Cornhusker Slate Games tile photo
Two sailboats compete at Branched Oak Lake during last summer's Cornhusker State Games.
Catamaran sailing can be fun,
physically demanding at same time
By Chuck Green
Sports Editor
For Francis "Cal” Calabrese, it was
love at first sight.
Calabrese, director of the Midwest
Archaeological Center, took his first
ride on a Hobie catamaran sailboat
about four years ago and has been at it
ever since.
"I just fell in love with the sport,"
Calabrese said.
During the 1986 Cornhusker State
Games, Calabrese competed in the
Hobie division of the sailing events at
Branched Oak Lake just northwest of
Lincoln.
In their first race, Calabrese and his
sailing partner, Chris Koppel of Gretna
and a recent graduate of the University
of Nebraska, finished third.
"We were lucky enough to get a good
start,” Calabrese said of the race.
“Getting a good start is the main
ingredient in being successful in this
sport. You need to get off the line and
hold off the boats behind you, but
catch the boats in front of you."
Calabrese said that there are good
aspects of sailing aside from the fun
involved. One aspect he stressed is that
sailing is a relatively inexpensive hobby.
He said that an aspiring sailor can buy
a catamaran for $2,500 to $3,000, while
maintenance costs are around $100
each year.
Calabrese said the sport is physically
demanding as well as fun.
"You’ve got to be in fairly good shape
to race sailboats,” he said. "Sometimes,
the wind is light and easy, but some
times it can be pretty strong. That’s
when your physical conditioning comes
into play.”
Fighting a strong wind takes a lot
out of a person, Calabrese said, and it
can make the difference between
winning and losing a race.
The best part about the sport, Cala
brese said, is meeting and socializing
with other sailboaters.
"It’s something to do on the week
ends in Nebraska,” he said. “This state
has a lot of lakes and a lot of wind. The
other people who sail are a good group
of social people. They’re a lot of fun to
be around and we try to get together as
often as we can.”
Calabrese said that he and his friends
try to sail together every weekend
during the summer if possible. Weekend
get-togethers usually revolve around
races, he said.
“It’s a real lift,” Calabrese said.
“You just can’t beat it."
‘Dragnet’film dum-de-dum-dum
By Chris McCubbin
Staff Reporter
“Dragnet" is a funny movie, but it’s
just not quite funny enough. Funny
enough to keep an audience amused —
yes. Funny enough to be a parody of the
Jack Webb TV show — no.
The original “Dragnet,” with its
contrived “true" plots, stick-figure act
ing, and especially Webb’s simple
minded political diatribes was one of
the juiciest bits of unintentional humor
to ever enter the American camp
culture. Unintentional humor of this
magnitude is the hardest thing in the
world to parody, and the movie can’t
quite make the grade.
Although Dan Ackroyd makes a vali
ant effort, Ackroyd’s Joe Friday (the
nephew of the original Jack Webb
character) is a masterpiece of character
comedy. Friday is every bit as funny as
any of Ackroyd’s classic “Saturday
Night Live" characters. Maybe funnier.
Just watching Ackroyd, dressed in
his tight-assed grey suit and silly little
hat, walking without ever moving his
arms, is almost enough to carry a movie.
And when he opens his mouth the
Webbesque machine-gun delivery and
socio-political rants are guaranteed to
have any normal, healthy American
who lived in, through or anywhere
around the baby-boom prostrate with
laughter.
Unfortunately the rest of the film
never backs up Ackroyd’s virtuoso per
formance. "Dragnet’s" most infuriating
flaw is its unforgivable waste of superb
talent.
Tom Hanks as Friday’s partner, a hip
rebel cop in the Axel Foley tradition, at
least manages to keep up. But Dabney
Coleman and Christopher Plummer are
completely wasted as stereotypical,
scene-chewing villains. Likewise Harry
Morgan, reprising his TV role as Bill
Gannon, is given nothing to do except
sit behind a desk and provoke nostalgia.
Even Ackroyd is too frequently lured
out of character for the sake of some
cheap pratfall. The effect is more often
sad than funny.
If only somebody would have had the
courage to scrap all the ear-crashes
and dumb costumes and sleazy en
tendres and all the other mindless
slapstick refuse and tired ’80s screw
ball cliches and just do a simple parody
of the TV show. Joe Friday is the perfect
archetype for all the simpleminded,
dangerous ideals and idealisms of the
Reagan era. But "Dragnet” lacks the
guts to use him for that. Ackroyd would
have never wimped out like this on
"Saturday Night Live.”
"Dragnet" is an er\joyable summer
diversion, but I’m waiting for the sequel.
Maybe the second time around they’ll
get it right.
Dragnet" is showing at the State
Theatre.
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