Omaha

Omaha seems like paradise after missing a connecting flight from Toronto and suffering 6 hours at O'Hare, airport of the damned. The only airport in the world I loathe more is London's Heathrow. I have genuine hate for Heathrow, but that's a ballad of absurdity better left for another time.

O'Hare, a massive North American air hub, so how can the terminals be so crowded and ugly and closterphobic?

Chicago:Lovely. Chicago's main airport: a waking purgatory.
Yet, 8 hours late, we did arrive at Eppley airfield and Omaha, Nebraska. One sleepy, spacious little terminal and a welcome delight from the horrors of O'Hare.

Omaha. You might know it from it's insurance company, or from the wild life series it sponsored: "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom," aired early in 1963 on NBC and hosted by zoologist Marlin Perkins. The largest city in Nebraska, Omaha sits on the Missouri river and is the financial capitol of the American Midwest.

Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Gerald Ford, Montgomery Clift, Warren Buffet and Malcolm X were born here.

Father Ed Flanagan invented Boystown here.

Reuben Kulakovsky invented The Reuben sandwhich here.

Edwin Perkins invented Kool Aid here.

Thurl Ravenscroft invented pre-avant garde, post-existential maximism here, influencing generations to incorporate pre-avant-garde post existential maximism into their thinking and coining the catch phrase "They're Grrrreat!"

Actually, Thurl voiced Tony the Tiger for 50 years. He frosted more flakes than anyone.

The city's indoor football team is named The Omaha Beef.

Lucky Bucket brewery is here. They make an excellent lager and a hoppy as hell, crisp India Pale Ale, one of the best I've ever tasted.


Omaha Steaks and Gorats (Warren Buffet's favorite) are renowned for their succulent slabs of Nebraska beef.

And Big Mama's Kitchen and Catering can be found in the cafeteria of the once Nebraska School for the Deaf, now a Christian campus serving various ministries and church groups. It's soul food cooked like "every meal is a Sunday dinner."