even I you know what? We can't talk about this right now. That could be a whole nother podcast. Because we only have a couple minutes left to go here. Wow. Right? It goes quick. It goes quick. That was fast. That was fast. If you want to know more about the uh naked people in the Woodman building in Lincoln, Nebraska, you can find it in the unauthorized biography of Lincoln, Nebraska. Yeah, yeah. But uh man, that I mean, really, you could do we could do a whole hour on the I could.

SPEAKER_02 58:26

We should we should have a call-in show on that one to get all the differing opinions because and when I say opinions, it is opinions because the facts are clear, but there are a lot of people who believe other otherwise. But we're gonna stop there.

SPEAKER_01 58:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, because yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:47

We could go on. I've had a lot of fun, Dave. I appreciate this.

SPEAKER_01 58:50

Okay. Yes or no answer only.

SPEAKER_02 58:53

Okay. I know.

SPEAKER_01 58:57

Yes or no answer only.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

No, the answer is no. I'm not gonna answer. I'm not gonna answer a yes or no question with a yes or no answer only. The model that they were built from.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

Yes. The ones on the building?

SPEAKER_02 59:16

The children are. Okay. The adults have always been clothed, but you can see nipples and ripples. So they look naked when you drive by.

SPEAKER_01 59:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

But the people that say they saw his junk didn't see his junk.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

Okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 59:37

They haven't they haven't chiseled his junk away. It was that never happened.

SPEAKER_01 59:42

All right.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

Well, not since it was made anyway. Oh, that's right. So the answer is yes, the adults have always been partially clothed.

SPEAKER_01 59:52

The kids.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

The kids are pretty naked.

unknown 59:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:56

It's it's soft nudity. You know, it's it's it's not very uh it's soft. They don't they don't really get into the details of the city.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

Man, we could do like 16 episodes on the freaking state capitol.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:11

Literally, yeah, we could.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:13

I mean, the capital is I I it was really hard in my book about Lincoln to narrow that part because not just because the Capitol is so amazing, but because it's so in it's so interesting to me. And it's it's a marvel of architecture, of design, of innovation in a time where and what's remarkable and also of philosophy, because when you walk around that building and you see all the philosophical quotes and the art, um, it's it's a just it's a masterpiece of all the senses.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

And it's very intimidating.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:53

It is.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:54

Oh yeah. If that's not your home court, you're intimidated. If you have to walk down those halls and in in your boots, I imagine even more back in the day things were louder. The boots hitting those concrete floors. Yeah, you know, I mean, that's that would get in your head if you were going to court or if you were trying to petition the government for something, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:21

I can speak firsthand. I have argued before the justices of the Nebraska Supreme Court. I have I have, and I'm not even an attorney. That's a whole nother story. We could do a podcast on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:35

All right. Well, we gotta end this one. We're gonna run out of time. I love it. Uh thank you very much for coming. Give everybody how do they uh get your book, uh, learn about you. You give lectur, you do I give talks.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

Uh they're available at a few of the if we can if we can mention the there's no rule. Uh yeah, there's uh it's available at Francie and Finch Bookshop at downtown Lincoln. It's available at Sower Books in uh in uh Metal Lane. It's available at Myers Cork and Bottle at 13th and South.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Long time, Lincoln.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

Yeah, long time. It's available at Wild Bird Habitat.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:12

Oh both the North and South stores. They've been longtime sponsors of K2M. Nice. And the you know I love them.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:20

I love them. What a and it you should just go in there to smell it because it smells so good. It smells like an old feed store, you know, that bird food, the wood.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

The old feed store smell. I yeah, that little bit of fertilizer and uh the whatever like a hardware store, kinda, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:39

Uh, but it's available in all those places and the Lux uh gallery, uh, Lux Center for the Arts in Northeast.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:46

That's just uh Is it available online?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:49

Off and on.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

Off and on.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:51

Yeah, you're better off contacting me directly, and I'll I'll either deliver it or mail it out. And I'm easy to find. If you go on the internet and type my name, I'm easy to find. Yeah. Or you can call Dave.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:04

Get online, Google, Google.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:07

You can just Google my name, Matt Steinhausen. And then send me an email. Go on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:13

There it is. Yeah. There it is. The least interesting place. I don't believe Nebraska is the least interesting place.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:20

It's not, tongue-in-cheek. I could I but here's the thing. I don't want anybody out of state thinking it is interesting because I don't want them coming.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:29

I want I want fewer people. I'm kind of anti-growth. But let's make that the next podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:37

All right. All right. All right. Thank you, kids. Um, remember to uh tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your family, your uh enemies, everybody about the Sliger Day Love Nebraska podcast. Uh hopefully we can get this thing growing into something cool. So thanks, Matt. Thank you. All right, kids, see you later.