Regardless of what the esteemed citizens of rural Minnesota say, having been born and raised in the Twin Cities, I can assure you that the entire state, like the rest of the American Midwest, is a true ****hole. If there’s a bright center to this Universe, Minnesota is the dump farthest from it. (Though I will state that Wisconsin actually makes Minnesota look good—something I never believed I’d say until I went and lived there for a year and a half. If you moved the entire population of Minnesota to Wisconsin, you’d raise the IQ of both states.)
Minnesota is ranked as the most physically active, fourth healthiest, sixth most educated, ninth richest state in the country. Put it all together and you get the second best state in which to live. You could do far worse.
Having lived all over the country, I can confidently say that there are few large cities as livable as the Twin Cities. The closest I’ve come is the smallish town where I live now. Everywhere else has been a shithole by comparison. In fact, were Minnesota not so damn cold in the winter, I’d love to go back there to live.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, terentii, we’re glad to have you with us. For future info: when you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers to provide a link to the column you’re commenting on. There’s zillions of 'em in the archives, so the link helps keep us all on the same page and avoids searching time. No prob, I’ve edited in the link for you, and you’ll know for next time. And, as I say, welcome!
I grew up in Minnesota, in fact just a mile or so north of Dundas. I don’t want this fine small town to be dismissed. In my day it was the home to a great bar which happily hosted both farmers and college students. That’s the definition of hospitality in my book, and for a bar, greatness. Dundas is also home to a very fine limestone ruin of a 19th century flour mill along the Cannon River, and the Dundas Dukes, usually a power in the Cannon Valley League town baseball circuit. And by now far more than 422 fine residents!
I looked up Lake Lillian in my DeLorme MN atlas, and found it. (p38 D4) What is insteresting is the index also lists lake Wobegon - p97 F11 (the atlas has 96 pages :))
Our family would camp at Kandiyohi Lake a couple of times a year when I was growing up, and what I recall of Lake Lillian (minor grocery runs, generally) was that it was a fine little town. Don’t remember any yaks (or llamas either, but it was a long time ago).
Notassmartasithought, as an small-town, small-college alum - I never had (or even heard of) trouble between townies and college students. Probably happened somewhere, but “Minnesota nice” tends to rule the day, as long as no one is being too much of an idiot. Of course, hard core drinking/partying was done in the “college” bar - but if you just wanted a quiet night with your friends, the American Legion was more than happy to serve you.
Of course, there’s the famous saying of Garrison Keillor’s:
"When I was a kid and complained about the cold, my Dad would say, "you should be thankful for it, kid. It keeps out the riff-raff."
I’m not at all sure that’s a Keillor quote. If so, he should know better, and be criticized for it. But I heard it long before Keillor, and was always unhappy about it. The “riff-raff” were almost always Blacks from Chicago and Hispanics. One of the unhappy dark sides of “Minnesota Nice.” Even our racism is somehow forgivable.
Heck, I remember a bit on Night Court where bailiff Roz Russel (played by Marsha Warfield who was, and I assume still is, black) was showing someone around the courtroom, filled as usual with various prostitutes, drunks, vagrants, etc.
“And here we have the riff,” gestures to left side of the gallery, “and the raff,” indicating the right side.
I’ve no idea if that was a Keillor quote or not; I try not to listen to anything that idiot says. Regardless:
As you can see, it had very little to do with Minnesota nice or Minnesota mean or Minnesota racist.
Growing up in Minnesota, we used similar phrasing to mean that it kept out people who were too weak to put up with the cold. It had nothing to do with “Blacks from Chicago” (why only Chicago?) or Hispanics. Racism definitely exists in Minnesota, but not in that quote.