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Who Owns the North Star?

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The North Star is at the Center of the Action

I ask the question only because Minnesota is referred to as The Star of the North in our official state motto, L’Etoile du Nord. It also comes up in our state song, Hail Minnesota.
The official state website is called Minnesota North Star.
We have North Star Commuter Rail.
And of course our hockey team was the North Stars until they moved to Dallas and became the (ordinary) Stars. But if you’re a puckster looking at it from the Mexican state of Chihuahua, the Dallas team may still be the North Stars to you.

But North Star-ness is all relative to one’s position. Since Minnesota was once the northern most U.S. State, “North Star” made a certain geographic sense. But now the northernmost title for States of the Union goes to Alaska, no contest. Accordingly, the North Star is featured on Alaska’s flag.
There’s a New Jersey-sized section of Alaska called the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

And according to a controversial profile of Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair, the ex-Governor and conservative firebrand is rather fond of the name North Star.

It was a baking-hot Kansas afternoon, and from the lobby I watched as three slender, solemn young hairstylists and makeup artists approached a front-desk clerk at the Hyatt Regency hotel, in Wichita. The tallest of them said, “We’re here for North Star.” The desk clerk understood. He nodded and directed the three women to the Keeper of the Plains suite, on the 17th floor, where North Star herself awaited. The North Star is mentioned in Alaska’s state song and appears on its state flag. Fairbanks lies in a region called the North Star Borough. Palin is on the way to making North Star a personal brand. If she ever does run for president, it might well serve as her Secret Service code name.

I should point out, though this will come as no surprise, that the Palin profile is not flattering. The author, Michael Joseph Gross, claims that he wanted to write a positive piece but was unable to once he started talking to real, anonymous-by-request people. That may be true, but one must wonder how hard he tried. When the person you are writing about refuses to speak to you and you wind up interviewing restaurant servers to find out what kind of tipper your subject is (not very good, it turns out), I’d say the odds already favor a negative result.

But it does lead me to this question – would Governor Palin’s Minnesota non-admirers be able to stomach her adoption of “North Star” as a “personal brand”?

North Star? That’s us! Not only have we claimed it in all the ways I already described, but we serve as the headquarters for Polaris, a snowmobile company that has taken the North Star’s given name as its own.

But here’s the unfortunate truth – even Polaris itself can’t lay an unassailable claim to the title “North Star”. Sure, it has been the pole star for one half of planet Earth for many years and since it appears motionless in the sky it has served as a vital navigation guide to seafarers for centuries. But due to a rotational wobble called the Precession of the Equinoxes, even Polaris will one day lose the title “North Star” to a different twinkler named Vega. But don’t despair. In Twenty six thousand years, Polaris will get it back.

Fickle universe!

If you became president, what would you choose as your code name?

65 thoughts on “Who Owns the North Star?”

  1. good morning, All! Dale, what a wonderful piece to read this early morning – thanks!
    and the question, as always, an interesting one.
    i think we all know that i would never, ever be elected president. i’ve had a code name, though: one spring a few years ago i did a “big sit” bird count out here – 24 hours in a (i think) 20 foot diameter circle counting all birds seen or heard from that circle. my code name was “bear bait.”
    now, of course, it would be goatmom
    happy day to you. i’m trimming T’s hooves today and then taking a 50 hour shower.

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      1. if only i had my list, but i am thinking high 60s in species. i found a place here where i could see (and hear) a bunch of different habitats. and it was May 20, so there were many migrants as well. a fun time (except in the dark, spooky night thus the name bear bait. 🙂 i was alone out here (before we moved out) and the phone was not working. i’d do it again though.

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  3. We often forget that place names have a historical dimension. Take the phrase “Midwest.” Technically speaking, that includes Indiana and Ohio, which are pretty far East according to my sense of things. But when so many folks were pioneering a new life in unsettled Ohio and Indiana, those states seemed mighty far west. Was Texas part of the “Wild West?” Wild, maybe, but parts of Texas are no further west than parts of Minnesota. And then was it Grain Belt that used to refer to its home state, Minnesota, as “the Great Northwest?”

    It might be wise to be tolerant on these place names. If three little towns each wants to be the Turkey Capitol of the World, there is no reason for fisticuffs or lawsuits. Any town that wants to be the turkey capitol is to be pitied, not assaulted. I do, however, gag at calling Sarah Palin “North Star.” The real North Star is bright.

    What code name for me? This easily gets embarrassing, as some choices transparently reveal the fantasies people hold about themselves. A lover of the big lake, I could try to be “Superior Guy,” but that would trigger giggles and sarcasm among the Secret Service guys. I’ll settle for the handle I’ve used online in one version or another for a long time: Storyteller. It is reasonably accurate, is not pretentious and has no pornographic overtones that I’m aware of.

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    1. steve, I, too want to take part in the small town nicknames and the names of their festivals. I laugh everytime I drive by Madelia, “The Pride of the Prairie,” which refers to a young woman of dubious intentions, reputation, and disntinction in a dirty song of my U of Chi days.

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      1. Clyde, no less than three towns are scrapping for bragging rights to the “world’s biggest ball of twine.” If my hometown had no greater claim to respect than the fact it has a huge stinking ball of twine, I would want to hide that fact, not broadcast it.

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  6. What my yearbook staff kids called me from 1969 to 1984–Mr. B.
    About 20 years ago the Strib held a joke contest for a new state motto, since L’Etoile du Nord isn’t even a motto. That was one of the funniest things I ever read. They published about 15o entries, all very good. I think they chose “Minnesota, what South Dakota Wishes They Could Be.” Sorry, Donna. That was back when our two idiot governors were feuding, as if we haven’t always both had idiot governors. I have before wished I had saved the article. One was, “Minnesota, Here to Keep Iowa Away from Canada.” Many for sure were about cold. My favorite was “Le Toilet du Nord.”
    OT: first fall ride in; had to wear gloves and I should have chosen a warmer pair. But how alive to feel biking on a day like this–NO WIND for one.

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  7. Rise and Shine Booners:

    I am running late this a.m. I cannot imagine being President and it is not a job I would ever want–I would be the most unwilling.

    Nickname: The ever popular “Jack Sprat” from my very skinny, tall adolescence.

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  8. I think you must be mistaken, Dale. Surely it is not possible that the champion of the grizzly mamas does not comb her own hair and (gasp) wears make-up.

    That is all 100% natural beauty brought on by wholesome living.

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  9. Good Morning to All:

    I supose I would use Bug Man for my code name. Some people had fun calling me Bug Man when part the services I offered to farmers was checking for insect pests. I might consider some other code names if I actually became President. Of course, I would not be my own first choice for President. There are some people who I think would make very good Presidents, but they apparently have no better chance than I do of becoming President. I can’t even image what the code name would be for a American President that would finally really change things. There doesn’t seem to be any code name avasilable for a President that could do that.

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      1. I guess some version of a name like Superman would work for the kind of President I am thinking about.

        I was told I should be happy to have an interesting nick name such as Bug Man, and I think that is right. I was also called Bug Doctor a few times. Tom Delay, I think, is a different kind of Bug Man. I was trying reduce the use of insecticides and I imagine he had a different agenda.

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  10. Having been Anna Banana (as I’m sure Renee’s daughter has been as well) for years, that one is bound to crop up. But might be too easy. Fozzie was a nickname from an era when my hair was short and my big curls caused me to look a little like Fozzie Bear, minus the big tie (Annie, the musical, had just come out about then, too – if people called me that, I broke into “Tomorrow” Ethel Merman-style – put the kibosh on that name pretty quickly).

    If PBS Kids hadn’t already taken it, I might shoot for “Word Girl” (though maybe if I did still try for that, I’d get a monkey sidekick, just like Word Girl on TV – that could be fun).

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  11. She’s been called Anna Banana, Annabelle, and Annielisie. She doesn’t mind any of them but when she hears ANNALISE MADELEINE! shouted from her mother’s lair, she knows she’s in trouble.

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    2. I am an Anna-Maria, so if I was in trouble, I got “Anna-Maria.” If I was *really* in trouble I got “Anna-Maria Klove” (first and middle). The latter, of course, hardly ever happened. 😉

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  12. Y’know, as I read that passage, it occurred to me that maybe, just ~maybe~, if you have a code name, it shouldn’t BROADCAST who the name is referring to. I’m sure if I was an evil bad guy of some kind, I’d never connect “North Star” with someone drawing lots of media attention that loves purporting to be from Alaska. Nope, wouldn’t even occur to me.

    I could use ‘That Guy in the Hat’ as my code name if I just stopped wearing hats. More than likely I’d choose something like, “Wiffle Waffle Woofie-Moo” just to make those ultra-serious Secret Service folks say something nonsensical with their trademark deadpan. That’d crack me up.

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  13. Been painting while watching Twins games, which means I cannot switch away from the commercials, and have seen/heard the same commercials, especially for beer, over and over again. Two lessons from beer commercials right now: 1) men are crude, stupid, and insenstive dumbos, and isn’t that wonderful. And apparently the modern young male is more driven by thirst than by sex. 2) the package or bottle is everything (see through the side, makes the bubbles rise, or my favorite, swirls in the neck of the bottles “for a cleaner pour”). And so we market politcal candidates the same way: it’s the package, the glib saying, the sound bite that matters, not the contents.
    Oh, and by Toyota commercials, women are smarter than men and children are smarter than women.

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  14. In the end I would use “Clyde” instead of my real name.
    So, let’s give Dale and Mike code names:
    Dale; uh, cannot come up with anything good, but it’s out there. Anyone?
    Mike: drummer mouse

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  15. I am going to market a beer called “Thug” with a neck on the bottle that breaks off perfectly to make it a weapon and a package in which is hidden a shiv.
    Or one called “Numb” for young men who are not even aware there are women around instead of ignoring what women want.
    Or one called “Pigskin” for men who only come alive when they hear the opeing whistle for the kickoff.

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    1. I remember a business case study in college of Schaefer Beer. Their slogan was, “The beer to have when you’re having more than one.” As I recall, their Marketing campaign was so good that they literally killed off their customer base through alcoholism, drunk driving, etc. and it was a major factor in them going out of business. A rare example of an ad campaign that was TOO good.

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      1. Point is the short hand version of referring to Stevens Point, WI. It is also the name of the local beer, and I believe they had an ad campaign slogan “When you’re out of Point, you’re out of beer”. My husband’s friends liked to counter with “When you’re out of Point, you’re out of town.”

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  16. Those with long memories will recall, “My wife . . . I think I’ll keep her!” (The most smugly sexist commercial of all time.) Not long after that thing aired, ad agencies wised up to feminism. Now it is okay to depict men as the silliest sort of doofus while women get a free ride. Can anyone think of a commercial from the past 15 years that disparaged women and made men look superior? I suppose younger Baboons can’t even remember when women in commercials were presented as empty-headed little dears whose highest aspiration in life was to shop and please husbands.

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    1. I will admit to being of an era where a memorable commercial from my youth was the Enjoli (sp?) perfume commercial where the singer told us that she could “bring home the bacon – fry it up in a pan – and never never let you forget your a man…” Not quite the shy, retiring housewife. Though I saw plenty of those, too, as a kid.

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    2. I remember the dish soap commercials in which hubby gets a big promotion since wife cooked dinner for the boss and the dishes were so shiny.

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  17. Well, I think Dale needs something very secret agent-like to draw attention to the fact that he’s not secret agentish. Of course, they say that the best secret agents are the ones that aren’t secret agentish. But…wait, Moebius Alert… And there we have it!
    Dale’s code name: Moebius
    (He can even shorten it to ‘Moe’ and it can be a little inside joke.)

    For Mike, he’s tall, thin, in production… I’d go with ‘Antenna.’

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  18. This is OT but I work on the 4th floor of a 6 story building, and as I type this there are men in rainsuits swinging past my window on ropes and riding on sliding scaffolding, spraying the brick outside my office and doing something called tuckpointing. It’s not real conducive to teaching clients relaxation strategies.

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    1. My sister used to teach a class on “rest and relaxation,” which met at 7:30 a,.m on Monday and Friday, not her choice of a sked. Her problem as you ccan see is that instead of relaxing, the students fell asleep.

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  19. Morning-

    The only nick name I ever really had was ‘Spanky’ (but trying to avoid the pornographic overtones that Steve mentioned) and it had more to do with the ‘Little Rascals’ TV kids than anything else. So along those lines I suppose they could call me ‘Alfalfa’ and have it a pun to both farming and being a rascal…

    Sometimes kids would reverse the letters of my first and last name and I’d be ‘Hen Bain’ which certainly wasn’t as annoying or insulting as other names I’d been called… but not sure how you make a code name out of that either… ‘Chicken Man’? Anybody remember ChickenMan, the radio series? “He’s everywhere, He’s everywhere!”
    Mike, got any Chickenman you could play?? 🙂

    School for my daughter… whew- organized chaos doesn’t come close! My wife spent the whole day with her yesterday as things got sorted out. I went to first hour class today… after which the para’s are pretty sure they’ve got a handle on things now. Mind you- I’m not picking on the paras…. just the usual first day snafu’s and schedules. There is the one ‘hair pulling’ kid… but my daughter is keeping her eye on him now. And they haven’t got her a locker yet.
    Is this a sign of the times? Electric pencil sharpener doesn’t work and the handle is missing from the manual pencil sharpener?

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  20. I might ask for HypoxanthinePhosphoribosyl Transferase. It’s an enzyme. The genetic deficiency of the enzyme causes boys to bite off their fingers, lips, and other body parts if not stopped. Such a sad disease has a real melodious sound and it was the first polysyllabic word I taught my son

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  21. Now it sounds like I am in a dentist’s office and there is massive drilling going on! It’s making my teeth hurt and my skin crawl!!

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  22. Right now it would have to be “Bend Head”. Yes, that’s right folkies – Rock Bend Folk Festival!

    Last night we unloaded the storage building and brought the lumber and heavy poles, tent canopies, etc, to Minnesota Square Park with assistance from four STS kids. We found a new, improved site for Joyce Eaton’s North Tree Stage (farther from the Pavilion to prevent sound bleeding over between stages). Tonight a whole herd of volunteers will converge on the park. We’ll build both stages, an info booth, put up tents, awnings and banners, drink beer and eat! I’ve been cooking since last weekend and will continue to cook today but am tired already. I still have lots of cooking to do. Today I’ll put wild rice brats in the roaster with beer and bring those for the volunteers tonight. We’ll also go through four cases of beer tonight. If we don’t finish all the work tonight, we’ll finish tomorrow. Friday night the food and arts vendors start to come in and must be guided to their correct spots (no fighting over prime locations, folks!) And Saturday is the Festival!

    This is for tim:
    Rock Bend Folk Festival
    Minnesota Square Park
    St. Peter, Minnesota
    http://www.rockbend.org
    Saturday and Sunday, September 11 and 12
    FREE! FREE! FREE!
    20 Years Old and Still FREE!

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    1. Wow, what a project, Krista! The weather for this weekend looks ideal. I don’t know many of the names on your roster (except Willie Murphy, of course), but I’m thrilled you could land Crooked Still. That’s one of the most original and interesting groups in all of folk music. Here’s wishing you a fabulous weekend.

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  23. Krista–I was thinking of running by and looking you up, but just had a big change in my plans for the next few days. If you see Lisa from St. Peter, tell her to blog.

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    1. I hope she introduces herself – I must say I would not be able to tell one of you Babooners from another. You all look alike in black and white… 🙂

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      2. Anybody who plans to come: I’ll be at the North Grove Stage most of the weekend. I’m the staff person and emcee for that stage. Ask the sound guy in the tent to point me out. If I’m not there, just wait – I’ll be back shortly. Please come and introduce yourselves!

        Clyde, Sunday might be a little quieter day. Please come if you can. I’d really like to meet you. Do you know Dick Kimmel? He plays at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

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  24. I guess I’d go with B’zerkley Barb, my nickname from just out of college in San Francisco… Sounds either mysterious or edgy.

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  25. Greetings! The whole idea of Sarah Palin “branding” herself as the North Star is just so distasteful if not downright sickening. She gets plucked out of total anonymity to a national stage with a pretty, perky face and barely coherent but passionate diatribes about … whatever … so she resigns as governor and is now … what? A media personality? A political hopeful? A role model for women? Puhleeze – gag me with a spoon! Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi are smart, influential women who are role models — not Palin and M. Bachmann. I better stop here …

    Anyway, if I had a code name I might take the handle I had when CB radios were popular — Dancing Bear or JoJo Dancer. Not that I talked on it much — mainly Jim liked that sort of thing. Now I might go with Pink Ninja or something more exotic and martial arts sounding.

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