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April, 2012

  1. The Case of the Missing “The”

    April 29, 2012 by Becoming Midwestern

    The other day I was chatting with a friend discussing directions to a restaurant we were planning on meeting up at later that evening. “Just take Interstate until the first exit in Moorhead…”

    Now, if you read that sentence and you don’t see anything strange about it, I bet you are a native to this area. Was I confused about which interstate she was talking about? Nope, I knew you couldn’t take I-29 into Moorhead and the only other interstate option in the area is I-94. Did I not know what exit in Moorhead she was referencing? Nope… the first exit in Moorhead is pretty clear. You see, what my friend did was refer to it as “Interstate” instead of “the interstate”. While I try to embrace mostly everything about the culture of this area (mosquitoes and negative temperatures excluded) the omission of the word “the” in front of certain words really perplexes me.

    This wasn’t the first time I had heard one of the major interstates in the area referred as “Interstate” before instead of THE interstate, at least not the first time in North Dakota. For whatever reason the word “the” has been removed when discussing these specific roads. You don’t hop on THE interstate and head towards Bismarck, you hop on Interstate. References to a road with a lack of direct article in front is not the only word I’ve noticed without a “the”. For example, instead of driving the tractor during the summer, or even “a” tractor, it becomes simply “driving tractor”.

    When I’ve tried in the past to point this out to friends who omit the “the” or ask why they do it, they look at me like I’m crazy. Is there anything grammatically incorrect with it? Well, I’m no grammar queen but I don’t think so. Like many things in ND, leaving out the “the” is simply another quirky thing, like referring to sloppy Joe’s as barbecue, that an outsider like myself has noticed and thinks, “hmm… interesting.”

    While I am now rather familiar with the lack of “the” in conversations, the occurrence still catches me off guard from time to time and never ceases to peak my curiosity. Whatever happened to the “the” anyway? Where did it go? Has the language in North Dakota evolved to a degree where direct articles such as the word “the” becomes unnecessary and time consuming? Did there ever used to be a “the” in front of these words? And most importantly, am I the only person who has noticed this? (Quite possibly).

    The world may never know.

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  2. If You Can’t Beat ‘em, Join ‘em.

    April 23, 2012 by Becoming Midwestern

    Even locals like visiting the woodchipper.

    In the past year or so since I have been writing this blog, I have somehow managed to avoid spending much time discussing the movie Fargo. Well, that ends today. I’m sure many residents can relate to the common reaction you get by outsiders when they discover you are from Fargo. Their familiar comment: “Oh! Like the movie?” For many people, their knowledge of Fargo consists of scenes for the Coen Brother’s 1996 movie aptly titled, Fargo. This includes funny accents, bomber hats, and of course, the incredibly memorable scene with a woodchipper and the gruesome disposal of a body. I think equally as amusing is the common Fargo resident response to this movie comparison: “It wasn’t even filmed in Fargo!”

    Now, I’m not going to spend this post discussing the differences or (sorry, Fargo) the similarities between the movie and it’s namesake town. Instead, I want to highlight how one Fargo organization decided one day to stop running away from the negative stereotype and just embrace it. Last week marked the 1 year anniversary since the Fargo woodchipper was first put on the display at the Fargo-Moorhead Visitor’s Center.  You see, the folks at the Visitor’s Center decided to follow that familiar adage: “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” It doesn’t take someone with a PR background to see how genius this actually was. Since visitors already associated Fargo with the movie, you may as well just run with it.

    With that in mind, a replica of the woodchipper from the movie Fargo was created. As word got out, the owner of the actual woodchipper from the movie came forward and let the Visitor’s Center “borrow” the prop for a while. Suddenly, people began flocking to the Visitor’s Center to catch a glimpse of the woodchipper and maybe even snap a photo or two. Bomber hats are on hand to add to the effect and even a fake leg sticks out from the top for you to pose by. Soon an entire Fargo exhibit was opened to include everything from movie scripts to autographed photos and props. The woodchipper even has its very own Facebook page to keep you up to date with events and memorable movie moments. The beauty of all of this is the fact that the woodchipper acts as a landmark to bring in the tourists (and the curious locals like myself), and then they are about to pick up brochures and information about everything else to see around town as well.

    The woodchipper and the whole “embrace the movie” mentality worked so well that it spawned the creation of an entire festival centered around the movie. In Fall 2011 the first annual Fargo Fest was held culminating in the community showing of the movie projected on a downtown building for all to view.

    So while some people may run away from a negative stereotype, Fargo and the folks at the Visitor’s Center decided to embrace it. Turn lemons into lemonade so to speak. And is it working? Oh, you betcha.

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  3. A Very FM Itinerary

    April 2, 2012 by Becoming Midwestern

    Since I’ve moved to Fargo, it has been my mission to slowly but surely get my skeptical family out for a visit. I wrote before about how my mom took a trip to the midwest and even stopped off at the Minnesota State Fair, but no other brave souls have dared venture to the Heartland. As the snow melted and record temperatures krept across much of North Dakota and Minnesota, my dad informed me that it was time. He and my step-mom were headed to Fargo.

    As I prepared for their arrival, I began brainstorming how I could fit all that is glorious about the area into the single weekend visit. As soon as their plane touched down, we were off full steam ahead. I soon created the epitome of a Fargo/Moorhead itinerary. (I feel it only appropriate to link to all the places we visited, so I apologize in advance for the excessive use of hyperlinks).

    Day 1: Up early for breakfast at Boppa’s Bagels before I headed off to class. During my break it was time for a quick tour around campus and a visit to my office. After my evening class it was time for funky pizza at Rhombus Guys and a delicious local brew from the Fargo Brewing Company to wash it all down.

    Day 2: A quick coffee at the Downtown Atomic and then off to the Hjemkomst Center for a bit of local history. After wiping away tears from the video about the Hjemkomst Ship and taking a tour of a replica of a Norwegian church, it was time for lunch. (Yes, we ate a lot during this weekend). I decided to take them to one of my favorite lunch places, Betrosa’s. After a few hours of teaching we met up again at my place for a glass of wine and then dinner with friends at Doolittle’s. We then collapsed from full bellies and rested until the next day of festivities began.

    Day 3: First stop, the FM Visitor’s Bureau. I mean, obviously they had to see the woodchipper. As we snapped some photos and flipped through brochures, my dad exclaimed, “Oh hey, you’re in this one.” Sure enough, on one of the first few pages of the Visitor’s Bureau brochure was an advertisement for the woodchipper with yours truly and her good-sport fiancé posing beside it. About a year ago we had stopped in to check out the woodchipper ourselves and had our photos snapped. A feeling of pride welled up in me as I (unbeknownst to me) was helping to publicize Fargo even more than I had imagined. As Blake grabbed a stack of brochures to autograph and send off to his family, we headed out the door towards Casselton. Next stop: Maple River Winery for some North Dakota wine tasting. Now I have to be honest, my parents were a bit skeptical about tasting North Dakota wine. Being from the Pacific Northwest and living in an area that is surrounded by wineries, they are no stranger to wine. However, they were pleasantly surprised as they began sampling a wide variety of fruit wines (18 different varieties to be exact). I mean its not every day you get to sample apple jalapeno, dandelion and rhubarb wine all in one sitting. They even shipped a few bottles back to Washington. Soon it was dinner time and since it was a beautiful day on Saturday, we decided to stroll on down to Juano’s in Downtown Fargo.

    When people ask me about Fargo, I always say it is pleasantly surprising. This idea was not lost on my parents. While neither of them knew what to expect, they were “pleasantly surprised” and definitely were sad to leave. While Fargo may not be the typical vacation destination, I always tell people that if you can just get here, I promise you won’t be disappointed. Now that the weather is warm, no time is better to make a trip to Fargo. I mean, I’ve already worked out an itinerary for you.

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