DEC9

DATE WITH A BARMATE

HUSKER WOMEN’S DEFEATS CREIGHTON 66-55

Playboy chooses UNL student for bartender award PAGE 3

Victory against in-state rival leads to 8-1 season PAGE 10 friday, december 9, 2011

volume 111, issue 074

DAILY NEBRASKAN dailynebraskan.com

Virginia Tech shooting results in two deaths dan holtmeyer daily nebraskan

A still-unidentified man shot and killed a patrol police officer before apparently killing himself yesterday afternoon on the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, Va., according to law enforcement and government officials.

Deriek Crouse, 39, was a four-year veteran of the university’s force and is survived by a wife and five children and stepchildren.

Crouse was shot shortly after noon in front of several witnesses at a routine traffic stop in a parking lot near Lane Stadium and McComas Hall, a gym and sports building. The shooter, who was not involved in the stop and apparently walked up to Crouse, then fled the scene, police said.

A campuswide alert and description of the shooter, conveyed by text, phone, email and other media, soon followed from the university. It warned all students and faculty to stay where they were and lock their doors and city residents to stay away from campus.

That alert was lifted after four tense, rumor-filled hours, when law enforcement officials determined there was no longer an “active threat.” They didn’t clarify the shooter’s status or whereabouts at the time the alert was lifted.

Soon after the officer was shot, more gunshots were reported in another parking lot called the Cage, next to the university’s Coliseum and less than half a mile away. A second male was found there with a fatal gunshot wound, according

to the Virginia Tech Police.

A weapon was recovered near the scene.

The man was initially identified as a victim, but after widespread speculation, officials announced late Thursday evening that the man was indeed the shooter.

This is the second shooting on the campus since April 16, 2007, when student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty and wounded 25 others before killing himself. It was the deadliest school shooting in the country’s history, and Thursday’s news brought it once again to everyone’s mind.

“Today, tragedy again struck Virginia Tech,” the university’s president, Charles Steger, said in a hastily called afternoon press conference that coincided with the end of

SHOOTING AT VIRGINIA TECH LEAVES OFFICER, GUNMAN DEAD Thursday, an unidentified man shot and killed a Virginia Tech police officer at the Cassell Coliseum lot. The man then fled toward The Cage parking lot, where he was found with a fatal gunshot wound and died at the scene.

Cassell coliseum lot

The Cage parking lot

bea huff | daily nebraskan

the campus alert. “I can only say that words don’t describe our feelings. Our hearts are

broken again, for the family of our police officer.”

University officials had

va tech: see page 6

MARY-ELLEN KENNEDY | DAILY NEBRASKAN

Adam Kruger, a sophomore agriculture business major, Derek Goll, a freshman general studies major and Tyler Brummond, a sophomore agriculture business major, play basketball at the East Campus Rec Center on Thursday.

The rec will be closed for good by May 2012. The new rec is expected to open by May 2014.

nickolai hammar | Daily Nebraskan

Adrian Lara, a computer science graduate student, rides his bike to work at the Scholl Center every day. He said if the five-minute ride was any longer, it might prevent him from commuting with his bike during the winter time.

snow ride

story by tammy bain | photo by nickolai hammar

W

hen Rafael Leano, a Colombia native, gets ready to head to class this winter, he doesn’t just throw on a coat for a brisk walk. He layers. And layers. Leano will bike to class, all harsh-Nebraska-winter long.

Leano, a first-year graduate student in computer science, is just one of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln students who will continue biking to campus, despite freezing temperatures, icy sidewalks and streets that may not always be cleared.

Unable to depend on the shuttle system every day, which only runs until 5 p.m., Leano either bikes both ways to class or brings his bike with him on the shuttle to bike home.

And Leano is no snow-biking expert – this is his first winter in the United States. With bike routes from his apartment not being cleared

off, he said he rides in the street where the roads are usually cleared. When they aren’t cleared, Leano often has to get off his bike and walk it for part of his trek.

Leano said his experience with Nebraska winter drivers has been positive so far.

“When they pass, they keep distance,” he said.

But he still takes extreme caution.

“I’m still taking the chance,” Leano said.

Though he’s currently trying to purchase a car, Leano said driving would be just as challenging, because he’s never had to drive during winter conditions.

“If you ride in the snow and you fall, you get up,” he said. “If you drive, then you could get in a crash.”

Leano said he still plans to bike after buying

bikers: see page 2 point/counterpoint page 4-5

So this is Christmas an atheist, a muslim, a christian and a jew discuss the holiday

a&e page 5

Steam leaks threaten East Campus Rec Frannie Sprouls One more semester is left for the East Campus Activities Building, otherwise known as the East Campus Recreation Center. But the end might come sooner than May 14.

Since the heat was turned on in October, more than a dozen minor steam leaks occurred, said Stan Campbell, director of University of Nebraska-Lincoln Campus Recreation.

If a major steam leak were to happen, the building would be closed and equipment moved to the temporary building.

“If we do have a major steam leak, it’s going to be a lot of money to repair,” Campbell said. “It just doesn’t make sense to put a lot of money into a building that’s going to be demolished.”

The finishing touches on Fleming Fields Annex

basketball page 12

(Re)Make my day columnist helberg reflects on unoriginal films @dailyneb | facebook.com/dailynebraskan

if you go

Daily Nebraskan

Running out of time Husker men have improving to do before Big Ten play

when: Tuesday, Dec. 14 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. where: Sunflower Room, Nebraska East Union

Students will have the chance to offer their input into how the East Campus rec center will turn out.

Students from East and City Campus are invited to attend.

Building (FFAB), located near 33rd Street and Leighton Avenue, will be finished

by Jan. 1, 2012.

Equipment will be moved into the FFAB if a major steam leak occurs.

“I think we could do it in a two-week period,” Campbell said. “We’d have to hire a company to move the

east rec: see page 6

Weather | snow

26°9°

2

friday, december 9, 2011

Daily Nebraskan

Perlman: UNL master plan must change consultant also will review the possibility of Daily NeBRASKAN retail growth across HoldThe University of Nebras- rege Street. Increased reka-Lincoln cannot con- tail development could tinue planning as usual, lure more students to East according to UNL Chan- Campus, which Perlman cellor Harvey Perlman. said was important to poAt Thursday’s Univer- tential housing expansion. sity of Nebraska Board “You can build housof Regents meeting, Perl- ing, but you’ve got to get man called for a change students to want to live in campus planning as the there,” he said. university prepares to inAnother possible change crease its student body, to the City Campus layout faculty and research fund- might be the development ing by 2017. of the green space north “(Change) is pretty hard of Kaufmann Residence to avoid Hall, which Perlman said at this officials have looked at as point,” a possible site of a new P e r l business college. m a n The university of the said. future could feature taller Most buildings and fewer open of the spaces, he said, as the 2006campuses’ space supply 2 0 1 5 shrinks.

U N L Perlman said future M a s building construction perlman ter Plan could stress taller buildprojects ings, making the threeare completed or close to story buildings obsolete. completion. Perlman told Despite taller buildings the board that the uni- and a denser campus, the versity plans to bring in university will not morph a private planning con- into a concrete jungle, he sultant to develop a new said. The university will master plan in the next do its best to maintain two years. So far, the uni- green space and aesthetversity has completed or ics in the master plan uppending completion for dating process, he said.

21 City Campus projects University officials will and 12 on East Campus. launch a request for conA growth to 30,000 stu- sultant bids in the spring, dents, increase of faculty Perlman said. He estiby 160 and pursuit of $300 mated the consulting cost million in research fund- at around $100,000, but ing will likely mean ad- the final cost will depend ditional housing on East upon which firm receives Campus, larger buildings the contract. and an increase in scale Increasing UNL’s size and campus density. and scope will require “Ten years just seems input from students and like too long a time with faculty in the process. o u r Staying ahead of the exc a m panding university will puses not be easy, Perlman said. going “We have a lot on our through plate … it will be comthese plicated and not a simple changmatter to get there,” he e s , ” said. said NU At the meeting, the Presiboard approved the elimid e n t nation of the industrial J.B. Miland management systems milliken liken. engineering department F o r in the UNL College of Enthat reason, Milliken said gineering. the university chancellors The department was will now provide master among the budget cuts anplan “snapshots” at the nounced last spring. The midpoint in their campus’ cut does not affect the 3010-year plan to assess the 40 students currently enuniversity’s rolled in progress. the maTen years The notion jor, who that East Camwill be just seems pus housing allowed like too long should be relto finegated to agish their a time with riculture studegrees, dents has to our campuses Perlman change, Perlsaid. going through man said. As T h e the student universithese changes. population ty did not j.b. milliken terminate grows, the nu president chancellor said any faca new master ulty in plan will have the cut, to include additional resi- and many moved to the dence halls, open to all college’s mechanical enstudents. gineering department, the In addition to logisti- chancellor said. Those cal changes on East Cam- professors will continue pus, such as increasing to teach some of their transportation availability, specialty areas, he said.

Perlman said the private RileyJohnson@

Riley JOHNSON

DailyNebraskan.com

lauren olson | daily nebraskan

Lutheran Chapel delivers blankets to homeless Mary Rezac Daily Nebraskan

On freezing-cold winter nights, students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Lutheran Chapel hit the streets.

New this year, Pastor Bill Steinbauer got the idea for a personal-delivery blanket drive from friends who were handing out food to Lincoln homeless.

“I have some friends from another church who have spontaneously gone around town and handed out food, and I started to think of other needs we could meet,” Steinbauer said.

The need for blankets was something that hit close to home for the Lutheran Chapel.

“We have quite a few homeless in and around our building,” Steinbauer said.

He said he asked a few small group Bible studies to help hand out blankets to these people and others who are homeless in Lincoln.

“There’s a bridge on West O Street, there’s an ongoing homeless community

that lives underneath that bridge,” Steinbauer said.

“It’s a very transient community so we’ve met new people every time. There’s also a community under the bridge on North 27th Street where we’ve delivered blankets.”

Steinbauer said the need for blankets is ever-present, as the people of the homeless community don’t have anywhere to secure their belongings.

“What we’ve learned is that during the day these people will go somewhere to get warm, and they’ll come back and find their stuff stolen,” Steinbauer said. “We can give them a blanket on Wednesday night and by Friday night it’ll be gone.”

Freshman business administration major Mike Wallace got involved through a freshman Bible study. He helped deliver blankets under the O Street bridge.

“Some guy took a liking to me and started talking to me about being in the Vietnam War,” Wallace said.

Steinbauer said the war veteran was still “reliving

some of the atrocities of war, and he had such an incredibly guilty heart. Everything he’d experienced, it was just a part of being a soldier, but he started weeping and grabbed onto Mike,” he said.

“He hugged me a lot, so I was kind of out of my comfort zone,” Wallace said.

After the initial shock, Steinbauer said Wallace was able to comfort the man.

Junior electrical engineering major Isaiah Burger has also gone to deliver blankets.

“I just felt really sad for them,” Burger said. “They’re living under the bridge and it was freezing cold outside.”

He said that the people he delivered to said they don’t want to go to homeless shelters for various reasons. Steinbauer said that this is why students personally deliver the blankets.

“There are two reasons we deliver. The first is that these individuals don’t access the services of the shelter, and there are a lot of reasons for that,” Steinbauer said. “The other reason

is that when I look at the heart of Jesus, he was about meeting tangible needs in simple ways,” Steinbauer said, “And that’s what we’re doing, it’s a way to follow Jesus.”

Wallace and Burger both felt it was important to personally bring the blankets to the homeless communities rather than just donating them to a shelter.

“I think when you actually go and talk to the people you’re giving them to, you can actually hear their stories, and they know you care,” Wallace said.

“When we deliver in person, (the people receiving blankets) get to say, ‘Hey, look, someone cares for me, they know we’re down here,’ instead of, ‘OK, the institution cares for me,’” Burger said.

Students wanting to donate new or gently used blankets can drop them off at the University Lutheran Chapel at the corner of 16th and Q streets. Donations will be delivered throughout the winter.

through the winter. the street,” Lara said. “If it’s Andrew Holcomb, a 2011 not a snow route, I take the UNL graduate who will re- sidewalk.” turn as a graduate student Holcomb said that while next semester, said that his usual bike trails didn’t while not every employee get scooped the earliest, rides year-round, many of “the roads have been really them take pride in it. good.”

“A lot of us E v e n were lookwhen surWe call it ing forward rounded by ‘adventure to the first ice, Lara said snow,” he biking.’ It’s he managsaid. “We call something we es to find a it ‘adventure patch of cebiking.’ It’s look forward to ment to cons o m e t h i n g each day.” tinue biking we look foron. The only andrew holcomb time he has ward to each unl graduate day.” to walk his W h i l e bike is when some emleaving his ployees of Outdoor Ad- parking lot, which is comventures do have cars, and pletely iced over, he said. simply choose to ride to While Lara said he’s not school in winter conditions, scared when biking in winHolcomb, like Lara, doesn’t tery conditions, he’s also have a car. He’d rather not careful. pay for gas or parking, he “I’m going slow,” Lara said. said. “I can stop whenever This is Holcomb’s second I want.” winter on bike. Last year, he Holcomb is a bit more said, he would park some- concerned about traffic where close to campus for when he’s biking. free and bike the rest of the “A lot of people will folway. low you way too close,” he Lara and Holcomb both said. “It’s definitely somehave the same, practical thing I think about – whethstrategy. er people will stop in time.”

“If it’s a snow route, I take Lara said that though it

would hurt more if he fell on his bike, it would cost more to be involved in a car accident. Holcomb said that while he has personally fallen on the road before, he has never been seriously injured.

One thing that helps Holcomb this winter are new tires, specifically designed for the conditions, he said.

“Winter tires have tread on them like a car tire,” he said. “Summer tires have absolutely no tread. It’s slick.”

Some tires are even designed with pieces of metal that come out of the tread, he said.

While this is the first snow, Holcomb doesn’t believe the winter cyclists on campus, especially those at Outdoor Adventures, will be tired of “adventure biking” by the time the last snow rolls around.

“We all enjoy it quite a bit; it’s a different way to bike,” he said.

While Lara said he believes it’s not as safe to be on a bike in the winter as it would be in a car, he can agree with Holcomb that this adventure makes the biking all the more fun.

maryrezac@ dailynebraskan.com

bikers: from 1 a car, as long as there’s no ice. He said biking in the winter isn’t too difficult.

He just gets tired more quickly.

Adrian Lara, another firstyear graduate student in computer science also rides to school in the winter, but, in contrast to Leano, he loves the conditions.

This is Lara’s second North American winter, the first having been spent in Jackson, Wyo., after moving to the United States from Costa Rica.

Biking is most convenient to Lara, who said buying a car would be expensive.

“I don’t have a bus stop in front of my apartment,” he said. “A bus would take walking a lot, so I don’t do it.”

In fact, the conditions are what Lara loves most about biking.

“I can use my bike as transportation,” he said.

“But I prefer if it’s challenging. Winter is the time to do it.”

Lara isn’t the only UNL student who loves the challenge of winter biking.

Many students who work at Outdoor Adventures, the on-campus outdoor activities store, continue to bike

tammybain@ dailynebraskan.com

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3

friday, december 9, 2011

Daily Nebraskan

east rec: from 1 EAST CAMPUS REC CENTER TEMPORARY LOCATION Transition Timeline

Ammenities & Building Features

May 7-13 City Rec Center closed for annual maintenance

-Member services -Heating and air conditioning -Towel service -New ceiling tiles and lighting -Check-out equipment -New wall paneling -New water fountain -New windows and doors -New day-use lockers -Refurbished exterior -New changing stalls -On-site and on-street -Women’s restroom parking -Men’s restroom -Retail items -New unisex wheelchair-accessible restroom with shower

May 14 East Campus Activities Building closes May 29, 2012 FFAB opens

Playboy picks UNL student as Barmate of the Year Maren Westra Daily Nebraskan

As a college town, Lincoln has its fair share of teenage and 20-something waiters, waitresses and bartenders trying to earn some extra money while managing school. Hannah Gappa, senior marketing major, is no stranger to that scene.

Hired at Lincoln’s The Bar 2-1/2 years ago, Gappa is described by The Bar’s general manager Colin Daro as “an excellent bartender.”

Playboy agrees.

The company recently awarded Gappa with the title “Barmate of the Year” and gave her a deal filming ads for Sobieski Vodka.

Gappa filmed two short clips advertising the liquor. for Playboy, he has noShe described the ads as decisions.”

Despite her fears, Gappa ticed some increased con“safe for work.” has not en- versation between patrons Gappa dured much when she works. was no“I definitely know people criticism. ticed by At first, my “ E v e r y - have come in just to see Playboy afparents were body’s been her,” he said. He described ter submitsup- these people as being of ting phoshocked,” she said. really portive,” she all ages, from “young coltos in the “But they know lege guys to old guys.” said. summer of According to Daro, the Gappa said 2010, just I’m an adult and she was se- reputation of The Bar before she let me make my lected Bar- didn’t suffer because of entered her mate of the Gappa’s decision to pose own decisions. junior year.

Year by a for Playboy.

Playboy hanna gappa group of Play“I don’t think it hurt us emailed senior marketing major, by any means,” he said. “A boy staffers.

G a p p a “They’re a great-looking girl isn’t go“barmate of the year” back and really, really ing to drive anyone away.” following He said that he somegood compasome cortimes respondence, flew her out ny to work with.” n o The process to Chicago for a photo I don’t think tices shoot. Gappa was initially Gappa had to go peoBarmate of the Month in through was proit hurt us by p l e because July 2011, and her pic- longed, any means. A talktures ran in the Playboy she applied and i n g magazine. The Barmate was selected begreat-looking about of the Year is only noted fore she was 21. girl isn’t going h e r online, so the award is on She had to wait unthe the Playboy website rather til her 21st birthday to drive anyone at b a r . before filming the than in the magazine.

He beaway.

Before submitting the Sobieski ads. lieves Gappa was inphotos, Gappa said she colin daro p a r t was nervous about becom- vited in August to general manager of the bar of the ing affiliated with Playboy. spend six months reason She said her motivation bartending in Cabo peocame from her best friend San Lucas at forand roommate, who, mer playmate Jayde Ni- ple are so interested in cole’s bar Gappa is because The Bar “watched Pink Kitty. is in a college town. He ‘The Girls Everybody’s Her last day said The Bar and many of Next Door’ at The Bar its regulars will miss her. been really religiously.”

According to Gappa, was Dec. 1.

H e r supportive.

“We al- other waitresses often get friend’s ad(Playboy’s) a re- ready miss asked about her. The buzz vice brought Daro she and other employresults for ally, really good her,” said. “(But) ees at The Bar hear isn’t a Gappa, who company to who gets to problem for her. She said then had to bartend in that after her photo shoot, face the rework with.

Cabo?

It’s the biggest difference was actions of her peers.

Hanna Gappa awesome for that more “random” people came to The Bar, which her.”

“At first, senior marketing major Daro said she said usually has mostly my parthat although regulars. ents were “It doesn’t bother me,” shocked,” she said. “But he isn’t sure how much they know I’m an adult business has increased af- she said. “I embrace it.” marenwestra@ and let me make my own ter Gappa’s photo shoot dailynebraskan.com

Strength training equipment

Ellipticals/Stair Climbers Emergency exit

Staff storage/ Maintenance & Custodial

equipment, because you’re talking about very heavy equipment.”

At this point, Campbell said proposals from moving companies have not been looked at.

The East Campus Rec Center is in rough shape, said Association of Students of the University of Nebraska Sen. LJ McElravy, a human sciences graduate student.

McElravy has worked on the “Say Yes 2 Better Rec Centers” since its beginning.

“It seems like there’s someone working on the pipes each time I’m in there,” McElravy said. “Every morning, I work out at the East Campus Rec Center and each morning, I wonder if it’s going to be closed for good.”

An average of 350 to 400 students visit the East Campus Rec Center daily, according to Campbell.

McElravy said the FFAB is

Unisex WC/ Shower

Treadmills

Coordinator’s office

Cycles

I.D. station Entrance

Laundry/ Custodial

Unfinished storage area

Stretching & mat area

Televisions Changing rooms

Bathrooms

going to be a fantastic temporary location and it will have a lot of space for cardio.

“The biggest drawback is that we’re not going to have an open court,” McElravy said. “But there’s no really good options to have a temporary facility to have that kind of service.”

An advantage to the FFAB is the Fleming Fields parking lot, which is not UNL property, so a permit is not required.

Campbell said a path will be created from the parking lot to the FFAB, which will be finished in the spring.

“I think the people who use the East Campus Rec will continue to use the temporary East Campus Rec Center,” McElravy said.

“The other location may be more conveniently located for students who live off campus.”

While fingers are crossed for the East Campus Rec

to remain open through the spring, an architect has been chosen to design the new East Campus Rec Center. “It’s an exciting time for us to finally be working with architects and improve the facilities on East Campus,” Campbell said.

The architect will be on East Campus during Finals Week to gather student input. The meeting will be Dec. 14, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Nebraska East Union’s Sunflower room.

“Because of this project having to be approved by the state legislature, we couldn’t start working on some of those details until a decision was made,” McElravy said. “We want to get student input, so it’s better to do it during finals week than waiting either until students come back or even doing while students are gone.”

franniesprouls@ dailynebraskan.com

for Visit www.unlbookstore.com for additional buyback hours and locations.

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December 16, 2011

4

friday, december 9, 2011

Daily Nebraskan

so this is zach smith

faiz siddiqui

Christmas commercialism saturates all aspects of society, even for people who don’t celebrate the day.

D

ear Reader, I could write you a lengthy discourse about how, as a Muslim, I have a fundamentally different relationship with Christmas

than you do.

Imagine that. We’d delve into the traditional Islamic customs that take the place of gift-opening and family bonding. (NBA on Christmas, anyone?) We’d explore the vast cultural differences, the societal folkways and the rituals that further divide us as people. We’d carefully examine my experiences, juxtapose them with yours, reach some foregone conclusion about how we aren’t all that different. Blah, blah, blah.

The editors would like that.

Instead, I’m going to rant about how inconceivably terrible my life is because I won’t be receiving a pair of Air Jordan 11 Concord’s at any point in the foreseeable future.

This isn’t new. I’ve never celebrated Christmas and thus have never actually reaped the benefits of the self-indulgent consumerism preached by Christians’ Lord and savior Jesus Christ. But this year, I’m especially torn up about it.

After all, these are the shoes that Michael Jordan wears in the 1996 live-action animation thriller “Space Jam,” which is arguably the greatest film ever to irreversibly damage the last VCR your family owned. The Christmas Eve “Concord” release will inspire thousands of dedicated shoe aficionados to give up food and hygiene and a maybe a few frost-bitten fingers (ah, the true sacrifice of Christmas) for the noble cause of getting their hands on a single pair of footwear’s $175 patent-leather-heavy incarnations of Jesus. Picture this materialistic pursuit as Occupy Wall Street with a foreseeable end, a tangible incentive and a totally consumerist agenda.

Like many other sneaker junkies, I must have these shoes.

To put this in perspective, the Air Jordan 11s have only been for sale three times since 2000. The shoes don’t usually hit store shelves – but only because they sell out at midnight releases. Without them, I’ll probably curl up and die an agonizing, despair-ridden death – or at the very least, be stripped of yet another opportunity to have the living daylights beaten out of me for my sneakers. And frankly, I’ve always found the prospect of that thrilling. It’s safe to say the Air Jordan 11’s sit atop the unfortunate list of items I’ll be sorely disappointed not to receive this Christmas. Also included on this extensive, hapless collection of likely unfulfilled wishes are following: 1. Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch: Because anything bigger is excessive) 2. Amazon Kindle Fire (Mostly for Angry Birds, though – who reads?)

3. HP Photosmart Premium NetworkReady Wireless e-All-In-One Printer (roommate still unaware I’ve been using his all semester ... not sure if he reads these things or not) Now, some of you may be wondering, justifiably, why I, a non-Christian, am essentially issuing a Christmas list to you, thousands of cash-strapped university students – instead of maybe to Santa Claus or some other person/entity that’s more likely to respond. That fact remains, I don’t actually need any of these things, nor do I expect to receive them. I don’t celebrate Christmas, remember? I’m sure Santa has me on a separate list titled “not even worthy of coal.”

But that doesn’t make me a victim, or a person worthy of a drop of your sympathy. I hope I didn’t have it earlier (if I did, bear in mind that I wear a size-10 shoe).

But time and again I’ve been told, “Oh, that sucks,” or, “Wow, that’s bullshit” in response to the notion that I, as a Muslim, don’t celebrate Christmas. I guess people think I’m somehow deprived because I’m not showered annually with a mess of gifts including, but not limited to, the newest game systems and fashions and waterborne vehicles. Well, here it is. Why not just forgo the agony? Here’s what I want ...

Any takers? Thought so.

This holiday season, those of moral fiber and hedonic irreverence alike should take a step back and reexamine some important virtues. No, not the irrelevant, arbitrary political gestures that see all secular institutions equipped with Yule Trees and Festivus Poles. Rather than finding ourselves hung up on the frivolous politicking that

appeases those who don’t celebrate Christmas, let’s first make sure we accommodate for those who do. As an ethnic and religious minority who has suffered from the effects of actual bigotry, I find that I can refrain from taking offense to the sight of a decorated evergreen tree with relative ease.

What’s really offensive, though, is the decadence, the obsession with obtaining the most extravagant material things at a time when some are just concerned with finding a pair of shoes that fit. Unsurprisingly enough, a recent CBS News poll indicates that half of Americans won’t be able to afford Christmas this year. Aside from economic factors, this is probably because of a perception of the ideal Christmas, which certainly entails a sizable amount of wastefulness.

Let’s face it: We’re a society obsessed with things. Even those who go to midnight Mass and say, “Jesus is the best gift of all” would be livid to find the 55” 3-D television they ordered a month earlier arrived late. Christmas is, ironically enough, the consumerist stronghold that defines our moral depravity. Mine included.

I’ll always remember the envy I used to feel upon visiting the fellow neighborhood kids on Christmas Day. They would show off their shiny new

game consoles and bikes and Air Jordan’s on a day that, to me, only meant I’d be forced to see Kenan Thompson illustrate the downfalls associated with gluttony in that film depiction of Fat Albert (that was the point, right?)

Needless to say, things are different now. And I do have an actual, reasonable wish for this holiday season: that Christmas celebrators everywhere take it down a notch. Economic woes are obviously incompatible with this boundless pursuit of material things. Americans can’t afford Christmas because they’ve set an unsustainable precedent of excess and indulgence – with the celebration of a man whose mere existence was defined by modesty and humility.

As someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, it’s easy for me to play armchair quarterback and highlight the obvious flaw in this logic. But that’s mostly because the inherent hypocrisy here is punching me square in the face, drawing blood and taking my broken my nose and teeth for souvenirs.

To my fellow Air Jordan connoisseurs: Spare me the jealously, forget the Air Jordans and request a shiny new pair of Reeboks this Christmas. The world will be better for it.

And to anybody who’s feeling extra generous this holiday season, know that No. 3 on my hopeless list still stands. Please, spare me the hassle of having to repeatedly ask roommate’s permission to use his printer. I could really use one of my own.

Besides, isn’t Christmas basically secular nowadays?

Sincerely, Some Muslim guy who guesses we really aren’t all that different.

Faiz Siddiqui is a freshman news-editorial major. Follow him on twitter @ faizsays and Reach him at faizsiddiqui@ dailynebraskan.com

Christmas means gifts, Santa and hope. But for Christians, the season’s greatest message is love.

“W

orship we the Godhead, Love Incarnate, Love Divine.”

The above lines, from Christina Rossetti’s poem “Love Came Down at Christmas,” have stuck with me since I heard them at church on Sunday.

Although I’m a Roman Catholic, when I am in Lincoln, I attend First Plymouth Congregational Church, down at 20th and D streets. For the season of Advent — the awaiting of the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth — sermons focus on this poem. Namely, love.

To some degree, Christmas is about other things. First, the holiday falls on the former Roman winter sol-

stice. Christians need to get over it and acknowledge that the early church set Christ’s birth on an ancient feast day to gain converts and ease the transition from Pagan tradition to organized Christianity.

Christmas is about giving gifts, inspired by the legend of three wise men, or, depending on your reading, kings, who gave decidedly useless gifts to the newborn Jesus. Seriously, what kid needs frankincense or myrrh?

It’s about Santa Claus, and a generous spirit. Christmas is about consumerism, too, for better or worse.

Most of all, Christmas is about love. The love God showed in coming to dwell with us, to teach us and to, yes, save us. Yet, Christians need to realize we saw this before in history, too: the Egyptian pharaohs believed they were the embodiment of a god on Earth. God dwelled in the temple in Jewish rites, which is why its destruction — twice — horrified the Jewish inhabitants of ancient Canaan.

God dwelling with humans is nothing new. But it’s special at Christmas. Maybe it’s the two billion people worldwide celebrating with one voice (with a few exceptions who don’t celebrate) unlike any other Christian holiday. Christmas is Dec. 25, whether you’re in Jordan, Nigeria, China or America. Easter shifts based on the

calendar of your specific sect – Eastern Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics have feuded about this for years. But on Christmas, we are grateful beyond our wildest imaginings as one.

My experience is no exception. Once upon a time, I was a deist, having fallen away from the Catholic Christian belief of my family. Deism is the belief in a supreme being. While it can take many forms, generally the belief maintains that the being has no interest in worldly affairs, and, for that matter, doesn’t interfere in them.

Interestingly, I became a deist after flirting with atheism for a week, ending with Easter Mass at Creighton University. In hindsight, it was obvious then and there that my belief in a god that didn’t interfere wouldn’t stand for very long.

Whether because of cultural upbringing or personality, a belief in an intensely personal yet immensely incomprehensible being was bound to return.

And so it did.

At midnight Mass, Christmas Day, in the same year in which I became a deist, love came down and caused me to believe in the Incarnation again. I hadn’t converted yet, but I was on my way back to a Christian faith.

Fast forward to 2010. Living in Jordan for seven months, surrounded

by Islam everywhere you turn, doesn’t sound easy to most Christians. Perhaps it’s a bit frightening, given American perceptions and stereotypes of Islam and of Muslims. But after I returned, friend after friend remarked how spiritual and religious I had become – as a Christian.

Surrounding yourself with another religion can cause a number of things.

It can make you withdraw into yourself, like many Western (especially Protestant) Christians do in Jordan. It can make you convert and give up your background, assimilate into the belief of the enveloping culture. Or, you can learn from both religions and come out stronger. I’d like to think that’s what I did.

Christmas meant so much to me coming back from Jordan. At midnight Mass, I openly wept in church at the beauty of ritual, the majesty of the celebration of God becoming man. Perhaps I wept because I was up for 23 hours. But maybe, church at midnight, surrounded by loving and caring family and friends, was the reason.

It’s that love that Christmas is also all about. The love of human to human, the giving of gifts, the miracle of charity.

Would that it be Christmas season yearround! There’s a reason, be it guilt or God, that people open up their pocketbooks this time of year.

But I want to return, one more time, to love. Love came down at Christmas, Rossetti said. Worship we the Godhead, Love Incarnate, Love Divine. The Bible tells us God is love, and Christmas is about God becoming man. Love, too, became man two millennia ago. Christmas isn’t just the winter solstice, the retelling of an ancient legend of God becoming man or God dwelling with us.

Christmas is something new. Christmas is love dwelling with us.

Zach Smith is a senior music and political science major. Follow him on Twitter at @smithzach and reach him at zachsmith@dailynebraskan.com.

art by bea huff and lauren vuchetich

friday, december 9, 2011

Daily Nebraskan

5

Christmas rhiannon root

noah ballard

The true meanings of Christmas should be universal.

Kindness and giving are necessary lessons for all.

For Jews, Christmas is a day of loneliness and Chinese food. Hanukkah can’t stack up to Christmas.

M

T

ost of what I know about Christmas stems from TV specials, movies and TV shows. I learned about kindness and the benefits of being a misfit from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

I learned about generosity from “A Christmas Carol.” I learned about embracing the Christmas spirit from “Elf.” And my favorite, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” taught me that consumerism shouldn’t overshadow kindness. The criticism that Christmas is too commercial rings even truer today than it did in 1965.

There are a dozen other lessons here too, like treasuring your loved ones and helping those who are less fortunate than yourself. None of these shows are particularly religious, with the exception of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

But even then, you don’t have to be a religious person to enjoy any Christmas special. Nor do you have to be a religious person to celebrate Christmas.

Let me make a quick distinction here: There’s Christmas the religious holiday, the mass consumerist “holiday” and then there’s the warm, fuzzy nonreligious Christmas that’s full of good cheer and joy. I support celebrating the last one.

Christmas hasn’t been a truly Christian holiday for a long time. The mindless mass-consumerism that’s seized our country is about as un-Christian as you can get. I doubt Jesus would approve of people pepper-spraying one another for $2 waffle irons.

To be fair, the Christians first stole Christmas from the pagans. The early Christians incorporated the winter solstice into their celebrations in order to gain more followers. The “Supernatural” episode, “A Very Supernatural Christmas,” explains the Pagan origins better than I can.

Sam: I mean, pretty much every Christmas tradition *is* Pagan.

Dean: Christmas is Jesus’ birthday.

Sam: No, Jesus’ birthday was probably in the fall. It was actually the winter solstice festival that was co-opted by the church and renamed Christmas. But I mean the Yule log, the tree, even Santa’s red suit that’s all remnants of Pagan worship.

Dean: How do you know that? What are you going to tell me next, the Easter Bunny is Jewish?

To be fair, then the CEOs, businessmen and businesswomen stole Christmas to turn bigger profits in the last quarter of the year. Christmas shopping starts right after Halloween for this reason. This is why we barely talk about Thanksgiving anymore, Christmas has stolen all its thunder. (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, anyone?)

The nasty aspects of the holiday are sometimes difficult to reconcile. The moment you point out that Christmas has become super materialistic, you’re called a Grinch. Or at least I am.

Now a quick word on the “War with Christmas” wherein big-box store greeters say, “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas!” Of all the things to flip out about, this should be near the bottom of the list. I’d be more worried about those who break limbs in the name of your holiday. That being said, not everyone is comfortable celebrating Christmas, though it has increasingly become secular, so they celebrate other holidays in their culture. Nothing wrong with that. And big-box stores don’t want to potentially alienate any clientele, so

“Happy Holidays!” is a smart thing to say.

The ideals of Christmas: kindness, generosity, treasuring your loved ones and accepting others for who they are, are notions everyone should embrace, regardless of religion. If your religion helps guide you to these ideas, that’s fantastic. But, do recognize that sitting in a church pew isn’t necessary for learning morality and acting as a moral person. If morality were entirely dependent on religion, you’d hear about atheists pillaging cities every day in the news. And that’s certainly not the case.

That’s not to say that you can’t make Christmas a religious holiday. Many families attend special church services. (And

he casual observer would think that “Miracle on 34th Street” — the original with Edmund Gwenn — is a delightful little film with few social implications and a strong message of choosing the Christmas spirit over the Christmas dollar.

I remember the first time I saw it as a young child after the Macy’s Day Parade.

There he was, that American icon, singing to some Dutch orphan and preaching about love, hope and identity. But, as I matured, I see films of this nature for what they are: further proof of a collective knowledge that everyone is going to spend thousands of dollars, hang up the lights and dig out the Griswold family Christmas tree.

And I sit and watch you do it, silently shaking my head, while looking through the window of a Norman Rockwell painting of Christian perfection I can’t attain.

I wasn’t invited to the party. I have to wait until you people finish up your seven-fish dinner so I can get back to being productive. Have you figured it out yet? I am a Jew. On Christmas, it doesn’t

sometimes that’s the only time they go to a church.) I’ve spent a handful of Christmas Eves in a church – against my will. And before you ask, no, I didn’t catch on fire. Actually, there’s a small population of atheists (about 17 percent) who do attend church on Christmas, for a variety of reasons.

One of the wonderful things about Christmas being thoroughly non-religious is that anyone can celebrate it pretty much however he or she

wants to. The holiday is flexible enough in its presentation and traditions that you could do all sorts of things.

We should embrace the ideals of Christmas all year long, whether we’re religious or nonreligious.

Rhiannon Root is a senior news-editorial and history major. Follow her on Twitter @rhiannonroot and reach her at rhiannonroot@ dailynebraskan.com.

matter how strong your faith is, in heart or reality.

You celebrate Christmas or you’re a terrorist. It’s as simple as that. And Jews have reconciled this fact for years, while trying to remain relevant: We tried to popularize “Hanukkah Harry” and introduce the dreidel in casinos, both to no avail. Some pandering Jews have even blurred the lines of being American and being Jewish by bringing “Hanukkah bushes” into their living rooms. No bush in the world is going to make that fat man in red forget your last name is Weintraub – You’re off the list!

Recently, during a particularly slow evening at the restaurant where I work, one of my co-workers — the quintessential Nebraskan (Read: fearful of minorities, foreign languages and vegan food) — asked me what I’d be doing for Christmas.

“Same shit I do every year,” I said. “Go to the movies and eat Chinese food.”

Then, “Those are the only things that are

open.”

“You have a tree, though, right?”

“Of course I don’t have a tree. I’m a Jew.” The look of horror on her face was one of the main reasons why, when I graduate next week, I won’t miss Nebraska that much. It stands to further my theory of Christmas and patriotism being intertwined. My interview continued for several minutes, including questions about whether I decorate my house, if my family exchanges gifts on Christmas morning or if we go to church.

While I enjoy driving around my New Jersey suburbs examining the lights during the weeks preceding Christmas with my other Jewish friend Spiel, I don’t participate. Mostly, it’s funny seeing the gentiles piss their money away, but I can appreciate the aesthetic value of lights and colors and music, after all. But, of course, my family doesn’t go to church.

Though again, as a person who can appreciate the tradition in organized religion, I have been to Christmas Mass. It was OK. I recognized a lot of the songs.

I enjoyed the wafer but found the implications of eating it a little heavy for such a small snack.

Where the true alienation for Jews — and all non-Christians in this very Christian society — originates is in the commercialization of gift-giving.

“But, Noah,” they all say, “You have Hanukkah. That’s eight nights of presents!”

Listen up, goyem. Hanukkah is a scam.

Not only is it a fake holiday invented to combat the tear-swollen eyes of Jewish children in late December, eight days isn’t an advantage. By night four or five, you’re getting pencil cases, gift cards for car tune-ups, puzzles, off-brand action figures and all the bullshit that accrues in medium-sized residential homes. With eight days, parents’ originality runs thin, and much like Christmas, you get two or three gifts you actually wanted and a bunch of crap that, while you probably need it, you don’t want to receive it with the pretense that it’s some exciting surprise.

Another plight of the Jews is dealing with this month-long inundation of Nat King Cole, Dean Martin and Josh Groban singing about how this is such a wonderful goddamn time of year. Has anyone been outside lately? This is a terrible time. But we’re all so distracted by Santa that we’re willing to call it negligible.

There’s nothing better than a white Christmas, unless you’re a Jew trying to get to work at your video store job and no one felt like plowing the roads.

What else is there to Christmas that everyone is so excited about?

No one actually likes spending time with family. That’s the gamble that keeps liquor stores in business.

Maybe Natalie Wood — the innocent child from “Miracle on 34th Street” — really wanted that humble little split-level in Ossining with her uptight mother and the recently unemployed lawyer she fashions as a father, but no one really wants to spend more than a montage with his or her relatives.

The reason films like “Christmas with the Kranks,” “Deck the Halls” and whatever else do so well in the days following Jesus Day: Sure this movie sucks, your father thinks, but at least I can be distracted from my yuletide misery by someone else’s. I quote my favorite holiday film, “Christmas Vacation:” As she lights a cigarette brought on by the stress of being around her family for only a few scenes, the matriarch tells her teenage daughter, “I don’t know what to say, except it’s Christmas and we’re all in misery.”

Perhaps that’s the solace the Jews can have to keep them warm Dec. 25: You’re way more miserable than we are, and we can have General Tso’s instead of your aunt’s infamous fruit cake.

Noah Ballard is a senior English major.

Reach him at noahballard@ dailynebraskan.com.

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friday, december 9, 2011

Daily Nebraskan

UNL researchers earn grant to create Census software Maren Westra Daily Nebraskan

At this time last year, while most University of Nebraska-Lincoln students and faculty were finishing up the semester and winding down from their studies, a team of UNL researchers was tackling a brand new project.

Allan McCutcheon, professor of survey research and methodology for UNL’s Gallup Research Center, assembled a team of researchers last winter to apply for a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Co-investigators for the project are Robert Belli, Kristen Olson, Jolene Smyth and Leen-Kiat Soh. Belli, Olson and Smyth are members of the Gallup Research Center.

According to McCutcheon,

the team thought of several Bureau in the 2020 Census. ideas before deciding on McCutcheon said that in one that will improve the ac- the past, census data has curacy of the next national been collected through a census. two-part system. First, forms He said the team then are mailed to every resispent most of dence. Secthe holiday ondly, doorWe felt very break writing pleased. I think tp oe r- sdoonoa rl their proposal and filling out it’s very good (for visits were the application UNL). It gives us some initiated at for the grant. the homes The National additional visibility in that did not Science Foun- the field. return the dation awardform. allan Mccutcheon M c C u t c h ed six large professor of survey research and methodology eon grants and two idensmall grants. tified this UNL received one of the as an extremely expensive large grants and was award- method for collecting data. ed $2.97 million. McCutchHe and his team are tryeon and his team will use ing to turn the census into this money to develop a a three-part system. In this, software that will potentially the two methods listed be used by the U.S. Census above would be used only

after an Internet data form was made available for people to fill out. McCutcheon said the Internet is the cheapest way to gather data.

“The Census is a monumental process,” McCutcheon said.

According to him, each census requires between 12 and 14 years of work from the planning stage to implementation to data analysis.

Belli sees the grant as an opportunity.

“Academic, corporate and governmental partners are all involved,” Belli said.

UNL is one of only three universities in the nation to produce doctoral degrees in a research and surveyrelated program. The program at UNL is called Survey Research and Methodology and is affiliated with Gallup

Research Group.

The other two universities that produce doctoral degrees in this field are the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan.

Although both of these universities applied for grants from the National Science Foundation, UNL was the only institution of the three to be awarded one.

“We felt very pleased,” McCutcheon said. “I think it’s very good (for UNL). It gives us some additional visibility in the field.”

The grant will be disbursed during a period of five years. Belli said he hopes to use the first five years to gain knowledge and practice the team can then use in the years after the grant runs out.

According to McCutcheon,

RESEARCH

the focus of the group is determining how to design effective questionnaires. He said that when individuals are confused by a census question, they have the opportunity to ask the door-todoor researcher who comes to collect data for clarification. McCutcheon wants to design the questions so that confusion doesn’t arise and the Internet surveys will be effective.

The work completed at UNL will eventually be used in both the government and private industry. marenwestra@ dailynebraskan.com

top 50: from b1

courtesy of trevor white of the Va. tech collegiate times | daily nebraskan

Heavily armed police move toward the residential side of campus in search of the gunman. been in Washington, D.C., yesterday, appealing a $55,000 fine from the U.S. Department of Education for its handling of the 2007 shooting, which the government charges included dangerously vague and delayed emails.

The incident led to an overhaul of the university’s alert system to include other media, such as text messages.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s present alert system, UNL Alert, was put into place after Virginia Tech’s 2007 shooting. It also includes text messages and emails, and in recent years has been used most often for dangerous weather conditions. It was used on Feb. 25, however, to alert the university of an alleged gunman on East Campus, which led to a campus lockdown but was never confirmed. On March 11, students were alerted to a bomb threat to the College of Business Administration that turned out to be a hoax.

UNL and Lincoln Police had begun searching the areas of concern within minutes of the first sightings or phone calls. Many students didn’t receive the text or phone alerts, which are sent to devices students must designate ahead of time.

Kasey Kraft, a Virginia Tech freshman, said by phone that

John Koussis, 22, a recent the parking lot where the officer was shot was across the Virginia Tech graduate and street from her dorm. She’d civil engineer in Virginia, been taking a nap at the time, said he saw the news while she said, but was roused by he was at work.

“Very quickly, people the sudden influx of texts, phone calls and emails that knew something had hapstarted shortly after 12:15 pened, and they were all p.m. Her roommate returned very concerned and confused, and soon after. definitely “We both Very quickly, very worried,” tried to keep people knew Koussis said. “I calm,” Kraft something had was so nervous said. Most peofor everyone I ple on her floor happened, and and evquickly locked they were all very knew, eryone down themselves in concerned and there.” their rooms and confused, and K o u s s i s kept quiet, she still has sevsaid, and she definitely very eral friends could hear othworried. at the univerers all-out runwhere ning to do the john koussis sity, recent virginia tech graduate he transferred same. The pair his sophowere able to find a link to the Blacksburg more year, two years after police radio, she said. Kraft the first shooting. He said was also able to quickly make phone lines had been “really contact with her mother, who swamped,” and Twitter and was nearby to pick her up for Facebook had been a huge help in finding information the weekend.

“It was terrifying,” Kraft and connecting with those friends. When he’d been at said bluntly.

Meanwhile, texts alerted the university, he said, the her to every turn of the story. personal impact of the 2007 “They just kept coming tragedy was still apparent, in, kept coming in,” Kraft though no one thought of it said, and she only hoped it as an unsafe place. wouldn’t get worse. “Then “It really created a very we heard about the second strong bond between all the victim, and it brought back a students and faculty,” Koussis said, and he predicted lot of memories from 2007.”

courtesy of daniel lin of the Va. tech collegiate times

Students look out of the stairwell window of Lee Hall on Thursday in Blacksburg, Va. it’d be more of the same this time around. “Today, it just reiterates that fact.”

Kraft agreed and said the students around campus had been largely “trying to stay strong to encourage other students.”

She expressed frustration of the ubiquitous references

to the 2007 shooting, saying it created an inaccurate picture and brought up a past the university was still trying to move beyond. She was on her way to buy candles for a candlelight vigil that was scheduled for 8 p.m.

Thursday but was rescheduled for Friday.

“No school deserves this to happen to them,” Kraft said, but she added Virginia Tech would deal with it better than any other. “As tough of as it is, there’s a sense of community, even more than there was before.”

DANHOLTMEYER@ dailynebraskan.com

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Arts Entertainment friday, december 9, 2011

Tom Helberg art by lauren vuchetich

go ahead,

(re)make my day OK, Hollywood, I get it. You are completely creatively bankrupt.

That’s not entirely true, and I’ve never been an across-the-board remake hater.

But when I started writing this column, I anticipated that I would dislike most of the remakes I had to review. While it’s true that some of the newer versions were pretty awful, there were a handful of films that improved upon the originals.

I’m not inherently against movie remakes, but I wish there were a lot less of them. I would prefer to see a new, original film rather than something merely rehashed from the past.

The remakes that I found most worthy were from great directors whose work I admire anyway.

The Coen brothers, Christopher Nolan and Steven Soderbergh all made remakes that brought something new to the table.

This fall, a slew of remakes hit theaters, titles from the `70s and `80s that aren’t that old at all. Are new versions of “Straw Dogs,” “The Thing” and “Footloose” really that essential?

Oh, and “Scarface” is getting remade. Again.

While remaking older films is not necessary, I find it more reasonable than something from the past few decades. If the goal is to sell tickets, it makes sense to

update an old black-and-white film like “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” (1936) into color with Adam Sandler. For better or worse, audiences will go see that. While I do not necessarily find any reason to remake older films, it makes much more sense than updating a film that’s not even 20 years old. Movie studios are prepping a plethora of titles for revitalization that haven’t even faded from recent memory.

A remake of Paul Verhoeven’s cult classic “Starship Troopers” is in the works, a film that was released in 1997. That’s like remaking “Men In Black” (of course, part three comes out next spring). Another unfortunate remake recently announced is “American Psycho.” Mary Harron directed the 2000 film based on Bret Easton Ellis’ satirical novel and starred Christian Bale as a bored banking executive who moonlights as a serial killer.

If it weren‘t enough that films from the `80s, `90s and even the 2000s are getting updated, it seems that auteur films aren‘t safe either. A company called Splendent Media has acquired remake rights to dozens of catalogue titles from Akira Kurosawa including “Rashomon,” “Yojimbo” and many more. This deal does not include remakes that were already in the works, including “Seven Samurai,” “High and Low“ and “Drunken Angel.”

So, what is the point behind all these remakes? Why are film studios obsessed with them? I don’t know if there is any one answer, but making as much money as possible is a big one. It’s much easier to launch a franchise and make a billion dollars if the audience is already familiar with the product.

Of course, films like “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” have made huge bank in recent years, partially because people were familiar with the books. Movie franchises are getting sequels

FACE OFF

decades after the originals because the titles are familiar.

Two precariously subtitled sequels to 1980s films, “TRON: Legacy” and “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” came out last year.

Movie series are being rebooted precariously close to their predecessors, and the gaps are getting ever smaller. “Star Trek” got rebooted seven years after its last film. Andrew Garfield will become “The Amazing Spider-Man” next summer, a mere five years after Tobey Maguire last put on the tights.

And Warner Bros. will release a Batman reboot in 2015, three years after Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” Nolan will produce the film himself.

It’s getting a little redundant, Hollywood.

So please, the next time you’re flipping through Netflix, consider trying the original version of a film you enjoy. Give a black and white film a try. Try watching a foreign film; subtitles aren’t bad, I promise.

Appreciate film as the wonderful art form that it is. Great films come in all varieties, sometimes even as a remakes.

Tom Helberg is a senior film studies major who will find another profession if “Citizen Kane” is remade, especially with Taylor Lautner in the lead. You can reach him at tomhelberg@dailynebraskan.com.

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friday, december 9, 2011

Daily Nebraskan

Community, perspective key for poetic development Cameron Mount Daily Nebraskan

Reading through Joshua Ware’s poetry gives a fairly accurate portrait of the man: uncommonly witty, fascinated with language and form and unabashedly unconventional.

Currently in the English Ph.D. program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Ware has authored the poetry chapbooks “Excavations” and “A Series of Ad Hoc Permutations,” and coauthored “I, NE: Iterations of the Junco.”

Next week, Ware will be moving to Denver, Colo., and amid finishing his dissertation and applying for tenure-track teaching positions, Ware spoke about some of the early lessons in becoming a published writer.

First of those, he said, is to not worry about becoming a published writer.

“Sometimes it can bedevil you a little bit,” Ware said about the publishing industry. “You should always just write what you feel you need to write.”

More important than publishing, Ware said, is finding a strong community.

“One of the great moments of being here is developing a community of writers,” Ware said, “who are both good writers in and of themselves, but are also interested in, for one, my work, but also in collaborating. Those are things that I never really had before.

And there’s some great writers here.”

Ware brings a unique eye to the poetry world, often manipulating forms as diverse as SONY MC-90 cassette tapes, calendars, diagrams and graphs. Many incorporate their own explanatory notes into the poetry, adding layers and angles that Ware says come naturally.

“If you’re not doing something that can be turned into a poem, why do it?” Ware said. This approach often transgresses normative ways of conceiving poetry.

“I feel sometimes if you just

courtesy photo

The Nadas bring 18 years of country rock brianna soukup | daily nebraskan

write a poem that looks like a poem, that has a couple words and then you break a line, and then you write another couple of words and then you break a line, that seems like a really reductive way of thinking about poetry,” Ware said. “I don’t see why a computer program can’t be a poem. I don’t see why a visual collage can’t be a poem. It’s an aesthetic process. If you want to shape or form your car into a poem, then why not?”

Ware acknowledged that every poet writes from his or her own inclinations or perspectives and what is natural for one writer isn’t for others. But he said poetry’s history shows that representation and form has always been important, citing spoken Old English poetry as an example.

“The way they remembered these poems was to have certain linguistic signifiers, mnemonic devices,” Ware said. “They had certain beats or certain rhymes.

Certain auditory and vocal patterns, so they could remember these stories.”

As culture and technology evolves, representation evolves with them.

“Once the printing press came along, those things

kind of started falling out of use,” Ware said. “You didn’t need them anymore, materially speaking. As we move toward the digital, visual culture, there’s no reason I think that poetry can’t change with the material conditions.”

Ware has become deeply familiar with the digitization of literature, working as an editorial assistant in the Whitman Archive. There, Ware creates programs that automatically encode Walt Whitman’s documents and make them viewable for computer browsers.

“If poets’ legacies are going to continue and flourish, those poets will need advocates that are adept in the world of digital technology,” he said. “And they’ll need to be able to promote them and have the poet proliferate, via something similar to the Whitman Archive.”

While much of the job revolves around the more minor and pedantic details, Ware says he’s gotten to work with many fascinating elements as well.

“I think it’s an important project,” he said. “I’m glad I was able to have the experience of working on it and contributing in some way to it.”

Jeff Alessandrelli, a close

friend of Ware, recalls many instances that showed Ware’s character and personality since the two met in UNL’s Ph.D. program.

“I would describe Joshua as intelligent, outgoing, honest, muscular, capable and unkempt,” Alessandrelli said. “He’s a pretty cerebral dude, but he hides it behind constant ‘Weekend At Bernie’s 2’ jokes and baconflavored bubble gum.”

John Chávez, who received his Ph.D. at UNL in the spring before moving to Dixie State College of Utah, remembers Ware fondly as well.

“Four years ago, Joshua thought about leaving the program,” Chávez said. “I’m glad he didn’t. As was my argument then, the poetry scene needs a wildly playful yet smart poet like him.”

Though his next chapter takes him to Denver, Ware’s signature personality and style will leave an effect on many who knew him in the Lincoln area.

“Joshua is truly one of the most unique, worthwhile people I’ve met since I moved to Lincoln,” Alessandrelli said. “I’m honored to call him my friend.” cameronmount@ dailynebraskan.com

Herzog unlocks discomfort in new death row documentary Cameron Mount Daily Nebraskan

In his new documentary “Into the Abyss,” Werner Herzog delves into the senseless depths of the death row system, extracting powerful testimony from every side of the debate. It won’t change any policies, and even with Herzog’s uncomfortable lines of questioning, the film is understated to the point of aggravation. Still, Herzog presents an emotional film mostly free of judgment, with the same expertly unconventional eye he brought to “Grizzly Man” and

“Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”

The film centers on two inmates, Michael Perry on death row and Jason Burkett with a life sentence, convicted when they were teenagers of murdering three people for a red Camaro. There is no voiceover narration, statistics or outside footage, apart from a grisly crime scene videotape showing blood spatters and smears while cookie dough sits unbaked on the stove. Herzog prefers to simply sit and talk to Perry, Burkett, Burkett’s father (also incarcerated), the victims’ siblings, a former death row guard and Burkett’s

mysteriously pregnant wife.

Herzog makes no claim of being unbiased, at one point alluding to the Old Testament to describe capital punishment. But his difficult questions follow a delicate craft that keeps him on the outside looking in. When an interviewee shies away from a difficult subject, he carefully urges it out of them, opening boxes that the interviewees themselves would never face.

Talking with a former guard, who was pushed to quit after overseeing 125 executions, Herzog uncovers a traumatic weight the guard still grapples

INTO THE ABYSS Directed by: Werner Herzog Mary Riepma Ross

Grade

B-

with intimately. If the purpose of “Into the Abyss” is simply to showcase spiraling loss and tragedy, Herzog succeeds.

Little hope and confused explanations make for an often muddled film, but Herzog knows what he’s doing. His abyss is a muddled one, too. cameronmount@ dailynebraskan.com

Lindsay McCoy DAILY NEBRASKAN

“The Best College Band You’ve Never Heard Of,” a name given to The Nadas by Playboy Magazine in 2001, is coming to Omaha. The Nadas are bringing 18 years of music and experience to their favorite Omaha venue, The Waiting Room Lounge, Friday at 9 p.m.

The Nadas have been around since Jason Walsmith and Mike Butterworth met in college 18 years ago. They came out with their first album in 1995. Since then, they have seen a number of faces join and leave the group.

“Some members who were in the band pop back in now and then,” Walsmith said.

“We’ve got a large family of players in the band.”

The current band consists of Butterworth and Walsmith on guitar and vocals, Jon Locker on bass and Jason Smith on drums.

“We (Butterworth and Walsmith) didn’t even know each other when we started playing together,” Walsmith said.

“It was a total blind date kind of thing.”

“I don’t think we had any expectations past a year, maybe two,” Butterworth said. “We had built this college hobby band into something that was working and touring and making records.”

“We said from the beginning that we would keep doing it as long as it was fun,” Butterworth said. “And here we are this many years later.

Obviously we’re still here, so obviously it’s still fun.”

Before the band started, Butterworth was enrolled at Iowa State University. He was in the architecture program, as his father had done. That lasted for about a week, until he looked back through the curriculum book.

“I thumbed through until I found something I wanted to do, and that was art,” Butterworth said. “But I spent all of my college years concentrating on the band to the point where I would miss weeks of school at a time to go to band stuff.”

The Nadas built an audience at their school, Iowa State, by playing at coffee houses and parties. They played a CD release show for their first album, “Not A Sound,” in 1995 at a frat house. They sold 400 records to an audience of 200 people.

“We sold piles and piles and piles out of the trunk of our car,” Butterworth said.

Butterworth and Walsmith work together to write and produce their songs. The band’s country-rock style comes from the Butterworth’s rock influences and Walsmith’s country influences growing up.

“Each record’s a little different. One might be a little more acoustic, one might be a little more country, one might be a little more rock, but we’re in the same spectrum,” Butterworth said.

Their latest album, “Almanac,” was produced in one year. Each month, the band wrote and recorded one song and released it to their subscribed fans online. Along the way, they delivered live feeds of the production process. The goal was to create a reflection of 2009.

“It built a new form of communication with our

if you go The Nadas when: Dec 9, 9 p.m. where: The Waiting Room Lounge how much: $12 in advance, $15 at the door

fans,” Walsmith said. “They see what we did behind the curtain and engaged people in a different way.”

On the first day of each month, they met with a blank sheet of paper and scrapped together ideas, which turned into a song that would be released by the end of the month. The tight time frames allowed the band to produce in-the-moment music.

“You can overproduce something and overwork something to a point where you squeeze the original life out of it,” Walsmith said. “It’s kind of cool that we stayed on that schedule for the album. It created a different final product.”

The schedule was not easy for the band to follow, however. While each month demanded a new song from them, the members were still on tour, still took family vacations and sometimes only had a few days to press out a new song.

“Early on — it was either February or March — we said, ‘Huh, this is going to be a failure. We’re going to have to give everyone their money back,’” Butterworth said. “But right at the zero hour, we got it done.”

The last song on the album, “New Years’ Eve,” reflects the members’ anticipation for the end of the year and beginning 2010 without the demand for a new song.

“At the end of the month, you’re so relieved that you’ve done it, but you have to turn around the very next day and start over and do it again,” Butterworth said. “Looking back, I’m glad we did it, but while we were doing it, it was a total drag.”

The album reflects the year 2009 in general, influenced both by the members’ personal lives and by newsworthy events.

“There are specific moments in our lives that came through and they may be hidden in the songs,” Walsmith said. “‘Long Goodbye’ in February is related to the death of one of my grandfathers.”

In October 2009, the band began writing “Parachute,” a song about falling to the ground. Later that month, stories of the little boy stuck in a flying hot air balloon hit the news.

“We were literally sitting there writing it, watching the news when they thought he was in the balloon flying over Colorado,” Walsmith said.

“That was really weird.”

For the upcoming year, the band has tossed around the idea of creating another, lessdemanding subscription for their fans. For each month, they hope to release something new, anywhere from a live version of a song to a cooking video.

“We’re kind of funny dudes, so we would make it funny and interesting, but in the end it’ll teach you how to cook Chicken Kiev,” Butterworth said.

lindsaymccoy@ dailynebraskan.com

Daily Nebraskan

friday, december 9, 2011

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Big projects don’t diminish Pegg’s geek cred conference call. “When you make a movie, it’s very much about that movie and you rarely think, ‘Oh, I wonder what I’m going to be doing in the next one.’”

Pegg is no stranger to franchises now, and is returning to the “Mission: Impossible” series. His character, Benji Dunn, debuted in “Mission: Impossible III” as a research and development character, more Q than James Bond. In the fourth “Mission: Impossible” film, Dunn gets upgraded to a field agent. Pegg said he and director J.J. Abrams found a comfortable working dynamic on “M:I III” and that planted seeds for his character’s improved role in the sequel.

“I think the idea of bringing him back in a more sort of proactive role was always something we joked about,” Pegg said. “It was ‘Imagine if Benji actually got out into the field? You know, what would happen then?’ And

Tom Helberg DAILY NEBRASKAN

In spite of all his mainstream success, Simon Pegg seems to retain his geek cred as the years go by.

He starred in the nerdy British television show “Spaced.“ He had roles in the cult favorites “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” He was cast as Scotty in the recent “Star Trek” reboot. And now, even as two of the largest-scale films of his career are released, Pegg takes it all in stride.

Both “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” and “The Adventures of Tintin” will be released Dec. 21. The former is directed by Brad Bird and the latter by Steven Spielberg, but no matter what kind of film project Pegg takes on, he thinks of them all in the same way.

“I try and approach each film as an individual thing anyway as opposed to part of a series,” Pegg said in a

DWI & MIP

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2 female grad students looking for 3rd roommate in the master bedroom of 3 bedroom, 2 full bathroom acreage house by Pioneers Park, 5 minutes from downtown campus. Has wireless internet and cable. $325 + utilities, room available immediately for 6 month lease or negotiable! call/text 402-314-1629.

2 roommates needed. I’m a 21 year old female living at the fountain glen apartments in a 3 bedroom loft style apartment. The rent is $292 per person plus internet and electric per month, so total would be under $350. It’s a very nice apartment located in the Highlands.

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Rent is $332.50 per month plus utilities, looking at a total of $400 or less. Close to UNL campus. Available now. If your interested please contact me at 402-658-8381.

Looking for someone to live in a four bedroom house with three other guys. Perfect college house only minutes from campus. Two bathrooms and washer dryer, two car garage. If interested e-mail neilkaslon10@gmail.com

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Looking for two roommates to live in 4-person home in a nice neighborhood. Washer, dryer, and dishwasher included. Extremely reasonable rent at $280 plus utilities. Fenced-in backyard, five minute drive from campus. Please e-mail Gary at gshuda_22@hotmail.com or call at (308) 379-6537. Available second semester.

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1 female roommate wanted for the 1-800-972-3550 second seFor Information Call: mester in a 3 bedrrom, 2 bath apartment close to city campus. Mostly college population. Full washer, dryer in unit. No smoking or pets. $260 in rent plus electric and cable/internet.

Large walk-in closet and bathroom. Available for move-in immediately. Call/text402-6493835.

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Spiral staircase, essentially One way to travel “The Way I Am” autobiographer, 2008 Person from Moscow They hold on to things Physicist with a unit of distance named after him ___ stretch Went around in circles, perhaps Weakens Like potpourri, sometimes Counts Bluesy James Spy’s device Be a stinker 1952 best seller set in California DOWN Least likely to take command Hide seeker?

What the fortunate reach Complain loudly Author LeShan

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I T A S D O R E E Y A R A FA V S T O A D K I S S I G H T I E R T R A E I N N DO G T I MI L RE N C E E G A S

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N L I M A U SOL E E N A L E T A C E N S E G P S E O T E S T A B DO O M O LA C TI A M O N A I S A R I E S T I

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The completed grid contains the EIGHT NOTES of the musical scale. Connecting them in order makes an image of a pair of EIGHTH NOTES. Each clue began with a musical note.

Thin Ending with prefer Voter registration grp. founded in 1970 Left to the editor?

Companion of Algernon in an Oscar Wilde play South end?

It was last an official Olympic event in 1908 Skeptical response Person who’s been charged First name in design

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Are you a marketing or food science student looking for fun flexible weekend hours? We work with your local Russ’s store to provide in-store promotions/sampling events in Lincoln and need exciting, outgoing folks to conduct these events. You will get to pick your own schedule, gain practical experience in marketing, sales and grocery industries. Events are 6 hours with rates starting at $66! Our events range from simple consumer survey events to sampling events where you get to work with leading national brands through one of the oldest in-store marketing companies in the US! To apply directly visit: http://bit.ly/pPyK2j or email Chad (cmiller@ncim.com) for more info!

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Join the CenterPointe Team! Part-time positions available in residential program working with substance abuse/mental health clients in a unique environment. Must be at least 21 years of age and be willing to work a varied schedule including overnights and weekends.

Pay differential for overnight hours. For more information visit: www.centerpointe.org.

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Babysitter needed mostly evenings and some weekends for 2 yr. old on Northwest side of Lincoln. $8/hr. Call (402)613-1918.

I need someone to drive my 12 year old from St Elizabeth to Scott Middle school in the mornings. Pay negotiable. Call 402.450.3980.

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STUDENTPAYOUTS.COM Paid Survey Takers Needed in Lincoln. 100% Free to Join. Click on Surveys.

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You can call or text 402-314-1083. Will come to you.

Tutor with a degree in elementary education needed for an hour a night, two nights a week.

Pay negotiable. Call 402-58-1678.

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Southeast Community College is currently taking applications for part-time writing tutors.

Required: a bachelor’s degree with a major or minor in English or a related field and a strong background in writing. Consideration of writing center, ESL, developmental education, or related teaching experience. Contact Dr. Barbara Tracy @ btracy@southeast.edu. Deadline 12/9/11 or until position is filled.

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Need Work Over Break?

Earn some cash over break and get a great discount on your books too! Nebraska Book Co. needs your help processing used books through our warehouse. If you are going to be in Lincoln over break we’ve got the work. M-F 1st shift (8-5) @ $7.80/hr. We will be closed the 26th! Apply online @ www.nebook.jobs under “warehouse staff”.

Apartment for rent: 2513 S Street. 1 Bed, 1 Bath. Water and garbage paid. Walk to campus. $365/month. 402.540.2883.

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3 Bedroom Ranch style house, recently updated. 56th & Holdrege. $925 Contact Michelle @ 402-429-2992.

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Need roommate ASAP. Apartment: 1826 B st. # 5 Rent-$247 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

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$9.00/15 words $5/15 words (students) $1.00/line headline $0.15 each additional word Deadline: 4 p.m., weekday prior

3 bedroom, 2 bath. NICE. N/P, N/S. East Campus/City Campus location. On FaceBook at Starr Street Apartments (402) 430-4253.

One Roommate needed to share 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment right by East Campus (33rd and Holdrege) and very close to City Campus.

The rent is $265/month plus electricity, gas, and internet ($ 50ish per month). Nice neighborhood. Clean and friendly roommate.

Washer and dryer in the unit. Water and trash paid for. If you are interested, contact Andrew at 402-405-9471 or pipe.doblado@gmail.com Roommate ads are FREE in print and online.

E-mail yours to dn@unl.edu and include your name, address and phone number.

Roommate needed for house in the North Bottoms. Starting January. Rent $267/month plus utilities. Washer/dryer. Will have top floor to self. Call or text 913-909-2650 for more information.

Roommate needed. Starting January- December 2012. Rent $ 150 per month, plus cable and electric which is about $100-150 more. 5 min. away from East campus, and 15 away from City. Three bedroom apartment, I’m a quiet, clean, responsible senior in need of a third roommate to replace my current roommate who just got married. So, if you need a place to live for the next year I think you just found it! No drama would be great! E-mail if interested jjarec12@huskers.unl.edu.

Seeking 1 male roommate for 4-bedroom, 2-bath duplex at 921 Gunners Court. Available in January for spring semester. Rent is $283/month + 1/4 of utilities. Only 10 minutes from city campus. Spacious house, great roommates, great location. Contact Max at mcolson5@gmail.com or call 402-499-6154 for more information.

Sublease an apartment for the second semester, located at Claremont Park Apartments north of city campus, two other males to share rent with. Under $400 and no utilities. Call 308-379-6445.

Two female UNL students seeking a roommate for 3 bedroom loft at Lakeview Park Apartments. Rent $294 a month plus utilities (electric and internet); washer and dryer included in unit. If interested call or text 308.520.4376 or 308.641.8572

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6 in7Unit. Utilities4run for about 1 Washer/Dryer For Release Friday, April 23, 2010 $40 a month. Call/Text Drew at 4022702092

ACROSS Land grant, of a sort “The Praise of ChimneySweepers” writer Person with a shaky story?

Dosage units Thanksgiving symbol Drill instructors, e.g.: Abbr.

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tomhelberg@ dailynebraskan.com

Apts. For Rent

Looking for roommate to share brick duplex.

Nice neighborhood across from a school. Located at 40th and Randolph. Rent $300, utilities included. Call 402-202-5097.

One male or female roommate needed for a house. Rent is $200 a month plus utilities. Pets OK, one dog in house already. Call 308-940-2013.

One roommate needed to cover my lease.

Available as soon as possible. Rent is $425 a month. It is a two bedroom apartment. Pets allowed. Current roommate has two dogs and is very friendly. It is at Tanglewood Apartments, on 44th St. Washer and dryer included. Good size room and you would have your own bathroom. If interested please call or text 402-380-5609 or email c_rae10@hotmail.com

1 room in cozy 3 bedroom house. One block from east campus. $300/month + utilities. call Lindsay 267-474-4364.

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tries to stay grounded.

“You know, I never lose sight of what it means to work with these people,” Pegg said.

“You just sort of say ‘hello,’ and ‘nice to meet you.’ And you behave like a normal

it’s very much in keeping with his original drawings.”

So after playing characters in well-known geek worlds from “Doctor Who” to “Star Trek” and working with directors as big as Spielberg, Pegg

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then J.J. literally emailed me one morning and said, ‘I think we’re going to do that. And I was, you know, extremely excited and surprised.’”

Spielberg‘s “Tintin” is also based on a popular franchise: the comic series by Hergé.

The series is known for its adventurous story lines and clean drawing style. The look of the comics is being faithfully represented, and is possible thanks to motion capture.

Pegg donned a motion-capture suit to play Inspector Thompson. Motion capture records the movement of actors and uses that information to animate a digital character in their place. Spielberg waited for years to get the look just right.

“Steven had been in possession of the rights to make ‘Tintin’ into a film for 30 years,” Pegg said. “And I think together they found a way of finally getting it on screen in a way that Hergé would have approved, you know, because

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Daily Nebraskan

friday, december 9, 2011

track & field

Early redshirt leads Walford to all-around skill Nedu Izu Daily Nebraskan

When it comes to college sports, many athletes might redshirt their first year because of an injury suffered prior to the season.

But for track and field runner Teran Walford, that wasn’t the case.

W a l ford redshirted his first walford season at Nebraska because he wanted to become a more versatile for his team.

“I wanted to learn all the events I didn’t know,” Walford said. “Because in high

school I only competed in the hurdles, high jump and pole vault.”

Since competing at Nebraska, the now-junior track runner competes in 17 events for the Huskers – 10 outdoor and seven indoor.

In his first season, Walford set personal bests in the 60 meters (7.40), 60-meter hurdles (8.57), long jump (19-11) and 1,000 meters (2:44.10). In his first Big 12 Championships he took fifth place with a score of 6,731. It was in that meet where he broke his high jump record with a 6-2 ¼ leap.

Walford surpassed all his personal bests his sophomore season.

The York, Neb., native set a career-high in the 60 meters (7.25), 60-meter hurdles (8:42), long jump (21-6 ¾) and 1,000 meters (2:42.77).

Walford said his knowledge and focus on the sport was the biggest difference between his first and second year.

“My mental aspect was that I knew for myself I should have done better,” he said. “And since the expectations are that you’re supposed to do better each year only added more pressure.”

Walford also achieved a season-best 14-5-¼ on the pole vault at the adidas Classic and a career-best throw of 125-11 at the Nebraska Open.

Track and field coach Gary Pepin said he’s proud of the improvement the junior has shown since joining the team.

“He’s stayed healthy and has improved a great deal,” he said. “I think he’ll keep getting better.”

Walford is one of only two athletes on the roster to compete in combined events.

“He’s a big team guy and we’re pleased to have him on the team,” Pepin said. “I think he’s been training and participating in events that have the potential for him to help this team the most.”

Walford is a nutrition, science and dietetics major and said that the classes have helped him maintain his health.

“Competition-wise, my coaches help me a lot and put the technical stuff into perspective,” he said. “But in class it’s interesting to see how what I learn relates to my own nutrition. Hearing what the basic standards for exercise are makes you feel better in certain aspects.”

This past summer Walford said he ran a lot, trying

wrestling

NU to welcome No. 11 Wyoming Zach Tegler daily Nebraskan

Jake Sueflohn’s last match may have ended in defeat, but he still came away with a fourth place finish at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

“It felt good,” he said.

“I had some g o o d matches, but also I had some bad matches.”

T w o sueflohn b a d matches, to be exact. Sueflohn fell twice in the invite: first to Oregon State’s Michael Mangrum, then in the consolation final to Kellen Russell of Michigan. There is, however, a major difference between Sueflohn and the No. 3 and No. 4 wrestlers in the nation at 141 pounds.

Sueflohn (No. 12 in the country) is a true freshman.

For the season, the Watertown, Wis., native is 10-3.

His only other loss of the

year came to No. 15 Evan Henderson of North Carolina — a defeat he avenged in Las Vegas.

But Sueflohn is not the only true freshman making noise for the Huskers.

James Green, a freshman from Willingboro, N.J., also notched a top-four placement at the Cliff Keen. No. 16 in the country at 157 pounds, Green is 14-3 on the season.

NU coach Mark Manning said Sueflohn and Green have made the transition to Division I wrestling look easier than it really is.

“It’s a tough thing. Big adjustments, quite a challenge,” Manning said.

“But they’re on their way.

They’re showing a lot of promise.”

Sueflohn said being able to train with the team during the summer was valuable.

“I just kept working hard and we’re seeing it pay off, I guess,” Sueflohn said.

Manning also complimented the true freshmen on performing at the level they are.

“It’s a great credit to both James and Jake. They both

expect to win,” he said.

“They have the mentality to wrestle anyone in the country.”

On Saturday, “anyone in the country” will be in Lincoln.

Wyoming enters its dual with Nebraska Saturday as the No. 11 team in the country.

“They’re a really good team. It’s probably one of their best teams ever,” Manning said. “It’s a stiff challenge for us.”

The Cowboys are fresh off a third-place result in Las Vegas, where the Huskers came in fourth. In its 20112012 home opener, Nebraska will face off against a team that has two thirdranked wrestlers: Shane Onufer at 165 pounds and Joe LeBlanc at 184.

“They don’t have many weaknesses,” Manning said.

“It’s going to be a great match and we’ll be ready Saturday night. It’s about getting out there and wrestling our best.”

Manning said he expects to see Sueflohn and Green put in good efforts Saturday.

“They’ve got some experience under their belt now,”

he said. “We don’t look at them as freshmen anymore.

I think our team feeds off of those guys’ performances.”

Sueflohn said he has adjusted well to the level of competition and that his mental strength is a key asset.

“Every match is a battle,” he said. “So the fact that I can stay in it is a big advantage.”

But Sueflohn is not letting his young career’s successes get to him.

“It’s nice, but I’ll just take it for what it’s worth,” Sueflohn said.

And while some may believe Sueflohn’s early achievements have been surprising, don’t tell that to his family and friends.

“They expected this of me, as did I,” Sueflohn said.

Manning agrees that Sueflohn and Green’s success has not been a fluke.

“I wouldn’t say they’re a surprise,” Manning said.

“They’ve risen up to the challenge of the other guys and they’re great competitors.” zachTegler@ dailynebraskan.com

volleyball: from 12 Mancuso, as well as the highly versatile second-teamer Morgan Broekhuis. That won’t be the end to NU’s talent at the position. Taylor Simpson’s back injury, which limited her to 12 games this season, should heal enough for her return, and the Huskers add Kelsey Fien, prepvolleyball’s No. 19 overall prospect, to the mix as well.

Mancuso finished eighth in the Big Ten in kills per set, despite other top targets getting more touches, and Werth’s skill on both ends makes her “a rare talent” to assistant coach Dan Meske.

The Huskers also return libero Lara Dykstra and defensive specialists Paige Hubl and Shelby Winkelmann, who combined to help NU hold opponents to a paltry .145 hitting percentage in 2011. The only problem spot may be at middle blocker, where Brooke Delano and

Jordan Wilberger, the starters for NU’s final game, graduate.

But Hubl has seen a highly skilled replacement during practice.

“I’m excited to watch (Cecilia Hall) play,” Hubl said.

“I’m really excited to see us unleash the Swede. I don’t know if you can replace (Delano and Wilberger) but she’s going to have a fun impact.

She’s an incredible player. I can’t wait to see her play.”

Beyond Hall, Hayley Thramer, who started 21 games, returns and Allison McNeal, who missed the 2011 season, has eligibility remaining as well.

All of this points to a high preseason ranking for the Huskers, despite the fact the team fell before regionals for the first time since 1993. The key, coaches and players say, is continued growth by the team before next season begins.

“As the season went on, we knew we’d get everyone’s best shot,” Meske said. “We made adjustments, but the second time around (in Big Ten play) it didn’t always go our way. When we passed well, we were almost unstoppable ... it’s really hard to pass really, really well and lose. We want to be the best passing team in the country next season.”

Another issue will be leadership. With the loss of Root and Wilberger, co-captains in 2011, and Delano, a cocaptain in 2010, new captains will need to be elected by the team in the spring. While Root said four or five players are in the mix and Hubl said anyone on the team is capable it’s worth noting that Cook, Hubl, Mancuso and Werth will all be seniors next season.

“I think everybody could (be captain),” Hubl said.

“Everybody’s willing, everyone’s ready. That’s the nice thing about this team – everybody gives, there’s no one who’s greedy and takes and takes. It’s good for us to be in that spot.”

That amount of senior talent has a downside: While Nebraska may reload as opposed to rebuild, there is no doubt NU has a great opportunity for a national championship.

“I think, (the team) is going to have so much talent,” Root said. “Obviously, they have a majority of the girls returning who have played and also some great recruits coming in, so talent-wise, they’ll be great. They can really build on (the Big Ten Title this season). With the new girls coming in, the key will be becoming a team and becoming great.” seanwhalen@ dailynebraskan.com

Hoppen: from 12 late December.

And you know what? It easily can be. From what I’ve seen, this is arguably the most talented team Sadler’s had.

Bo Spencer is NU’s best offensive player since Aleks Maric. Dylan Talley is fighting through injuries but can still provide a great scoring punch and long-range shooting off the bench. Toney McCray is inching ever closer to realizing his potential.

Even guys who have struggled offensively, such as

Caleb Walker and Brandon Richardson, provide valuable leadership and on-ball defense.

This team has a chance to make some noise, especially if Andre Almeida is able to return from injury at some point. But the current effort isn’t going to cut it.

It’s hard to describe how the Huskers looked against FGCU. They appeared tentative and overconfident at the same time, passing up lots of shots but still hoisting more shots outside the arc than

inside it. The overall energy level seemed low and the offense sluggish.

Where was the run-andgun offense NU displayed during those first five games?

That was a team that looked like a good bet to make the tournament.

The latest editions appear CBI-bound.

That’s not going to cut it in the Big Ten, which has quickly staked its claim as one of the country’s best conferences. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

First, the Huskers need these next three. Without those three wins, the wheels could come off the track rather quickly.

Like Sadler said, it’s all about making it to Dec. 27.

As they seem to do every year, the Huskers have left spectators wondering what they can expect from the squad.

The next three games will tell us a lot. dan hoppen is a senior news-editorial major.

Reach him at danhoppen@ dailynebraskan.com

to get stronger by running stairs daily and improving his overall fitness.

He added that his goals for the 2011-2012 track and field season is to continue increasing his personal records.

“Overall I hope to get PRs in the decathlon and heptathlon, along with indoor and outdoor events,” Walford said. “And, if all goes well, make nationals in the decathlon. You need a big PR to get that, so we’ll see.”

Walford will be competing for one of 32 spots on the team’s indoor championship team.

Pepin said he’s hopeful that the junior will have his best season yet this year.

“I think providing that he stays healthy and has good work ethic he’ll get better in his events,” the coach said.

“He should have a chance

to compete in the Big Ten Championships this year.”

The Nebraska track and field team will compete this Friday, Dec. 9 for the Red and White Nebraska Intrasquad meet. The meet will be hosted at the Devaney Center Indoor Track at 5 p.m.

Walford said that although it’s an exhibition, there’s many reasons why he’s excited to run again.

“The winner gets a pizza party, so it’s kind of nice,” he said with a laugh. “It’s always good because you start practicing when the school year starts. You’re competing against your teammates but it’s still fun.

“It’s a nice indicator of how the season will go so we’ll all definitely want to do well.”

neduIzu@ dailynebraskan.com

preview: from 12 by 10 points or less entering Wednesday’s contest.

“We’re really excited about that,” Talley said about the tight win. “We’re just relieved to pull out a close one and that will help us in the next close game. All the games from here on out are going to be tough.”

That includes NU’s game this Saturday against TCU. The Horned Frogs are 7-2, their best start since the 2000-2001 season, and are coming off a victory against Texas Tech. The Huskers beat TCU 70-56 at home last year, but now they must travel to Fort Worth, where the Horned Frogs are 4-0.

But TCU is far from perfect. They are allowing opponents to shoot 45 percent from the field while only shooting 43 themselves, including 31 percent from long distance.

What the Horned Frogs lack in field-goal defense, they make up with turnovers. TCU is forcing an average of more than 20 turnovers per game, and the Huskers aren’t the most cautious with the ball. NU coughed up the ball 18 times against the Eagles.

One of the problem’s Sadler said he needs to solve is the team’s energy level. Both he and forward Brandon Ubel admitted after Wednesday’s win that the team came out flat and struggled to provide the type of energy it needed to pull away from Gulf Coast.

“They’re not very emotional guys, I don’t think,” Sadler said. “I don’t know what they get excited about. I get excited about winning. There’s so much pressure on these guys to do that. It’s almost like a sigh of relief to them and it can’t be that way.”

That issue has to be addressed soon. The Huskers already have three nonconference stumbles and narrowly avoided a fourth against FGCU. That kind of effort likely won’t be enough to beat TCU on the road, and, thanks to previous nonconference losses, the margin of error is razorthin.

“Our backs are against the wall,” Ubel said. “We can’t make any more mistakes in the nonconference.”

danhoppen@ dailynebraskan.com

PRACTICE NOTES FOOTBALL Players talk bowl game This time last year the Nebraska football team knew it would be playing the same Washington Huskies team it had throttled in Seattle three months earlier in the same bowl game it had played for the year before.

With a fresh opponent in South Carolina and bowl on the opposite coast in the Capital One Bowl, the Huskers are excited for the game. Their performance in the Holiday Bowl is a motivator this time around.

“I think our focus is where it needs to be,” NU running back Rex Burkhead said. “We have a challenge in South Carolina. They’ve got a very good team defensively and offensively, so we’re going to have to come prepared. Last year was kind of a bad deal and we definitely do want to go out there and put something on the field like we did last year.”

While some are enamored with the SEC, NU cornerback Alfonzo Dennard doesn’t hold the Gamecocks on a pedestal.

“It’s just another team. I mean, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, it don’t really matter,” Dennard said. “As long as you go out there and perform and compete, everything should be good.”

For senior All-American Lavonte David, this bowl is a slice of familiar.

“Personally, for me, it’s a chance to play in Florida, last game to play in my home state,” David said. “As a team, we’re

getting fired up at the chance to play in a great bowl game like that. It means a lot – go out with a bang in my home state.”

Coach’s time to move up in ranks It was bound to happen. That’s the way Lavonte David sees it.

“You know it was going to come sooner or later because he’s a great football coach,” David said.

“A lot of people were probably gunning for him, so you’ve just got to take your hat off to him – to get the opportunity and he took advantage of it.”

David spent two years under Carl Pelini’s tutelage and pointed to his leadership as a key to his climb up the coaching ladder.

“He’s a great motivator and he’s a great coach as a whole,” David said. “He look out for his players and he puts them in the best position to succeed.”

Three Huskers named academic All-Americans Senior Austin Cassidy and juniors Rex Burkhead and Sean Fisher were named to the Capital One Academic All-America Division I football team on Thursday. Nebraska now has 294 all-time CoSIDA academic All-Americans, the most of any program in the country. Cassidy was named to the first team for the second straight year.

— Compiled by Jeff Packer

Sports DAILY NEBRASKAN

page 12

dailynebraskan.com

friday, december 9, 2011

Spreading

men’s basketball

the

Wealth

Four Huskers reach double figures as Nebraska defeats in-state rival Creighton to improve to 8-1 this season. story by andrew ward | photo by anna reed

file photo by bethany schmidt | daily nebraskan

Nebraska forward Brandon Ubel had his first career doubledouble on Wednesday night against Florida Gulf Coast

Team hits road for matchup against TCU Dan Hoppen daily Nebraskan

Nebraska freshman Emily Cady scored 13 points and added a team-high seven rebounds Thursday night against CU.

T

wo points were all that separated Nebraska and Creighton seven minutes into the second half when NU’s Kaitlyn Burke stole the ball from a Bluejay ball-handler.

That turnover led to a layup and then Nebraska’s Jordan Hooper scored another layup off of a steal on the ensuing possession to spark an 8-0 Husker run.

NU never looked back, beating its in-state rival 66-55 Thursday night in Lincoln.

“This was as typical of a Creighton-Nebraska game as there is,” NU coach Connie Yori said. “It was a physical game and we really struggled in the first half with being impatient, especially on offense.”

For the first time in three games, Nebraska shot 40 percent from the field even after a poor first half of shooting.

Husker starters accounted for all but seven of Nebraska’s points led by Hooper who had 22 – 17 of which came in the second half.

Both teams had problems

scoring in the first half, with a halftime score of 26-22 in favor of Nebraska. The Huskers used the strong play of senior Kaitlyn Burke and freshman Emily Cady to stay in the game.

“I looked up and I had no idea that Kaitlyn had 10 points,” Hooper said. “Both her and Emily stepped up tonight.”

Burke was one of four Huskers who finished in double figures for Nebraska.

However, the play of Cady that stuck out the most for NU. The freshman played a season-high 35 minutes and was the most consistent player on the floor for the Huskers.

She finished with 13 points, a team-high seven rebounds and a pair of blocks while playing shutdown defense on Bluejays’ leading scorer Sarah Nelson.

“I was really excited for this game because I was playing some of my teammates from high school,” Cady said. “Our upperclassmen told us that Creighton always comes to

play and I felt our team chemistry came together in the second half.”

Nelson came into the game averaging 14.4 points a game and shooting 65 percent from the field, fourth in the nation.

The 6-foot-2 Cady gave Nelson problems all night, as she finished with just seven points on 43 percent shooting.

Yori said the strength of Cady in the paint was the difference maker for the Huskers’ defense.

“She finished tonight,” Yori said. “Ever since high school she scores only when her team needs her to and when her team doesn’t need her too, she gets others involved.”

Guard Lindsey Moore ended up with a nice game for Nebraska despite having an uncharacteristic amount of turnovers with six. The junior captain ended up with 12 points, four assists and four steals on the night.

“Lindsey didn’t play very well for about 25 minutes then dominated the last 10 minutes of the game,” Yori said.

Nebraska will hop on a plane Friday morning after a brief practice to head to Northern Arizona for a Saturday afternoon showdown.

After a game as physical as Creighton, mental toughness will be key against the Lumberjacks, according to Moore.

“The key will be for us to start preparing mentally right now, especially after a game like tonight,” Moore said.

Northern Arizona has a 5-4 record on the year and will be coming off six days rest when it takes on Nebraska Saturday. Yori said she is happy with how the season is going so far and her team is ready to accept the challenge on Saturday.

“It’s going to be a short turnaround for us and it will be about mental toughness on Saturday,” Yori said. “With this being finals week and us playing in the altitude, it will be a good challenge for our young team.”

Sean Whalen daily Nebraskan

file photo by bethany schmidt | daily nebraskan

Libero Lara Dykstra (left) and Paige Hubl will be back for Nebraska next season to help NU’s defensive and passing games. her skills and will be a great addition to the team.”

At outside hitter, the

Huskers return three AllBig Ten talents: first-teamers Hannah Werth and Gina

volleyball: see page 11

preview: see page 11

Nebraska not yet prepared for Big Ten competition

Andrewward@ dailynebraskan.com

Huskers have strong returning core With four rounds left to play in the NCAA Tournament, it’s difficult to make prognostications for next year. Even so, it’s easy to see how much returning talent the Nebraska volleyball team will have next year.

At setter, the Huskers return Lauren Cook, who has won awards in three different conferences, including first team All-Big Ten this season. While the team loses her backup, Brigette Root, they add Elkhorn South freshman Lauren Sieckmann, who is considered by prep volleyball.com as one of the nation’s top recruits.

Root is convinced Sieckmann can do just as good a job backing up Cook as she did.

“She’s great, she’s got great hands, very talented,” Root said. “Obviously, I don’t know a lot of (high school) players around the country and their skill level ... but I know Lauren’s very solid in

Last Friday, Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said his team needed to find its swagger and start playing with some confidence.

One week later, the search continues.

The Huskers looked tentative in Wednesday’s 5150 win against Florida Gulf Coast. They were seemingly content to pass the ball around the perimeter instead of attacking the Eagles’ zone defense. Several Huskers gave up good looks at the basket in favor of another pass.

Sadler said he believes his team might already be feeling the pressure of its three nonconference losses, all

of which have been close games.

“I think this team is trying way too hard,” Sadler said. “They’ve got to relax and they’ve got to enjoy the game. You’d better enjoy every game right now that we can win. You go in the locker room and it’s like they’re taking a big sigh. They’ve got to enjoy it. We do have a good basketball team.”

Dylan Talley had to hit a game-winning jump shot with 10 seconds left to sink FGCU, but he thinks the close victory will give the team confidence in future close games. The Huskers were 1-3 in games decided

Dan Hoppen “We’re not ready. But come the 27th of December, we’ll be ready. Those guys are too good. They’re practicing too hard. They will be ready to play their best game of the year Dec. 27. I believe that 100 percent.”

Those were Doc Sadler’s words after Wednesday’s nailbiter against Florida Gulf Coast. If you haven’t figured it out, that’s when Wisconsin comes to Lincoln and conference play begins.

“We’ve just got to find a way to get to the 27th.”

That was the way Sadler finished the above quotation. The coach’s confidence is admirable, but it’s questionable if the team will get to Big Ten play with postseason aspirations judging by the way it’s playing now.

After looking like an unstoppable offense after five games, the baskets have shrunk on the Huskers.

Their scoring average has dipped from 72.8 points in those games to just better than 56 points in the last three.

While the Creighton game was certainly within reach, it was an acceptable loss.

The Bluejays are simply a better team right now. Ultimately, NU didn’t have enough points to match Doug McDermott and CU. But Creighton is a top-20 team right now. That loss, while disappointing, didn’t shock anyone.

It’s the missteps against Oregon and Wake Forest that are going to come back to haunt the Huskers. Both are respectable programs and teams, but neither has superior talent to NU. The Huskers certainly had chances to win both games.

They didn’t quite make the plays they needed to.

Then came Wednesday’s near-debacle with the escape against FGCU, which is better than people give it credit for, but has still only been a Division I school for five years.

The Huskers now have three nonconference contests left: Saturday at TCU, followed by home games against Alcorn State and Central Michigan.

NU is 5-3 now. If it wants to even have a hope of dancing in March, that record needs to be 8-3 come

hoppen: see page 11