The wonders of Lincoln
Bobby and I had a little time to kill Sunday morning before the Curt and Carolyn event, so we did a little touristing. Please join me and tour guide Bobby for a visit to the Nebraska state capitol.
Nebraska has a unique capitol building for its unique "unicameral" state legislature. Where other states have a house of representatives and a senate, Nebraska just has one house. It has the advantage of fewer politicians, but the disadvantage of making it easier for them to do things.
The building seems strange to me. It looks like a penitentiary with a giant steeple in the middle for a guard tower. The tower is impressive.
It's concrete bleakness is relieved by some neat blue tile designs at the top and the buff cornhusker poised at the summit. What is he looking at?
Perhaps he's pondering the strangest public sculpture in the Midwest. Behold the mighty semi-nude cornhusker bodybuilder family, shoved into the glorious future by the giant visible hand of fate.
This thing, directly facing the state capitol, has a strange history, explained to us by Curt's sister. Apparently when it was originally erected, the figures were all boldly nude. This state of affairs continued for over a decade, until the public became aroused enough to move the sculptor to try to put some clothes on those people. The result is very strange. Dad looks like he's wearing low-cut ballet tights, or like he's auditioning for the Chippendales, while Mom ended up with a floor-length peek-a-boo nightie. The kids seem to be wearing g-strings. Clicking on the picture will give you a better look.
Nebraska has a unique capitol building for its unique "unicameral" state legislature. Where other states have a house of representatives and a senate, Nebraska just has one house. It has the advantage of fewer politicians, but the disadvantage of making it easier for them to do things.
The building seems strange to me. It looks like a penitentiary with a giant steeple in the middle for a guard tower. The tower is impressive.
It's concrete bleakness is relieved by some neat blue tile designs at the top and the buff cornhusker poised at the summit. What is he looking at?
Perhaps he's pondering the strangest public sculpture in the Midwest. Behold the mighty semi-nude cornhusker bodybuilder family, shoved into the glorious future by the giant visible hand of fate.
This thing, directly facing the state capitol, has a strange history, explained to us by Curt's sister. Apparently when it was originally erected, the figures were all boldly nude. This state of affairs continued for over a decade, until the public became aroused enough to move the sculptor to try to put some clothes on those people. The result is very strange. Dad looks like he's wearing low-cut ballet tights, or like he's auditioning for the Chippendales, while Mom ended up with a floor-length peek-a-boo nightie. The kids seem to be wearing g-strings. Clicking on the picture will give you a better look.
posted by Joe at 4:45 AM
1 Comments:
Nebraskans all look like they've dropped from Mt Olympus. I've been to that very building and seen for myself. Bobby looks like he'd fit right in with all the perfect specimens in Lincoln.
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