Secrets of the City

Brett Favre

duck duck grey duck vs. duck duck goose

i vote grey duck.

The Rat: smoking bans
kc!: Pawlenty
wayno: Suburban Republicans in SUVs
max: penis enlargement spammers

- Comparisons between the movie Fargo and actual Minnesota. (this is #1)
- Buying booze on Sunday Fundays
- Strangers who don’t say hello back
- Streets not being plowed fast enough
- Northwest Airlines
- The Twins
- Being blamed for Bachmann when they don’t live in MN-6.
- 35W/94 shut downs. Especially if both are shot down.
- 62 construction
- Stadiums being built
- Which ever rich person has f’d over some people this week
- The suggestion that Ohio is in the Midwest
- People who claim to be from Minneapolis when they aren’t from Minneapolis

- People who insist that it must be like the artic tundra here.

-Being blamed for Bachmann when they DO live in MN-6.

bridge jokes

@jpb you brought that on yourself.

Being a transplant and talking about what riles up Minnesotans usually does it.

1. The national media locating St. Paul sites in Minneapolis. Constantly.

2. Dissin’ Uptown.

3 Not dissin’ Uptown.

4. Is it Uptown or Lyn-Lake? Lowry Hill or Kenwood?

5. City snow emergency rules.

6. Taxes.

7. “Minnesota Nice.”

I straddle many lines, not least of which are race and geography, so I’m not quite native enough to “appreciate” everything about this place, although I have lived in Minnesota since I was six years old.

Dissing northern Minnesota would be one of those things. Duluth gets a pass, and I love the outdoors, I just don’t find anything so especially wonderful up there to merit the long drive, particularly along 61 and 169, or 35 during construction season.

There, I said it.

Does it rile anyone when people from Wisconsin call us Mud Ducks?

Does it rile anyone when people from Wisconsin call us Mud Ducks?

No, not when we get to laugh at ‘Sconny behavior several times a week. I’d rather be called a “duck” than I would a “loon.” Or “perverted predator.” But maybe I otter live there? There’s never a dull moment in Wisconsin. “Come smell our dairy-air.”

Those Wisconsin women are fishing for sympathy on the teevee? The dude was a dawg and they all knew it.

They kidnapped the guy and did the other thing.

duck duck grey duck

Ditto.

Referring to St. Paul as a “Minneapolis suburb.”

- Pointing out that Judy Garland, Winona Ryder, Charles Schulz and many others aren’t REALLY from Minnesota because [insert].

I don’t get in a huff, but rather enjoy the following:

-When non-natives pronounce Nicollet as Ni-COL-let or Ni-co-LAY. It’s cute.

-When natives get pissy about pop/soda, hotdish/casserole, grey duck/goose.

@jane: Yes! Let’s not forget …

Prince

James Arness

Peter Graves

Eric Sevareid

Charles Lindbergh

Eddie Albert

Hy Averback

The Andrews Sisters

Warren Burger

Jessica Lange

Cheryl Tiegs

Lester Young

Gordon Parks

Jean Piccard (and his sister Jeanette)

Loni Anderson

Bobby Zimmerman

William H. Macy

… and Willie Mays played for the Minneapolis Millers before being called up to the majors by the New York Giants.

Remembering these names calms us down when we get riled (which you wouldn’t know because we’re so passive-aggressive when it comes to anger), you betcha.

@jane: I grew up here saying “soda pop,” so THERE! However, it IS hot dish, and grey duck.

-people down south assuming we have snow year round.
-People assuming we know nothing about fashion and culture because, why ,we’re way up north!
-thinking about this list

Nood, your “so THERE!” is what amuses me, the huff that people get into over these things.

I could not possibly care less which term people use, and love it when people get riled up about it.

@jane:

-people unfavorablly comparing Minneapolis to NYC/Portland/Boston/etc. Seriously, what are you doing here, then?
-this phrase: “Well, what do you expect from the state that elected Jesse Ventura/Al Franken?” As if we’re the only state that’s elected a celebrity ever.
-Minnesota Nice
-Tax payer funded stadiums
-Whether or not Mnpls has an actual “ghetto.” (I say no, when compared to other cities…)

Let them know that besides the Twin Cities, the state is EXACTLY like Wisconsin

Are there black people in Minnesota?

I got in an argument with someone who claimed we didn’t have real Mexican food or gangs. What? She had lived here for a year.

…farms and more farmland.

I recently met somebody from out of state who immediately complained about the ISP options. I wonder what it is about Minnesota that entices people to move here, then be instantly disappointed by the fact that some aspect of it is different from the place they left. If they wanted everything to be exactly as it was, why did they move? Did we promise the moon?

That Gangland show on The History Channel did a segment on Hmong gangs in the Twin Cities. It actually portrayed them as a really rough fraternity. You want out? — OK.

What other gang can you actually quit and go straight?

Canadians, eh? And their golden money.

I got in an argument with someone who claimed we didn’t have real Mexican food or gangs. What? She had lived here for a year.

Wild guess: That someone lived in Minneapolis; most likely Uptown, or thereabouts?

There has been authentic Mexican food in St. Paul (and a suburb, West St. Paul) for 100 years. There are Latino gangs in the area in numbers high enough to give police enough concern to go to court to prevent them from attending Cinco de Mayo.

Whether or not Mnpls has an actual “ghetto.” (I say no, when compared to other cities…)

I agree. Nothing in NoMi or SoMi, or any of the other mini-Mis, or the Frogtown or Payne neighborhoods of St. Paul, compares with South Central L.A., the Bronx, Detroit (one big ghetto?), or Southside Chicago.

- Calling it NoMi

@KC

*Ive* gotten into arguments about whether I’m the only black person in MN. In college random people showed up to meet my family during parents weekend b/c they didn’t believe me. One dude walked up to my mom and said, “Dude, Brandi, there are other black people in MN.”

Nood, I’d even extend that to cities like Memphis (we once drove through an area where every house on the block was burned out and the buses wouldn’t stop), Gary, and some towns in the Pennsylvania rust belt area.

Whether it’s a bubbler or a drinking fountain

Soda versus Pop

Miller versus Old Style

Anything about Happy Days or Laverne & Shirley

The 3Bs: Bowling, Beer and Brats

Oh, I’m sorry, I always get Milwaukee and Minneapolis mixed up.

-super rednecks

damn now I want an oldstyle and to go to my cabin in Wisconsin…damn you JD.

Tax rates still pretty good on second homes in WI.?

nood- actually they lived in St. Paul. I suggested they check out Cesar Chavez Drive.

And they were at my neighbors house at the time. I think I pointed out the window to the Latino gang grafitti across the street and the Mexican restaurant half a block down. I gave them names of 5 good tacquerias and explained the many different gangs in my neighborhood alone.

@rat I won’t know till the old engineer goes to the great railroad in the sky.

My grandfather built the cabin at the end of his line when he worked for Soo Line back in the late sixties.

Unfortunately he’s too old and not mobile enough to make it around up there.

Yeah, the Fargo movie thing is right up there at the top for me, too, tying with the “‘I’m from Minneapolis.’ Oh? So am I. What part?’ ‘Plymouth.’” Um, no. In San Francisco once noticed my Uptown sweatshirt, told me she was from WI, then expressed shock when I said I was born and raised in Mpls. “People actually live there?” she asked. “I thought it was just suburbs surrounding the downtown financial district.” The most irritating thing was that she continued to express disbelief again and again after I told her that yes, people grew up in city limits, and yes, I did know that for a fact BECAUSE I GREW UP THERE. Where do these people come from?

I hate it when non-Minnesotans think the state is a bastion of ultra-conservatism and is big on so-called “family values.” (what?!?)

I don’t like A Prairie Home Companion, either, despite it being one of the first things people bring up to me in other states upon learning that I am a native Minnesotan.

I also hate comparisons with other cities, especially Portland, Austin, Seattle, or Denver.

It drives me crazy when I use the word “soda” in MN and people look at me like they’ve never heard the word. (and yes, born and raised in the state, but I hate the word pop. It’s rebellion, MN-nice style.)

It’s easier for people when traveling — and for people they are encountering — to just say they’re from Mpls, or the Twin Cities, even if they do live in a suburb.

Don’t be so urbo-centric, forgodsake.

I can understand if people traveling or living outside of the Twin Cities say they’re from Minneapolis; that’s logical, and is short-hand for “Twin Cities metro area.” It’s the people in the area who tell you they’re from Minneapolis but aren’t who are so annoying. Or the people who continue to tell you they’re from Minneapolis after establishing that you’re both from the area and therefore know the difference between Hopkins and Chaska.

There’s a local parenting forum where a woman started an “inner city mom’s group” (or some such name). The “inner city” in question? Cottage Grove. No wonder some people don’t realize there’s an actual urban core.

Who are you hanging out with that don’t know what “soda” is?

Maybe you could explain why that’s so annoying to you, then.

My friends all know what soda is, but I have several times had to repeat my order for a “small soda”. Although that’s not in the same league as being “corrected” at Kmart, of all places, when I was looking for some cheap vases for wedding decorations; I asked a saleslady where I could find the vases (as in vaces, rhymes with faces) and she asked me to repeat what I wanted. “Oh, VAAAHHSSES,” she said. Not a MN thing, but really? Kmart is going to get all pretentious on me? At least I found them in the end.

I’m not the only person out there (other than Bixby) who is annoyed by people not from Minneapolis saying they’re from Minneapolis, am I? Again, don’t care if we’re meeting outside of the metro area, but if we’re both in Minneapolis isn’t it sort of weird to say you’re from Minneapolis if you’re not? Why not have some pride in your city or suburb? I guess that doesn’t bug me as much as when I say “I’m from Minneapolis” and someone says “what suburb?” (and yes, that has happened multiples times.)

I always tell people I’m from Minneapolis. If pressed, I’ll say I grew up “near southwest Minneapolis.”

Left lane driving
Merging – not knowing how
Passive-aggressiveness

Maybe it riles you, but I don’t think your fellow Minnesotans get riled about passive-aggressivness, Cat. It’s a defining trait. Like stoicism.

Stoic is cool.

BTW I went to switch my telephone bill at t-mobile and i gave them my Zip 55426, it is officially listed in their database as Minneapolis.

huh I always thought the house I bought was in St. Louis Park

ryanol, I get that too, sometimes websites insist that I fill in the city slot as Minneapolis (I’m looking at you, UPS).

Puh-leeze on the getting p-oed if people say they are from Minneapolis but are actually from a ‘burb!! Give it a rest. It’s just the way peoples’ minds work. This is what people do all over the country…I currently live near Boston, in a small town. When I travel elsewhere, like to Europe, and someone asks where I am from, I say Boston, because no one is going to have heard of my small rural town and I’m close enough to Boston to spend a lot of time there (and *have* lived in Boston — which has several identifiable and distinct neighborhoods). I may not live in Boston but I ID with Boston heavily. Now when I’m in Mass. and someone asks where I live I say my town — but when I’m traveling out of state, I say Boston. And I highly doubt that your typical Bostonian will find that somehow offensive.

Even if you really do live in Minneapolis, you will encounter the following at one time or another when you travel to the US coasts or abroad:

THEM: Where you from?
ME: Minneapolis.
THEM: Minneapolis? Isn’t that where that race takes place every year?

“The race,” of course, being the Indy 500 … not the Twin Cities Marathon.

When abroad, if I say “I’m from Minneapolis.” and get a blank stare, I say “It’s near Chicago.”

Very often they think it is the car-racing place and I tell them No, it’s nearby, but on the other side of Chicago.

Good enough.

Best way to rile up a Minnesotan…

Don’t give us props as being “the best, the most hospitable” when the national spotlight shines near.

Exhibit A: PGA Championship at Hazeltine this week.

Fortunately, the professional golf “tweets” are praising us, as we so richly deserve!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IynQCmqvXZs

CamiloVillegasR By the way… Some of the best crowds all year… Thousands of people and very polite and positive… I love it!!!

geoffogilvy I just stopped for lunch after 9 and must say the lunch buffet continues to impress

Ianjamespoulter Love the lakes in Minnesota!

Uptown Urbanist: It is so incredibly awesome that in a thread about How To Rile Up A Minnesotan you posted something that gets you riled up… which proceeded to rile up a bunch of other people.

Congratulations. You win!

@Marlo

What’s so hard about saying “the [fill in the city] area”? Or “a suburb of [fill in the city]“?