…and this is a 
Minnesota on our minds
Category: Local
Posted on: December 6, 2006 8:08 PM, by PZ Myers
Hmmm…there are a couple of regional links that have popped up recently.
Tyler Cowen writes a "my best friends are Minnesotans" post. Does everyone who praises the state have to mention Prince and Fargo and Bob Dylan?
Hey, there's a Drinking Liberally Holiday Party next week at the 331 Club in Minneapolis. I don't think I can make it, but that is also my last day of classes, so maybe I'll have to attend my local DL chapter and celebrate.
That local Drinking Liberally chapter is run by Lambo, who has just started his own blog, Forum Focus. He's planning to focus on Forum Communications Corporation (so that's where the name comes from), the media group that owns a chain of newspapers in our region, and bears watching.
Comments
Dylan on guitar: "one of the best of his time, though not technically". Whatever that means. Dylan did his best work in the distant pre-Cowen era, but during that period Robert Johnson and Django Reinhardt were also pretty good.
He forgot Judy Garland (Grand Rapids, MN).
He forgot Keith Ellison too. My effete urban blogofascist traitor friends are burning with envy.
Posted by: John Emerson | December 6, 2006 8:29 PM
Okay, instead of Prince, Fargo and Dylan, how about the following?:
Jesse (& his inspiring opponent, HHHIII)
Red Green (I know it's actually Canadia, but when I first saw it shortly after moving to MPLS, and it was awhile before I realized that it wasn't Minnesota)
Garrison
Harmon Killebrew
Posted by: marcel | December 6, 2006 8:30 PM
Would you rather them talk about Jesse Ventura?
Posted by: Stogoe | December 6, 2006 8:40 PM
I thought Fargo was in North Dakota. Shows you what I know.
Posted by: Erin M | December 6, 2006 9:09 PM
What PZ posted there only proves my theory that since people in Minnesooooota speak like canukes and think like canukes they should suceed and become a province.
It makes a lot of sense if you think aboot it.
They would be welcomed, by the way. Eh?
Posted by: E-gal | December 6, 2006 9:17 PM
Oh, I didn't know that homo sapiens resided in North or Sout Dakota. I thought some badlands types.., similar to Neanterthals....don't give me a lecture on how smart neanderthals were, by the way. If you can't stand sarcasim get out of the (*%))(&(((*). And &@)&%%%.
Posted by: E-gal | December 6, 2006 9:22 PM
I'm with the others in recognizing your frustration and also wondering what else he's supposed to mention?
I vote for really cold weather and some snow, and a state not nearly as politically scary as the Dakotas OR Iowa! Go Minnesota!
That and the mosquitos, perhaps? Did I mention the cold?
Posted by: Bardiac | December 6, 2006 9:35 PM
I know a minnesotan who calls rubber bands 'binders'. Is this normal?
Posted by: Stogoe | December 6, 2006 10:29 PM
Stogoe: It's definitely not normal! It's a secret language used by serial killers! Turn him in!
Posted by: John Emerson | December 6, 2006 11:17 PM
I'm with the others in recognizing your frustration and also wondering what else he's supposed to mention?
Uh... *straining mentally*
Eugene McCarthy
Dr. Demento
Judy Garland
Jessica Lange
Mitch Hedberg
Winona Ryder
Ric Flair
Craig Kilborn
Stifler
Hercules
Soul Asylum
Steve Zahn
Various Mondales
That's pretty much all I got, for better or worse, assuming the Coens are covered by blanket mention of Fargo. If we give greater weight to birth, we can claim Jessica Biel, if we go with long residence, then we can go with Kirby Puckett (I like Kirby, but Jessica is alive and hot).
Posted by: Fox1 | December 7, 2006 1:06 AM
How about Tim Westerberg, Bob Mould, Morris Day and the MotherF*ing Time, the fact that we aren't Mississippi, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Larry, Darryl and Darryl, Peter Scolari, Warren Burger, William O. Douglas, Roger Maris (the Other Famous One from Hibbing, Charles Schulz, the Little Red-Haired Girl and the Andrews Sisters, Summit and Surly Brewing Companies, just to name a few?
And Paul Bunyan. Yoopers try to claim him, but I have seen him in real life, in Brainerd.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich | December 7, 2006 1:40 AM
Oh, sh*t, I forgot! If we go by residence, we get Neil f*cking Gaiman! (got to go to a very small invitation-only reading of his at Phoenix Books in Mpls)
Take that, everywhere else!
Posted by: Fox1 | December 7, 2006 1:54 AM
I never understood why the movie was called Fargo. it could just as easily been called Brainerd or Minneapolis or even Most Creative Use of a Woodchipper in a Movie.
And famous Minnesotans include Kevin Sorbo and Richard Dean Anderson. In fact, in one Stargate SG-1 episode Jack O'Neill quips that the real reason the Goa'uld want to invade Earth is to get Minnesota because the fishing is so good.
Posted by: Ian H Spedding | December 7, 2006 8:52 AM
...where's Minnesota...?
[Ducking] Sorry, I'm from Pennsylvania...
Morph
Posted by: MorpheusPA | December 7, 2006 11:08 AM
I guess I should have added:
Tom Friedman (NYT columnist)
Al Franken
Michael Levitt, aka Dr. Fart (also father of Steve Levitt (of Freakonomics fame)
Each of these 3 is pretty funny in his own way.
Posted by: marcel | December 7, 2006 12:18 PM
Besides Jesse Ventura, you can find other famous Minnesotans(sounds like a race in a SF film)at this site.
http://www.leg.state.mn.us/youth/famousfolks.asp
From now on I will namedrop at parties people like Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Douglas, or even Terry Gilliam.
Posted by: bernarda | December 7, 2006 12:18 PM
Don't forget the Minneapolis Institute of Arts! (However, it is mentioned in the Art/Heartland article.) Admission is free every day, except for special exhibitions. The MIA is connected to the Children's Theatre and to MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design) which features great student works.
I just shot John Emerson with a binder. Heh.
Posted by: Kristine | December 7, 2006 1:14 PM
Michelle Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, those Powerline guys, Lileks, Andrew Cunanan.
Passive aggressive drivers, black ice, dressing up my *dog* three times a day to take her out to pee. No liquor sales on Sundays, no liquor sales in grocery stores. Climate that alternates between sweltering heat and miserable cold.
Posted by: msw | December 7, 2006 2:20 PM