Directions with Minnesotans
By Jessica Musselman
Biostatistics
I’m so excited to be nearing the end of this semester. My last final is on the 18th, and afterwards I have the pleasure of seeing an amazing show at the Dakota. The name of the quartet is the Dan Musselman quartet, and, yes, that is my husband! It will be so nice to be able to relax and really enjoy the performance; the last time Dan played at the Dakota was right in the midst of midterms, so I had to lug some textbooks along which really put a damper on the night.
I’ll be presenting my group project in my latent variables class tomorrow and handing in the accompanying final paper. Saturday is my Stat8101 final, and then the 18th is Survival Analysis (and Dan Musselman at the Dakota. $5 cover charge. Good music. I promise).
And yes, I am very excited about the fact that my Steelers managed a 20-13 win over Dallas and Tony “Ears� Romo. I just hope that they don’t blow it in the playoffs.
I have a question for all of the Minnesotans who read this blog. Several times in the past couple of weeks, I have encountered one of the most nonsensical “Minnesota-isms.� It is a phrase that is both uninteresting and absurd (thus proving it must be truly Minnesotan). What exactly do you people mean when you say “going north?� As far as I can tell, WE�RE ALREADY “NORTH.� But seriously, what does that mean? Brainerd? Canada? Alaska? The North Pole? Is that what you mean—that you’re going to visit Santa? You do realize that “north� is just one direction, don’t you? Are you also going east or west? Perhaps you are going to Russia, or maybe Norway? We can’t tell, because all you said is that you are going north. Sometimes, you add the oh-so-helpful word “up,� apparently because there is also a “down north.� Or, is there really some small town in Minnesota named “Up North� where you all go, in which case, I apologize for my confusion.
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Hey Jessica,
Minneapolis is only at about 45 degrees north latitude-wise, so there's actually a lot of globe north of here. :) I'm one of those Minnesotans who is from "up north" - about a 4.5 hour drive NW of Mpls, in fact. I don't know, it makes perfect sense to me. They actually say "up north" in Wisconsin and Michigan, too (I spent several years living in those states); they meant the part of the state north of the major population centers generally (all of those states have most of their people in the southern part, not surprisingly).
Maybe you need to think of "up north" as less a concrete direction and more a state of mind, one in which you are getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and into the peace and quiet of the lakes/woods/family/whatever it is that you are going up north for. You must have something like that whereever it is that you are from?
Cheers, and best of luck on your end-of-semester stuff.
I myself am looking forward to going up North as soon as Minnesota thaws this spring. Love your post, Ginny, bravo.
Ummm. I don't think you guys quite got the point. Obviously, there are places north of the Twin Cities and north of Minnesota.
But, as far I can tell, it seems to mean going to some secluded area (somewhere) north of Minneapolis, sitting in a crappy trailor and getting drunk. A true redneck Minnesotan idea of a good time.
I came here to go to school, and I'm from New York (go Mets!) and I've heard this phrase "Up North" a lot too. And it's asinine. It's feels like people are embarrased to say where they really went. So instead of saying, "I went to Bemidji in the hopes of drinking my problems away" they say "I went Up North."
Silly Minnesotans. New Yorkers may be called jerks, but at least we're not so cold that our brains have frozen into easily transported paper weights.
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