Minnesota

“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)

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, Chad Smith, 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, The Concordia Choir
  • Photography – Eric Enstrom, Grace, 1918.
  • Silver Screen – Jessica Biel, Coen Brothers, Judy Garland, Josh Hartnett, Jessica Lange, Winona Ryder, Seann William Scott, Vince Vaughn
  • Sculpture – James Earle Fraser

🍎 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)

🏞 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

👥 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