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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1987)
Tuesday, February 10, 1987 Daily Nebraskan Page 9 (D)1(d1 Mess LiJi Tf(&W(B By Michael Hooper Senior Reporter After 30 years of the 9-to-5 grind, some folks want to settle down by owning a laid-back bar where "every body knows their name." Then there are those who can't wait that long. Al Hummel and Reynold McMeen, former UNL students, are two enter preneurs who didn't wait all their lives to own a bar. When Duffy's Tavern, 1412 0 St., came up for sale last fall, they pooled their resources and bought it. "We were tired of wasting our talents working for someone else," said Hummel, referring to the partners' work as bartenders in another Lincoln bar. Hummel and McMeen, both in their early 20s, haven't satisfied their entrepreneurial spirits simply by buying the clean, well-lit Duffy's Tavern. To make room for more seating, a pool table and possibly a stage, they took over LaShel's Restaurant Feb. 1. Since then Hummel, McMeen and friend Bruce Johnson have gutted the old res taurant next door and now are restoring its original brick walls and 17-foot ceiling. The new addition, to be completed by Mar. 1, will be used for cooking sandwiches, stew, chili and other lunch dishes. Laid-back atmosphere Even with the expansion, one aspect of the 49-year-old tavern will remain the same the simple, laid-back atmosphere that many longtime customers have enjoyed. The owners say the atmosphere brings in a diverse crowd working class, retirees, UNL students, bus inessmen and politicians. Whether in wedding clothes or work clothes, customers come in dressed as they are, Hummel said. A big, plate-glass window faces 0 Street. Inside are a shuffleboard which the owners claim is one of the best in town and several booths 'Dead Time Stories ' entertainment for a truly warped mind By Kevin Cowan Staff Reviewer "Dead Time Stories." What's does that call to mind? Twisted veins, burn ing hands, Little Red Riding Hood or maybe a psychotic Goldie Locks and the Three Bears? I hope that Jeffery Delman wasn't aiming at a horror film. If he was, "Dead Time Stories" fails miserably. It wasn't scary. Twisted? Yes. The only "scary" thing about the film is the per son who told Jeffery Delman his bed time stories. and tables. Behind the well-worn bar are the usual liquors as well as Hank, a bartender and staple at Duffy's since 1903. "She is like an institution," Hummel said. "If Hank had not been here over the last several years, many customers may have left." Hank, whose real name is Henrietta, wouldn't give her last name. Hank is modest. She said people come to Duffy's because it's a place where friends meet. An old friend A regular customer, Abby Moravec, likes to come to Duffy's because it's a friendly, homey place where she can keep up on what's happening with her friends. Abby, 79, said she has been stopping in Duffy's for a beer every day for nearly 30 years. "Since 1958. No kidding," Abby said. None of her 26 great grandchild ren, 18 grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren live in Lincoln, so Abby said she likes to look after other friends' children. "Like a happy family, I call them ... No kidding," she said. Twenty years ago, Hank said, Duffy's was popular among the college crowd. Now many alumni come back for a drink and a game of shuffleboard, she said. One alum who still comes in is former Gov. Bob Kerrey, Hank said. Duffy's was one of the bars Kerrey and actress Debra Winger patron ized, Hank said. Traditional event Hummel and McMeen have revived Duffy's Bar Association, a Friday afternoon club that was started by several UNL law students in the mid 1960s. When the law school was on City Campus, the students would go to Duffy's on Fridays, drink, play shuffleboard and, when a week was tough, some would share their concerns with Hank. "She got some of us through law school," said one patron. "She was The film uses narrative a child with the pre-bed jitters and an articu lately lurid storyteller, as a transi tion between three independent "bed time stories." Of the three, the film gives a contemporary (I use that word loosely) gouge to Little Red Riding Hood and Goldie Locks and the Three Bears. The other is spun by Uncle Mike (the storyteller). "Little Red Runnin'jhood" revolves around a virgin who lias designs to lose the virginal white. Interrupted during an erotic mirror scene, the heroine is sent to the drug store for Grandma's TT ' - : - ' ' If H ... - 1 : i I -' I '' 11 t; Young entrepreneurs Al kind of like mom to everyone. She listened to their problems." Hummel and McMeen have started other specials. Among them is Fish Bowl Night every Tuesday. For $3.50 to $5.50, depending on the drink, a Mallox. The package is mixed up with the drugs of a werewolf who is a heroin addict; thus the conflict. The whole things ends up with a graphic claw scene at Grandma's house. The out- Movie Review come? Didn't your parents ever tell you? The final story, "Goldi Lox and the Three Baers," is stranger yet. I wish they would have cut back into Uncle V J i- if Hummel and Reynold McMeen at bartender will fill a half-gallon fishbowl with a drink and serve it with straws. Also, on Thursday nights, Duffy's serves Coronas for 85 cents. Besides the new specials, Duffy's Mike's dialogue. I can hear him tell the story: "And then, after baby Baer had sex with Goldi Lox, they walked romantically through the forest and baby Baer plucked the fingers from a severed and decaying arm murmuring, 'She loves me. She loves me not.' " Get the picture? This film is Delman's baby. He wrote the screenplay and lyrics, directed, and had a minor role . . .must have had problems finding help. "Dead Time Stories," as a horror film is bad. The suspense is so completely " i ' - 1 'ill';- i ! I Paul VonderageDaily Nebraskan home in Duffy's Tavern. is keeping its traditional Duffy's Burger, (a sloppy-joe), Irish stew and chili. These have been handed down from owner to owner, Hummel said. "The tradition has been kept around here," he said. predictable that you know when, where and how the object of suspense will enter. However, the film may appeal to one specific group, the warped of mind. At times the film is so bent and deranged you can't help but chortle loudly. This amoral work violates all the values that were instilled into children through bedtime stories. It takes these fables and gnaws at their innards only to leave a steaming hunk of flesh shown against a silver screen. And it does so in such a way that it is pure insanity . . .in a funny way. v