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More fun with lists: Minnesota is 45th worst state

Posted at 3:35 PM on August 19, 2011 by Jon Gordon (3 Comments)

Gawker has a nice little twist on those inane "Best Of" lists, the kind we wrote about earlier this week that pegged Chanhassen as, like, one of the crazy best towns in the whole U.S.A.

Gawker's gawkery-take: The Worst 50 States in America. Cheeky.

The least worst state, according to New York-based Gawker? New York. Minnesota comes in at the 45th worst, by which Gawker means it is actually one of the best. (Thanks to commenter who urged me to clarify what the heck Gawker is actually saying here) Excerpt:

The Good: The Twin Cities area tends to be a pragmatically progressive, pleasant place to live. There's lots of good cultural stuff like theater and all that. Outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul, there is lots of picturesque, Scandinavian-tilled farmland dotted with lakes. That landscape is also, at one point anyway, dotted with the Mall of America, an enormous shopping complex complete with indoor Nickelodeon theme park. If that's too crassly commercial for you, down the road a bit is the (disputed) world's largest ball of twine. Oh, and one of Minnesota's senators is Stuart Smalley! The best thing about Minnesota, though? Fried food.
The Bad: Uh, well, the government shut down. Also, Michele Bachmann. The conservative movement is only growing in Minnesota, and though it seems like a gently folksy kinda place, it's not always so pleasant. But really the main way that Minnesota is (naughty word deleted)? It's cold.

Comments (3)

I think you misread the article. Minnesota is the #45 on the list of worst states, meaning that Gawker was actually saying it's the 6th-best state.

I can see how that might have been confusing, except that New York and Minnesota are basically 5 spots from each other on the page.

With that being said, these lists are completely subjective, and they're really just a vehicle to reveal scandalous trivia about our neighbors.

Posted by Andrew | August 19, 2011 3:56 PM

Andrew, I got what Gawker is saying. I guess my writing just wasn't clear enough. I clarified the post. Thanks to you. Which makes you the least worst commenter of the day.

Posted by Jon Gordon | August 19, 2011 4:16 PM

POSITIVELY MINNESOTA

http://dauckster.posterous.com/lutheran-airlines-fg-audio-only

//There's lots of good cultural stuff like theater and all that.

Minnesota is all theater. The moment I step foot outside my house the acting begins. Too much.
And frankly, we could use more reality and less pretend.

Don't get me wrong, theater is good when it remains IN theater.

Posted by lucy | August 19, 2011 6:49 PM