Essential English phrases

The all-purpose Midwestern apology-noise, made when you squeeze past someone, drop something or nearly collide. Usually followed by 'just gonna sneak past ya'. It is involuntary within about six months of arriving.

West Omaha — everything past roughly 120th Street, where the city becomes new-build subdivisions, big-box retail and the Millard and Elkhorn school districts. Used both as a location and as a mild judgement.

Omaha Public Power District, which supplies electricity, and the Metropolitan Utilities District, which supplies water and natural gas. Both are publicly owned. There is no provider to shop for — these are simply the utilities, and you open accounts with them.

The cobblestoned warehouse district downtown — brick, iron loading canopies, restaurants and the Passageway courtyard. It is the default answer to 'where should we meet' and the one part of Omaha every visitor sees.

A bread pocket of seasoned beef, cabbage and onion, and the fast-food chain that sells them. It exists almost nowhere outside Nebraska, it descends from the Volga German bierock, and asking what one is marks you instantly as new.

Corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss and dressing on rye. Omaha claims it was invented at the Blackstone Hotel here in the 1920s. The claim is contested elsewhere and not contested at all locally.

The main east–west artery and the city's north–south dividing line: street numbering flips from North to South at it. 'North of Dodge' and 'south of Dodge' are how people place an address and, historically, a good deal more than that.

Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, which locals treat as a civic asset rather than a day out. A membership is a normal thing for an Omaha household to hold, and it will be the first thing anyone recommends when you say you have children.

The College World Series — the NCAA Division I baseball championship, played in Omaha every June since 1950. For two weeks the downtown hotel market vanishes and the city fills with people from everywhere. Plan around it.

The University of Nebraska greeting, shouted in airports and answered by strangers. Lincoln is an hour away and Omaha has no Big Ten team of its own, so on a home Saturday the whole state wears the same colour.

The Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders' meeting in early May, known as Woodstock for Capitalists, which brings tens of thousands of investors to a city of half a million. Hotel rates triple and restaurant tables disappear months ahead.

Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the Missouri River — part of the same metro, a different state, a different tax return and a different set of laws. People commute both ways daily without much thinking about it, which is exactly the problem.

Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, south of the city — home of US Strategic Command, which runs America's nuclear forces. A large share of the metro is serving, retired, contracted or cleared, and it shapes the professional network more than visitors expect.

The free health and human services referral line, which in Nebraska covers housing help, utility assistance, food and benefits questions. 911 stays for emergencies; 211 is the one you will actually use in a bad month.