How to Talk Minnesotan: A Visitor's Guide [Paperback]

Howard Mohr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1987

Based in part on material written for "A Prairie Home Companion," How to Talk Minnesotan will help visitors to Minnesota keep from sticking out like sore thumbs when they don't know the difference between "not too bad a deal" and "a heckuva deal." Illustrated with line drawings.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Those looking for someone to fill Garrison Keillor's trademark red socks will not be appeased by Mohr, who was a writer for A Prairie Home Companion. There is a similarity in the book's wryness to the humor in the show, and there are dummied-up ads of local businesses. But despite the book's subtitle, this isn't really about Minnesota: some of the humor is based on the idiosyncracies and colloquialisms of the region, but most of it can be applied to just about any state. Still, Mohr has found some purely Minnesotan motifs: the section on starting the car in winter will ring true to anyone who has survived the experience; his few, well-chosen words on going to the lake or the cabin is acutely observed; and his attitude about lutefisk, a dish that natives consume more out of a sense of duty than with relish, strikes just the right tone (he regrets having to mention it altogether). But he misses and skims over some genuine regionalisms (where's uffda?), invents others, and usually strains to make a point. Because his humorous account of Minnesota invites comparison with Keillor, the book is found wanting.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Those looking for someone to fill Garrison Keillor's trademark red socks will not be appeased by Mohr, who was a writer for A Prairie Home Companion. There is a similarity in the book's wryness to the humor in the show, and there are dummied-up ads of local businesses. But despite the book's subtitle, this isn't really about Minnesota: some of the humor is based on the idiosyncracies and colloquialisms of the region, but most of it can be applied to just about any state. Still, Mohr has found some purely Minnesotan motifs: the section on starting the car in winter will ring true to anyone who has survived the experience; his few, well-chosen words on going to the lake or the cabin is acutely observed; and his attitude about lutefisk, a dish that natives consume more out of a sense of duty than with relish, strikes just the right tone (he regrets having to mention it altogether). But he misses and skims over some genuine regionalisms (where's uffda?), invents others, and usually strains to make a point. Because his humorous account of Minnesota invites comparison with Keillor, the book is found wanting.
(Publishers Weekly ) --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (August 4, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140092846
• ISBN-13: 978-0140092844
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romance Will Enter Your Life Unless You're Careful, May 1, 2004

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Talk Minnesotan: A Visitor's Guide (Paperback)

I was given "How to Talk Minnesotan" by some wonderful friends as a 'welcome to Minnesota' gift back in 1995, and found it instantly hilarious. What was less obvious, though, was how accurate this book was in many ways, most particularly in rural Minnesota. Although I wasn't born in Minnesota, I now love it and consider myself an adopted Minnesotan, but after nine years I am still learning to master the subtle complexities of Minnesota interactions so perfectly defined in this book.

Howard Mohr ("Creator of Minnesota Language Systems"), a brilliant writer for 'A Prairie Home Companion,' details all the basics of talking Minnesotan form the viewpoint of a visitor. After reading this book, you will: learn how to refuse food three times before accepting it; learn to reduce anxiety with the all-purpose reaction "it could be worse"; learn proper conduct at Bob's B-17 Park, the Particle Board Pageant, and the Deep Woods Tent Casino; and learn the proper way of accepting a gift from a Minnesotan (hint: never call it a gift).

There are wonderful examples of all linguistic areas provided as well as guides to where to go in Minnesota, Minnesota dating etiquette, and an overview of Minnesotan cuisine, including detailed explanations of various hotdish concepts unseen outside Minnesota. This is a wonderful book, with more than a little humor and more than a little truth in it. I love Minnesota, and I love this book. It's a heckuva deal.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You betcha, it's very, very funny., January 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Talk Minnesotan: A Visitor's Guide (Paperback)

I bought this book for my brother for his birthday years ago. I borrowed it from him and haven't given it back yet. If you were raised in rural Minnesota, Iowa or Wisconsin, this book will remind you of home. The piece about hot dishes and tacos (pronounced TAH-co) really cracked me up. We still laugh about the Minnesota good-byes that resemble the ritual still practiced in Wisconsin today. You, the visitor, have to mention that it is time to go at least three times (with intermittent periods of conversation) before you actually take leave or you are considered a bit rude.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dat guy who didn't get it must be from New Jersey, September 30, 2005

By 

G. S. Kerekes - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Talk Minnesotan (Audio CD)

I read this book once, 12 years ago, and still laugh when I think about it. Anyone who is from Minnesota (especially from a small town), or moved there from somewhere else, would appreciate this book... because it unwraps the cultural norms that we grew up with not thinking twice about them until we left (or moved in).

The reader who didn't get it must live in Dinkytown, the glorious place that will be forever remembered as the hang out and career beginnings of Robert Zimmerman (Bob Dillan). If you can't laugh about yourself, you must be dull... or perhaps a bit too Minnesotan in your outlook, the perpetual underdog, Minnesota, the Mondale State.

There's a saying in Minnesota...'40 below keeps out the rif-raf.'