Minnesota culture

Greg Laden has posted a video that is wonderfully representative of life in rural Minnesota. If you can grok this short movie, you will have come a long way towards comprehending Minnesota.

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Yeah, I grok it. My father lives in Canada and hears tales about bush pilots and the like. I imagine Minnesota is just lower Canada.

Something tells me Heinlein would have groked it, too. "Always store beer in a dark place," and know how to filet a fish.

By RamblinDude (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

The Minnesota accent is strong with this guy. Hurray!

Oops, that's "fillet" isn't it? But...but I still grok, don't I?

By RamblinDude (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

Huh, so Minnesota is a lot like Maine.

By Travis McDermott (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

Wow. Been a long time since I've cleaned a fish.

God I want to go back to Minnesota. Hate fresh-water fish, but I do wanna go home.

By MAJeff, OM (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

Huh, so Minnesota is a lot like Maine.

Must be that Canadian influence. It must not be strong enough in Minnesota, though. The host of Canadian handyman show that I sometimes watch would have had a number of uses for duct tape during the course of that video and none was used at all.

By freelunch (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

Sweet cordless filet knife!

I'm goin' up to Canada in just a couplea weeks.
Gonna get me one uh dem knives for shore lunch, youbetcha!

There is so much to be learned on Pharyngula.

Now we don't have to complain about the bones
in the Northerns, perfect.

The host of Canadian handyman show that I sometimes watch would have had a number of uses for duct tape during the course of that video and none was used at all.

erm....Red Green is a comedian, not a handyman. ;-)

Lovely, but, I am seriously allergic to fish!!

By bigjohn756 (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

"You ate a mushroom that you thought was a morel... You've lost your sense of smell."

from the stage play "How to Talk Minnesotan", circa 1997.

Grok! You've betrayed yourself, you hippie!

What a fascinating accent. I'm a Canadian who lived in WI for several years. He almost sounds like someone from Milwaukee imitating a Canadian accent. I like it.

I don't know how common it is for Minnesotans to say (or if it is limited to Minnesota), but I once knew a Minnesotan who often used the expression "Do you gotter done?" I was always tempted to say, "You bet! I gotter done!" but I know I could never have said it with a straight face.

My sister-in-law is Wisconsonian, and i think she, and her family , and fellow Wisconsonians have a stronger accent that is usually attributed to Minnesota.

By chuckgoecke (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

my favorite recipe for Northern is rolled in cracker crumbs and fried in bacon grease. Ya betch, nothin better, don't ya know!

I was always tempted to say, "You bet! I gotter done!" but I know I could never have said it with a straight face.

Well, ya, because you'd be saying it wrong. It's always "You betcha."

arrgggg, my you betcha became a ya betch. Once again I embarrass my Swedish ancestry. In all honesty, the cracker crumb and bacon grease is amazing (albeit somewhat less than healthy).

The other way to fillet northern is to make 3 fillet from the fish, one along the top of the spine and the others alone the sides, but cut outwards along the y-bones.... of course, if I was as talented as the guy in the video with an electric carving knife, I'd probably do it the same way he does.

Mike:

"You ate a mushroom that you thought was a morel... You've lost your sense of smell."
from the stage play "How to Talk Minnesotan", circa 1997.

Must have been an atheist. Everybody knows that they have no sense of morels.

fried in bacon grease. Ya betch, nothin better, don't ya know!

Fried in bacon grease makes everything better. Yesterday, I decided to make myself a Minnesota dinner in Boston. Some brats, simmered in beer and onions (with some Penzey's Bavarian Seasoning) and transfered to a grill pan to cook til finished (no grill allowed on the urban faux-fire escape) and some German Potato Salad. The best smell on the planet is onions sauteing in bacon grease. There is nothing that smells so good. Nothing. Not even roses in a warm spring shower, or a lover you want to jump NOW. Nothing smells as good as onions in bacon grease.

By MAJeff, OM (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

Well, ya, because you'd be saying it wrong. It's always "You betcha."

Well you're gosh darn tootin' it is, I mean, I say, a man can catch a lotta fish 'round those parts.

Still, as the man said in "Fargo": It's gonna be cold tomarra!

There is nothing that smells so good. Nothing. Not even roses in a warm spring shower, or a lover you want to jump NOW. Nothing smells as good as onions in bacon grease.
Imagine though... the lover you want to jump, *covered* in bacon grease, and with an onion in her mouth. Heh, am I wrong?

the lover you want to jump, *covered* in bacon grease, and with an onion in her mouth. Heh, am I wrong?

Yes, you're quite wrong. (see emphasis for how very wrong you are.)

However, when I hear "lover" and "bacon grease" all I can think is, "Ow. That's gotta burn!"

By MAJeff, OM (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

Why does this guy's accent sound so similar to a Canadian accent, considering that there is a significant geographical separation between the two populations?
Is there a Nordic connection between the two manners of speech?

By DingoDave (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

Why does this guy's accent sound so similar to a Canadian accent, considering that there is a significant geographical separation between the two populations?

???????????????????

By MAJeff, OM (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

What science fiction novel is the word 'grock' taken from?
I recall reading the term 'grock it to the fullness' in one such book I read.
Was it 'Stranger in a Strange Land'?

Ref. Comment #25:
"Why does this guy's accent sound so similar to a Canadian accent, considering that there is a significant geographical separation between the two populations?
???????????????????"

How embarassing. Back to 'Geography 101' for me!
For some reason, I got Minnesota mixed up with Missouri. That'll teach me for leaping before I looked.

Another option with bony fish such as Northerns is pickling. Not to my taste but the bones essentially dissolve. Some love it (not me).

I never really could get into eating northern. I'm more of a trout and perch guy with the occasional walleye tossed in for good measure.

Of course, all my negative opinions about food can easily be offset with the right amount of beer.

This is pure sacrilege! What kind of dedicated backwoods fisherman uses an electric knife?

If we allow this kind of thing to be freely distributed on the internet, then as soon as we can say 'flibbertygibbet', we'll be finding ourselves asking the question; 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'?

Norderns? Ya ya gotcha dere. Ya wan walleyes, dough. Dere bedder'n norderns, ya ya fer sure, eh. :)

Wad elsen ya wanna know 'bout Minnesota, eh?

Lutefisk an 'bout ever kinda udder fish. An easy ta catch, whad in alla dem dere lakes, eh! Oh ya ya!

Up ta da range, we was sayin' "eh" way 'fore Bob an' Doug, oh ya ya. Yupper talk is kinda close but nobody in cheeseheadland, er, 'Sconsin talks like we do, lessen dey's from 'ere, eh. Just so's ya knows. :)

Well, as someone who ate more northern growing up that most people have eaten fish sticks, I can only repeat what my father taught me (although in all honesty had this fillet method been developed before he died he would have used it. With gusto.) "God put those bones in there to slow down people so they eat slow enough to appreciate how good it tastes."

The other thing to do with northern is pickle them. The acid softens those y bones right up.

By justawriter (not verified) on 26 May 2008 #permalink

Oh man, rural Minnesota? I'm from the cities and I still know how to do this! I grew up with a hunter in the house, complete with animal heads/bodies tacked up on the wall.

I knew how to skin deer and remove bones from fish before I was five. In fact, I think I have pictures of me covered in blood next to a skinned deer somewhere. I had to of been four at the time it was taken. It used to get a lot of strange looks from people who aren't used to the culture.

We're pretty crazy up here, but we sure love the outdoors.

We're pretty crazy up here, but we sure love the outdoors.

Ya ya. I useta go ice fishin', eh - but I don' do dat no more 'cuz I don' like da tastea ice. :)

Which remines me uvva story from a ways back when dis guy I knew from work was up ta Koronis spearin' norderns. We knew he wuz drinkin' too cuz he speared his own foot. Oh boy did we laugh at him da nex' day when he come in wit' dat cast on. :) Here he was more pissed dat he lost his new seven-tiner cuz dey hadda cut it inna pieces ta get it outta his foot! Fer sure happened like dat, eh!

Shite, thanks for making me hungry for fish, PZ. It's the middle of the bloody night, mate. Sheesh!

Mmmm! Sashimi!

Where does Laden stand on the proper temperature of saki, though?

Ha, ya don't sound too different from us Yoopers!

I wonder, though... do ya Minnesoooda folks say sauna "saw-na" like most, or "sow-na" like we do here?

Either way, I guess it doesn't matter, eh?

Felicia (#35) "We're pretty crazy up here, but we sure love the outdoors."

Speaking of which, I just talked to my brother (who recently had to move to Tennessee), and he mentioned that, even though the climate there seems to be pretty close to ideal for gardening and other outdoor activities, nobody seems to much care to do them. While here in Michigan, everybody seems to crave a garden and wants to get outside. I guess it's largely a matter of wanting whatever is most difficult to get.

Looks to me like that process wastes a lot of good meat -- around the ribcages, along the y-bone, just below the gills.

Here in southern France we would just remove the intestines, then roast that sucker in the oven, head, tail, skin and all. With herbes de Provence sprinkled liberally over the skin, and a few slices of lemon and/or tomato there where the guts used to be.

The accent here is a little different, too...

Oops, forgot the olive oil. Olive oil on the skin, before sprinkling it with the herbes.

Oops, forgot the olive oil. Olive oil on the skin, before sprinkling it with the herbes.

plural? You can use more than one herb on a dish at a time?!

You're obviously not from Minnesota, where an allergy to flavor reigns.

By MAJeff, OM (not verified) on 27 May 2008 #permalink

DingDave, Correct. I'm reading the final chapter of it now, and was mighty surprised at seeing it here.

By stormen_per (not verified) on 27 May 2008 #permalink

By some strange coincidence I was just looking at a site about great lakes fish a few minutes ago, which are "god eatin'", etc.

I found myself wondering just how healthy great lakes fish are to eat anymore... contaminant-wise.

craig - not at all. New York has a list of fish that you should eat in small quantities or not ever, and it far exceeds the list of "eat anytime" fish. I went to one of the big fish hatcheries for Lake Ontario at salmon spawning time, and found out that they put all the dead fish into a landfill. Quite spectacular, watching them kill the fish coming in and throwing them into huge dumpsters. I asked why they didn't sell the fish or donate it to local food banks, and was told they couldn't handle the liability on heavy metal poisoning. So, there's a huge industry surrounding sport fishing in the Great Lakes, but you're really not supposed to eat any of it.

RE# 34 by James F:

Tanks!
Saw Fargo when I lived in Salt Lake City and I was in hysterics...
It took me back to da Tundra, don't cha know, and the desert was far,far away right den...
As was the rest of the audience, which, I swear, was not laughing...
Yah, dey missed it, dere,
dey joost dinnit get it...

Posted this to Greg's post but thought I'd put it here too. Hi dere, all you Minnesotans.

The dialect is called either Upper Midwestern or North Central American. As a MN native who has also lived in both the LP and UP of MI, I can speak both my native dialect and the Inland Northern American dialect which also covers upstate NY and is defined by the northern cities vowel shift.

See http://www.pbs.org/speak/ about the PBS program "Do You Speak American?" for more info on this accent.

Sorry, I was just teaching a unit on this in my grammar class.

By Faithful Reader (not verified) on 27 May 2008 #permalink

Until this, everything I knew about Minnesota came from A Prairie Home Companion.

What science fiction novel is the word 'grock' taken from?
I recall reading the term 'grock it to the fullness' in one such book I read. Was it 'Stranger in a Strange Land'?
- DingDave

Yes, it comes from Heinlein's narcissistic fantasy, but it's "grok".

By Nick Gotts (not verified) on 27 May 2008 #permalink

Be careful when you generalize about Canadian accents. There's a lot of us with distinct accents nothing like this fellow's. West coasters (like me) and East coasters sound very different than the stereotypical central Canadian accent. (I believe you're comparing a Central Canadian accent with this guy.)
It's like referring to an accent as 'American'. It's a little too broad to be accurate!

Yo dere Eli!

Onna saana/sowna thingee dere, eh. . . dat all depens on iffen ya got Finlander buddies, eh. From whud I unnerstan' dem guys invented da durn t'ings, an' dey call 'em sownas. But ya can't tell dem durn udder guyzat cuz 'ey jus' don' lissen. Ya know, eh. . .

p.s. I hear dey got some good-size walleyes up ta Gogebic!

Canadian accent, eh? I've had people ask me if I'm Canadian because I tend to shade "ou" into long O. Half the time when I say something like "about," it comes out more like "a boat." I haven't a clue where that came from - I've never lived in Canada or even close to it. I'm a southern Californian currently living in Pennsylvania. And trust me, southern Californians are the only people in the world who speak without an accent. :-)

My parents live near a road named "Northern Pike" in the Pittsburgh PA burbs. I never knew there was a fish with the same name until a few years ago.

LOL @ Flamethorn. So true!

And Red Green RAWKS! Duct tape 4ever!

By themadlolscientist (not verified) on 27 May 2008 #permalink

Sometimes I miss living in the boonies of Minnesota. And then I walk three feet without getting a mosquito bite. And the feeling just sort of goes away.

If you can grok this short movie, you will have come a long way towards comprehending Minnesota.

In Minnesota, size doesn't matter? ;)

I was born in Minnesota (Elbow Lake for any of you who know where that is) and most of my family lives there (Chokio, which is actually very close to Morris, small world and all that) and yet I still do not understand Minnesota culture. For one...why would ANYONE choose to live there? I mean, its fine to visit for a few weeks maybe stretching into months at a time but to put down roots? Gah.

As a fourth generation resident of east-central Minnesota I have to chime in. Northerns are not easy to eat unless fileted well. Pickeled northerns are really good.
Mill Lacs lake is one of the most productive fisheries in the state. About 25 years ago a guy in his ice-fishing shack was spearing northerns. His black lab dog got real excited whenever he landed one.
He speared a big one that shook its way off the spear. The lab dove in to try to retrieve it.
The guy ran outside in a panic to try to figure out where his dog went. All of the sudden a terrified guy ran out the door of a nearby ice-fishing house. The dog came up out of his spear-fishing hole and really scared the resident.
Cal

By Cal Harth (not verified) on 27 May 2008 #permalink

Sometimes I miss living in the boonies of Minnesota. And then I walk three feet without getting a mosquito bite. And the feeling just sort of goes away.

Ah, dusk in rural Minnesota. Time to get carried away....by mosquitoes as big as your fucking dog.

By MAJeff, OM (not verified) on 27 May 2008 #permalink

the good (?) thing about Ballard in Seattle is that it's really damn close to the small Minnesota town that I grew up in tchotchke-wise, food-wise, sassy old folks-wise.
I'm rather afraid to watch the video... I'll have to do it at home and not here at work just in case!

By bbcaddict (not verified) on 27 May 2008 #permalink

Yo dere Cal!

Ya ya, I done heard dat one, too, eh!

Also, so's ya knows: In Minnesota, da fishin' culture is so endemic dat when dis guy fromma Cities catches da state record fish (108 pound lake sturgeon) it gets stole da nex' day! Honest ta gosh, eh!

gruggach:
Perhaps I should have stated that I was raised in Saskatchewan. Having spent a couple of years in Wisconsin, his accent really does remind me of someone from Milwaukee faking a Canadian accent (ie, from Ontario and westward).

I should also note that there is very little variation in accent from Toronto to Vancouver. Seriously.

gruggach:
Perhaps I should have stated that I was raised in Saskatchewan. Having spent a couple of years in Wisconsin, his accent really does remind me of someone from Milwaukee faking a Canadian accent (ie, from Ontario and westward).

I should also note that there is very little variation in accent from Toronto to Vancouver. Seriously.

Oh Minnesota, how I miss thee. I'm stuck in Iowa for most of the summer. Hope to get back and get some fishing in up at the cabin though.

"Be careful when you generalize about Canadian accents. There's a lot of us with distinct accents nothing like this fellow's."

There's a fair bit of variation among different parts of Minnesota too. This guy has what I think of as fairly standard Central Minnesotan. Further north it changes. The particular area I come from in southern MN seems to produce a fairly reliable Herb Brooks accent (the real one, not Kurt Russell's imitation). Jesse Ventura's accent makes me want to slug someone, since the few people I've met with that particular twang were all jackasses.

I'm 5th generation Minnesotan, by the way. If anyone figures out how to develop immunity to the giant pterodactyl skeeters, let me know.

"Yo dere Cal!
Jeffox,
"Ya ya, I done heard dat one, too, eh!

Also, so's ya knows: In Minnesota, da fishin' culture is so endemic dat when dis guy fromma Cities catches da state record fish (108 pound lake sturgeon) it gets stole da nex' day! Honest ta gosh, eh!"

Fishermen are liars, thieves, and lawbreakers. I don't mind. Politicians and preachers get away with it. Why not fishermen too?
Mother's day needs to get moved to a different date. The fishing season opener is more important. Likewise, people should not plan on anything for the weekend of deer hunting season opening. My mom should have changed her birthday.
Cal

By Cal Harth (not verified) on 28 May 2008 #permalink

from the stage play "How to Talk Minnesotan", circa 1997.
Posted by: Mike | May 26, 2008 9:50 PM

Did they actually do a play based on the Howard Mohr book?? Oh, for clever!

I borrowed that book from my Iowan aunt in order to try to prepare my (then) fiancée who'd never been out of CA for a trip to visit my Midwestern relations. I found that "How to Talk Minnesotan" better captured the way my Iowa relatives related to each other than the one she had about speaking Iowish.

By dwarf zebu (not verified) on 28 May 2008 #permalink

Pert-near made me cry thinking about Michigan where I'm originally from and also where I went to pharmacy school. I guess I've been living in FL too long - people seemed so much more..."real" back in the day.

Maybe I just notice them more nowadays, but for whatever reason it seems I'm increasingly surrounded by "wet brains". I mean, a guy that I worked with REALLY believed ALL that creationist crap. And I mean ALL of it, really.

It was fascinating (and a bit scary) to listen to him talk about how "the scientist" (as if it was one individual) deliberately lied about "that carbon radio dating" so as to "deliberately advance his Darwinist world-view". The stream of BS literally gushed from this guy - I kind of miss him in a weird, stare-at-the-accident kind of way. Apparently all his material came from the Kent Hovind School of Reality ("life experience" credit available of course).

I mean - what the fuck? When did all this stupid shit happen? When did the inmates start running the asylum? I must have been asleep or preoccupied or something - one day I woke up, looked around, and found myself surrounded by Loud Speaking Idiots with Opinions. A potential presidential candidate saying he "didn't evolve from primates"? I mean, we used to LAUGH at these stupid people, and now they are "mainstream" and taken seriously? What the fuck?

Feeling out of touch, I started doing some research on this seemingly all-to-common warped "rationality" and I must say that stumbling across Dr. Myers' blog 'pharyngula' has given me hope that there are islands of sanity in this sea of madness.

So at least I've got that going for me.

By JerryT, FL (not verified) on 29 May 2008 #permalink