City recreation leaders not in favor of lighted tennis court plan near Lawrence High

I would not call anything that costs a quarter of a million dollars "minimal."

Other than Deerfield needing a paint job, is there any real problem with the existing lighted courts?

Are they already being used to capacity? If I drive by them tonight, will I find a line of LTA members waiting for a chance to use them?

And what about Jayhawk Tennis Center (used to be First Serve) and Alvamar Raquet Club?

It seems to me that opportunities for whacking tennis balls after dark abound in this town.

And sadly, there is not a single curling sheet in town. In the whole country. Probably not one in Kansas.

I am reminded of the old expression "I wept because I had no tennis lights, until I met a man who had no place to curl."

May 16, 2013 at 5:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

City recreation leaders not in favor of lighted tennis court plan near Lawrence High

OK, I just looked up the city parks and rec website and it says there are lighted tennis courts at the following locations --

Deerfield Park, 2901 Princeton Blvd.
Holcom Park, 2700 West 27th St.
Lyons Park, 700 N. Lyon St.
Veteran's Park,1840 Louisana

Is there something wrong with these?

May 16, 2013 at 3:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

City recreation leaders not in favor of lighted tennis court plan near Lawrence High

Why does everyone assume this should be a free service?

Install the lights, and then put them on a meter and charge a per hour rate for using them. Set the rate high enough to cover the necessary utilities and ongoing maintenance, plus enough more to recover the construction cost over a reasonable period of time.

Then, if someone wants to play in the day time, they should go for it.

And those who simply must play at night are welcome to feed the meter and pay for what they use.

Better make sure those meters take credit cards, and probably also should make sure they take American Express, because my guess is that the special people in LTA are not prepaid MasterCard debit card people.

May 16, 2013 at 2:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Lawrence ranked second-worst-performing small metro area, according to new national economic index

We need more minimum wage service and retail jobs, but we've run off Lowe's and Olive Garden and Menard's.

April 30, 2013 at 11:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Land swap between KU and Endowment Association gains committee approval

That was a problem with those lots even back when I was a scholarship hall resident more than 40 years ago.

I don't know what happens now, but we used to conduct organized water balloon raids on the porch of the Wheel when it was warm, and since this was a time of unfettered access to illegal fireworks, these raids were occasionally supplemented with "artillery."

And when it was nice and cold, one could do wonders with a squirt bottle on door seams, windows and locks.

January 31, 2013 at 3:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Chutney's Indian restaurant set to open on Monday; burrito madness in downtown Lawrence

I like the yellow goop and some of the red goops, but I don;t much care for the green goop.

January 30, 2013 at 5:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Water service restored to parts of Lawrence affected by broken water main

"City officials reached Saturday could not say what caused the failure"

Could not say, or would not say?

I find it hard to believe that they do not know.

January 28, 2013 at 9:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Water service restored to parts of Lawrence affected by broken water main

This one may not have been failing infrastructure. There has been construction around that corner the last few weeks, including precisely in the area where this break occurred.

This one is worth a follow up, Journal World.

If this was old infrastructure, that's one thing.

But if this was as the result of some simpleton with a backhoe digging into a water line, then someone ought to be paying for all that overtime last night and all the repair that will be necessary to restore that intersection.

Someone other than water customers, that is.

January 26, 2013 at 12:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Note to court: Effect is a noun; affect is a verb ... except when they're not

I get hazy on using quotes and commas for titles, but now with modern word processing, most of the time you can just cover your bases by using italics. Then you don't have to worry about where to put the comma.

In case anyone cares, the word "blurb" was coined by Gelett Burgess, who also gave us this --
I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!

It's a terribly slow day at work.

January 23, 2013 at 4:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Note to court: Effect is a noun; affect is a verb ... except when they're not

The use of "data" as a singular mass abstract noun has become standard. It has come to mean "a body of facts." But you can still use datum/data if you want.

We are Americans. If enough people make the same usage error, it becomes standard.

I try to put my punctuation inside the quotation marks, but I really do like the British way better. Anyone who writes code knows that things inside the quotes are literal and part of the quoted material, and those commas and periods and what not inside there just do not belong.

I also an fine with the use of "hopefully" as a sentence adverb.

January 23, 2013 at 3:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )