Minnesota

My running tally of what makes L’Étoile du Nord unique, interesting, valuable, loveable, and happy.

Les Arts 🎭

• Performing Arts - home to the oldest continuously running theater, the largest dinner theater, and the largest regional playhouse in the country; second largest number of theater seats per capita¹
• Les Artistes
  • Literature - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis
  • Humour - Joel Hodgson, Al Franken, Garrison Keillor, Jacob Lentz, Charles Shultz, Lizz Winstead
  • Music - Bob Dylan, Craig Finn², Gear Daddies/Martin Zellar, Har Mar Superstar, Hüsker Dü, The Jayhawks, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Mason Jennings, Prince, The Replacements, Soul Asylum
  • Silver Screen - Jessica Biel, Coen Brothers, Judy Garland, Josh Hartnett, Jessica Lange, Winona Ryder, Seann William Scott

The Great Outdoors 🏞

• Land of 11,842 lakes, 90k miles of shoreline (> California + Florida + Hawaii)
• People and gov’t committed to bicycling (#1 most bikeable city); lots of rail-trails
• Boundary Waters Canoe Area. It’s hard to get more pristine.
• One recreational boat per every six people—more than any other state

Brands and Inventions 🍎

• Beauty/Fashion - Aveda, J.R. Watkins, Zubaz
• Food - automatic pop-up toaster, Bundt cakes, Cheerios, Green Giant vegetables, Honeycrisp apples (Malus pumila), Land O Lakes® butter, MAR-O-BAR®, SPAM®, Minnesota State Fair food, Tater Tot Hotdish, Wheaties
• Healthcare - the pacemaker, first open-heart surgery, Mayo Clinic
• Shopping - Target, Mall of America®, first “fully enclosed, climate-controlled” mall
• Sports/Activities - NERF, Polaris, Rollerblade®, Tonka Trucks, Twister, waterskiing
• Supplies - Scotch® Tape, masking tape, Post-it® Notes, stapler
• Technology - Control Data (1st supercomputer)

Culture and Curiosities 🦆

• The Great Minnesota Get-Together and the Saint Paul Winter Carnival
• Lake of the Woods: northernmost point in the continental U.S.
• Duck duck gray duck
• One of the most stunning Catholic churches (and largest in the Midwest)
• Comparative advantage in education
• “Minnesota Nice” - (well-conveyed by Cousin Charlie Berens)

Other Folks 👥

• Adventurers - Ann Bancroft, Charles Lindbergh
• Fictional Characters - Charlie Brown et al. (Peanuts), MacGyver, Paul Bunyan, Charlie Conway, Betty Crocker, Jolly Green Giant, Pillsbury Doughboy, Rocky and Bullwinkle
• Politicians - Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Jesse Ventura, Paul Wellstone

Sports 🏒

• Alpine Skiing - 99th Infantry Battalion, Kristina Koznick², Cindy Nelson, Lindsey Vonn
• Baseball - The ‘87 World Champion Twins (K. Puckett, B. Blyleven, et al.), Roger Maris, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield
• Basketball - the birth of intercollegiate basketball; the original Lakers; Troy Bell², Kevin McHale
• Football - John Gagliardi, John Madden, Larry Fitzgerald, Tommy Kramer, Minnesota State Screaming Eagles
• Hockey/Bandy - Broten brothers, Patrick Eaves², 1980 Miracle On Ice (Herb Brooks et al.), U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, shinny

“Minnesota is a state of public-spirited and polite people, where you can get a good cappuccino and eat Thai food and find any book you want and yet live on a quiet tree-lined street with a backyard and send your kids to public school. When a state this good hits the jackpot, it can only be an inspiration to everybody.” —Garrison Keillor