Monday, October 18, 2004
Minnesota Nice
Minnesota Nice is a myth. I know. I live in Minnesota. That's not to say that Minnesotans are rude or mean. As a whole, we're just a bit haughty & full of ourselves as compared to people in other places. We tend to look down on folks from Wisconsin, Iowa, & the Dakotas as if we are somehow superior to them. We have more culture, more sports teams. We're just better. It's a crock. We're not better than everyone else & Minnesota Nice was created (or at least embellished if not created) by a bunch of tourism & convention marketing yahoos. It even made the cover of Time magazine in 1975.
Here's a good example. Go into a sports grill in Minnesota wearing a Wisconsin Badgers sweatshirt & you generally will be politely ignored. Go into a sports grill in Madison, Wisconsin wearing a Gophers sweatshirt after the football team got pounded 51-17 by a supposedly inferior Michigan State team and you will be welcomed with open arms to help cheer the Badgers on to victory and remain undefeated in an exciting nail biter over Purdue.
There are lots of very nice people in Minnesota, as nice as anywhere I've been, but to generalize, the nicest, most polite, friendliest groups of people I have met have been elsewhere - Wisconsin, Iowa, Florida, Texas, Missouri, California, Nevada. But nothing tops Japan for polite, friendly people. That's altogether a different country and a different discussion.
Here's a good example. Go into a sports grill in Minnesota wearing a Wisconsin Badgers sweatshirt & you generally will be politely ignored. Go into a sports grill in Madison, Wisconsin wearing a Gophers sweatshirt after the football team got pounded 51-17 by a supposedly inferior Michigan State team and you will be welcomed with open arms to help cheer the Badgers on to victory and remain undefeated in an exciting nail biter over Purdue.
There are lots of very nice people in Minnesota, as nice as anywhere I've been, but to generalize, the nicest, most polite, friendliest groups of people I have met have been elsewhere - Wisconsin, Iowa, Florida, Texas, Missouri, California, Nevada. But nothing tops Japan for polite, friendly people. That's altogether a different country and a different discussion.
