gregoryr1m's VirtualTourist Home Page

Catchin' up on my Sunday morning reading.

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Greg's self protrait (ala Lichtenstien)

There's something about MN

In June 2003 I was at the airport in Seattle standing in line to get my rental car when the gentlemen in front of me asked if I knew what the gas prices were in Seattle and I said, "Nope. I 'm not from around here. Ya know" After a double take, he asked me where I was from and I told him, "Minnesota."

He said, "MINNESOTA??? REALLY? You sound like you're from Canada." With pride shining on my face, I said, "THEY get it from us."

Since that day I have wanted to set the record straight. Not all of us sound like we could be a cast member from the movie, "Fargo." We all don't talk funny, ya know. I want to set the record straight:

First off, we don't pronounce our state, "Minnasoada," we don't say,"Uff-dah" and rarely do we say, "Yah, you betcha." And when someone asks me how I am, I don't reply by saying, "Can't complain..." As long as you ask, I'm gonna complain.

Most Minnsotans loath lutefisk. We keep the image alive because it's fun to make fun of... like Dan Quayle. It's a little known fact that there isn't really a fish called "lutifisk." I mean, you can't go lutifisk fishing. It's an old recipe created by an ichthyologist from Pinestone, Minnesota who wanted to do away with his mother-in-law for the insurance money.

He marinated cod in poison for six weeks on his front porch until it was lethal enough to kill a horse. Legend has it that the mother-in-law loved it and fed it to her bridge club the following week. That was the first time with THAT group that she cleaned up. It turns out that lutifisk was good for baitin' traps for bear.

We don't have casseroles in Minnesota, we call them hot dishes. Ya know, tator tot hot dish, tuna fish hot dish, and my mom's favorite, hot dish surprise, which they call scrapple in Pennsylvania.

Green JELLO was created here by a woman named Gladys Lyme (no relation to Harry). It was originally called, "Lyme's Lime JELLO" but we just refer to it as green JELLO. Gladys later wrote a book called," If There Were No Luthrens, Would We Still Have Green JELLO?" —— my guess it, "NOPE."

Our heros are Hubert H. Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Senator Paul Wellstone. If you want to settle any political argument in Minnesota, just mention Paul Wellstone's name. "Yah, you know... Paul Wellstone would never let 'em get away with that over dere."
"Yah, you betcha."

That joke in "Fargo" about the guy who changed his name to TTB•173 because he wanted personalized license plates is really an old joke. So is the one about the guy would was out ice fishing and he spend hours casting out his line until someone on a snowmobile pulled up along side him and said, "Hop on... we'll troll." And if you mention about the Alberta Clipper comin' through town, I am sure no one will ask, "What team's he with again?"

We're not Eskimos. We don't live in the frozen tundra... why, we even have cable TV... and a Holiday Inn.

VT members, I hope this little essay answers any questions you may have about my state, please visit us soon. I have some hot dish surprise left over in the fridge.

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Photos by Gregory and Radz

Me & Radz behind our cameras

Most VTers love photography and it goes hand-in-hand with travel.

***Checkout Radz VT pages.