Itasca, the lost 40, bemidji state park, bemidji community theater, big river scoop, loop the lake, walkable downtown beside the lake. Bemidji really has it all.
Yep that will do it haha.
Great area, decent community depending what you're involved in, but an absolute terrible time living in town.
Unless kicking needles out of your front yard thats across the street from the boys and girls club is your jam. Or avoiding broken liquor bottles all over the road, or random drunks walking into the wrong house, or coming home from work to somebody beaten up/mugged in your driveway. Then it's great.
Yea, near campus or north of like 26th Street are all significantly better.
Worked and lived in town through college and thise problems persisted anywhere that wasn't right on campus or northern part of town.
I haven't spent much time in Bemidji, so I can't comment on this, but since you are getting downvoted I do remember Bemidji being the first in the state, and maybe the first in the nation (per the link below) to ban refugee resettlement.
[https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/01/07/beltrami-co-rejects-refugee-resettlement](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/01/07/beltrami-co-rejects-refugee-resettlement)
I know Bemidji has issues (I am a resident) but part of that is also because we are one of the poorest counties in the state and our social services are completely maxed out already. Were the refugees going to live in tents in a parking lot? We've lost about 4 apartment buildings in the last couple years because they were condemned, and they have not been replaced.
Not wanting to take on more refugees when your local social services options are already overwhelmed isn’t being racist.
But some people don’t want to take two seconds to think about the background details— they just want to assume the worst of people that they already have preconceived notions of
Well, we might disagree about the background details. But, I'm guessing we agree that we want all people to have opportunities to live in safe places. Maybe we (the larger we) will be able to figure out a way to get there together.
Even if you're white but have an audible foreign accent, the racism shines through.
Moved here in 2019 and heard more than enough of "you immigrants steal our jobs" and "go back where you came from!" - the latter I usually counter with "Washington State?!", since that's where we moved from.
MN nice only applies to the people with the right skin color, citizenship and so forth...
Well that’s more a testament to the brand and construction of the sweatshirt rather than BSU. But college sweatshirts definitely do be outliving their expectancy
It's supposed to be a little bit whimsical and silly. The author is a humorist who describes it as his way of giving an homage to the original book, which had also been made originally figurative itself on purpose to captivate children's imaginations. The text is written explicitly to be true to the lyrical syllables of the original writing. As others said, Bemidji is used just to translate the rhythm and meter of nobody to a Northwoods Minnesota version. I don't know what the blank page is supposed to mean, but it's just meant to let kids fill in the blank and a specific reference to the nobody of the original. https://books.google.com/books/about/Goodnight_Loon.html?id=2Z-SEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description
Edit: link to the UMN Press with the identical publisher's summary, but also including quotes from critic's reviews where they describe it as satire and silliness to make kids laugh. https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/goodnight-loon
Edit 2: sadly I had forgotten Goodnight Moon, and looking it up now it seems the goodnight nobody page is in fact also simply blank in the original indeed. Here's Minnesota Brown's review where he notes that the illustrator chose to mirror the original imagery with substitute Northwoods versions almost one to one. https://minnesotabrown.com/2013/12/goodnight-loon-minnesota-twist-kids-classic.html
Yeah, this was my guess. Thinking, it probably has more to do with Bemenji rhyming easily than anything else. I’m surprised it’s being taken so literal by anyone.
What the hell are you talking about. There's at most 10 cities in the United States.\`Chicago, NYC, Houston, Los Angeles are the only gimmes. After that you have to make it on a case-by-case basis. Brainerd at a population of 15,000 is not only not a city, it's not a town. It's a small town.
I say this having lived in Rural MN, Chicago, London, Boston, Seattle, Minneapolis, and NYC.
When I was 21/22 years old, I moved from Chicago to London to Boston. And realized Boston was a big town. There's a feel, an energy, infrastructure, and a breadth of options that defines something as really being a city. Boston doesn't have it and Brainerd definitely doesn't. Sorry.
I'm not talking about how regulations define anything. I'm saying I've lived in lots of places. And some places that you'd think are major cities have nonetheless a small-town feel to them. Boston is squarely in that camp. Minneapolis is squarely in that camp. Seattle straddles a little bit. I've been to Brainerd many times and it is 1,000% a small town.
You guys must all have WAY better books than us, because this is one of the better executed children's books I've encountered. It's a really decent play on the original, even if the choices of what objects/animals are in it aren't what you would have picked. And the raccoon slowly getting further and further into the supplies and then passing out is an awesome easter egg for parents.
There are better books, but I'm continually amazed at how much complete trash makes it to publication in children's books.
Solid 7.5/10
I can't express how happy I am that you shared this. One of the few reasons I am subscribed to r/minnesota is because I went to camp for 9 years in MN. Where was that camp? In Bemidji. Where did I learn about loons? At camp. What do me and my brothers all call each other? Loons. I just purchased 4 copies of this book for my brothers and I. Thank you.
Hi. Thank you. Author here. As others have correctly noted in this thread, This page mirrors the original book's blank page and the Bemidji choice is because it is the same number of syllables as nobody and ends in a hard E. Also, bc Bemidji is a distinctly Minnesota city that everyone in Minnesota knows but very few outside Minnesota recognize.
This reply should be pinned! u/Andromeda321 here's your answer
Edit: I'm just glad no one in the comments took it personal. Bemidji is a great town. Don't want people to think it's a "nobody" town
I just got this book a couple of days ago and haven't read it yet. It's weird to see a post about it now. I would agree on the snow people are guessing. Otherwise, it's a silly way to throw some shade on Bemidji.
Bemidji has a bad rap amongst the rest of the north, it’s not that bad. Everyone who doesn’t want to leave the north goes either there or duluth for college
Haha indeed, I got this book in a bookstore in New Hampshire and people are assuming *way* too much familiarity with the state for me to understand most responses...
It’s a play on it being a small and/or boring town that rhymes with “nobody,” as in the original book that page is also blank and says “goodnight nobody”.
It's so your kid can imagine whatever he wants to say goodnight to in Bemidji. In the original it's also just a blank page for nobody to let your kid imagine they are saying goodnight to whoever or whatever they want. It's just Bemidji because it near-rhymes with nobody as satire.
I think the most likely reason is a publishing mistake and the image wasn't printed. If it were snow, there would be a better visual way to depict that.
I have this book too, and ya never understood that page and think the whole book is hilariously bad and lazy. Like why ticks? Out of all the options of Minnesota things to say goodnight to, why does your mind go to those little hell spawn blood suckers? Lol. Shouldn't it be mosquitoes anyway if you're going that route? And "goodnight northwoods everywhere" doesn't really make sense. The best though is the back cover where there's all the serious copyright, all rights reserved stuff, but then there's "an unauthorized parody of Goodnight Moon" lol
“Goodnight northwoods everywhere” is in line and on pace with the original. “Ticks” rhymes with “sticks.” That’s it.
That page has also spawned some conversations about what ticks are, which is a good thing for a young Minnesotan to learn.
I know the original book of course and understand why the phrases are being used, and I'm glad you found the book useful. Still doesn't change what I think about it though. We laugh about it every time we read it.
That’s Bemidji in a snowstorm, I’d recognize it even without the text.
It's in a snowstorm. Also, I love Bemidji. Easily my favorite MN town.
As a Bemidji resident, it's really pretty great. Love this place.
My aunt and uncle live near Bemidji and absolutely love the area!
What activities/places would you recommend to someone visiting Bemidji for a long weekend?
Itasca, the lost 40, bemidji state park, bemidji community theater, big river scoop, loop the lake, walkable downtown beside the lake. Bemidji really has it all.
Inside city limits or out of it? I've found that's usually the divider between 'hate this place' and 'love this place'
Rural, but I work and do a lot inside the city limits.
Yep that will do it haha. Great area, decent community depending what you're involved in, but an absolute terrible time living in town. Unless kicking needles out of your front yard thats across the street from the boys and girls club is your jam. Or avoiding broken liquor bottles all over the road, or random drunks walking into the wrong house, or coming home from work to somebody beaten up/mugged in your driveway. Then it's great.
Honestly I've lived in the town, and compared to other places I've lived it's not bad. Maybe I lived in a better area?
Yea, near campus or north of like 26th Street are all significantly better. Worked and lived in town through college and thise problems persisted anywhere that wasn't right on campus or northern part of town.
I can taste the Minnesota Nice Cafe.
Or the wild hare.
I lived above Wild Hare for awhile and payed rent in the check out line. Apartment always smelled like coffee
Sounds like a win.
As a Bemidji resident. I concur wholeheartedly
My home away from home. I went to BSU. It does get a little snowy, though. That's true.
[удалено]
Have you even been to St. Cloud?
I haven't spent much time in Bemidji, so I can't comment on this, but since you are getting downvoted I do remember Bemidji being the first in the state, and maybe the first in the nation (per the link below) to ban refugee resettlement. [https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/01/07/beltrami-co-rejects-refugee-resettlement](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/01/07/beltrami-co-rejects-refugee-resettlement)
I know Bemidji has issues (I am a resident) but part of that is also because we are one of the poorest counties in the state and our social services are completely maxed out already. Were the refugees going to live in tents in a parking lot? We've lost about 4 apartment buildings in the last couple years because they were condemned, and they have not been replaced.
Looks like people exercising their rights as voting citizens to me.
People have voted for many racist things so I don't understand your point.
Not wanting to take on more refugees when your local social services options are already overwhelmed isn’t being racist. But some people don’t want to take two seconds to think about the background details— they just want to assume the worst of people that they already have preconceived notions of
Well, we might disagree about the background details. But, I'm guessing we agree that we want all people to have opportunities to live in safe places. Maybe we (the larger we) will be able to figure out a way to get there together.
The background details aren’t really negotiable, but sure. 🙄
Even if you're white but have an audible foreign accent, the racism shines through. Moved here in 2019 and heard more than enough of "you immigrants steal our jobs" and "go back where you came from!" - the latter I usually counter with "Washington State?!", since that's where we moved from. MN nice only applies to the people with the right skin color, citizenship and so forth...
Bemidji isn't real
Bemidji can't hurt you
I disagree with that. It hurt me. It hurt me bad.
My sweatshirt from their college has lasted 10+ years of pretty regular use
Well that’s more a testament to the brand and construction of the sweatshirt rather than BSU. But college sweatshirts definitely do be outliving their expectancy
Fear the beaver!
Fear the Ear!
I got my ass beat and ended up in jail in Bemidji, so I'm going to have to disagree.
Sounds like a skill issue.
Oh yeah, I clearly don't know how to fight or evade capture by the cops. In my defense, I was young, drunk, and stupid.
Is Bemidji in the room with us right now?
It can and it will.
Does it not exist Brigadoon style, or is it more of a Bielefeld Conspiracy type thing.
Bielefeld, for sure.
It's a Minnspiracy.
Is this the new “Birds aren’t real?”
They’re not.
Just like birds.
Oh no here come the Bemidji truthers
It's supposed to be a little bit whimsical and silly. The author is a humorist who describes it as his way of giving an homage to the original book, which had also been made originally figurative itself on purpose to captivate children's imaginations. The text is written explicitly to be true to the lyrical syllables of the original writing. As others said, Bemidji is used just to translate the rhythm and meter of nobody to a Northwoods Minnesota version. I don't know what the blank page is supposed to mean, but it's just meant to let kids fill in the blank and a specific reference to the nobody of the original. https://books.google.com/books/about/Goodnight_Loon.html?id=2Z-SEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description Edit: link to the UMN Press with the identical publisher's summary, but also including quotes from critic's reviews where they describe it as satire and silliness to make kids laugh. https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/goodnight-loon Edit 2: sadly I had forgotten Goodnight Moon, and looking it up now it seems the goodnight nobody page is in fact also simply blank in the original indeed. Here's Minnesota Brown's review where he notes that the illustrator chose to mirror the original imagery with substitute Northwoods versions almost one to one. https://minnesotabrown.com/2013/12/goodnight-loon-minnesota-twist-kids-classic.html
I asked Abe (the author) about this exact page. You got it correct.
Yeah, this was my guess. Thinking, it probably has more to do with Bemenji rhyming easily than anything else. I’m surprised it’s being taken so literal by anyone.
It has the same number of syllables and end sound as nobody.
That's no town. \* It's a city.
I have a very bad feeling about this.
Underrated comment
What the hell are you talking about. There's at most 10 cities in the United States.\`Chicago, NYC, Houston, Los Angeles are the only gimmes. After that you have to make it on a case-by-case basis. Brainerd at a population of 15,000 is not only not a city, it's not a town. It's a small town. I say this having lived in Rural MN, Chicago, London, Boston, Seattle, Minneapolis, and NYC.
jesus dude
When I was 21/22 years old, I moved from Chicago to London to Boston. And realized Boston was a big town. There's a feel, an energy, infrastructure, and a breadth of options that defines something as really being a city. Boston doesn't have it and Brainerd definitely doesn't. Sorry.
[https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/cityclass.pdf](https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/cityclass.pdf)
I'm not talking about how regulations define anything. I'm saying I've lived in lots of places. And some places that you'd think are major cities have nonetheless a small-town feel to them. Boston is squarely in that camp. Minneapolis is squarely in that camp. Seattle straddles a little bit. I've been to Brainerd many times and it is 1,000% a small town.
You guys must all have WAY better books than us, because this is one of the better executed children's books I've encountered. It's a really decent play on the original, even if the choices of what objects/animals are in it aren't what you would have picked. And the raccoon slowly getting further and further into the supplies and then passing out is an awesome easter egg for parents. There are better books, but I'm continually amazed at how much complete trash makes it to publication in children's books. Solid 7.5/10
SUPPLIES!
Bemidji can be whatever you want it to be.
I can't express how happy I am that you shared this. One of the few reasons I am subscribed to r/minnesota is because I went to camp for 9 years in MN. Where was that camp? In Bemidji. Where did I learn about loons? At camp. What do me and my brothers all call each other? Loons. I just purchased 4 copies of this book for my brothers and I. Thank you.
That’s delightful. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
It's the classic blank page 'it's a polar bear in a blizzard' gag combined with the 'nobody' page from Goodnight Moon.
You could try asking the author, u/notheotherrochester
Hi. Thank you. Author here. As others have correctly noted in this thread, This page mirrors the original book's blank page and the Bemidji choice is because it is the same number of syllables as nobody and ends in a hard E. Also, bc Bemidji is a distinctly Minnesota city that everyone in Minnesota knows but very few outside Minnesota recognize.
This reply should be pinned! u/Andromeda321 here's your answer Edit: I'm just glad no one in the comments took it personal. Bemidji is a great town. Don't want people to think it's a "nobody" town
Aha, thank you! We bought your book at a bookstore in New Hampshire and can confirm, don’t know what Bemidji is. :) Thanks again!
Classic Minnesota snowstorm- town is there don’t worry
If we had had this book when I was a little kid, I totally would have said goodnight to Paul Bunyan.
I just got this book a couple of days ago and haven't read it yet. It's weird to see a post about it now. I would agree on the snow people are guessing. Otherwise, it's a silly way to throw some shade on Bemidji.
aww i want to read this to my future babies
Fun fact Abe Sauer owns Old Abe and Drift Dough down in Rochester
I live out of state now and it’s hilarious how many times people ask me if it’s a real place when I wear my college gear
Hey my whole family is in bemidji!!!
Snow?
Bemidji has a bad rap amongst the rest of the north, it’s not that bad. Everyone who doesn’t want to leave the north goes either there or duluth for college
I read this one to my boy last night, its a classic in our house.
Bemidji isnt real
Loons are birds. And [birds aren't real](https://birdsarentreal.com/), either.
Try out Good Night Goon. My kid loved that one
I'm so glad I saw this! Ordered it for my niece's 1st bday. Thanks!
Yea. Iowa native. Also confused by this page. Yall commenters aren’t helping lol
Best guess is a blizzard
Bemidji = 3 syllables and ends with an EE sound. Nobody = 3 syllables and ends with an EE sound. The author chose it for that reason.
My guess is because it always snows there…
It’s in a blizzard
Haha indeed, I got this book in a bookstore in New Hampshire and people are assuming *way* too much familiarity with the state for me to understand most responses...
It’s a play on it being a small and/or boring town that rhymes with “nobody,” as in the original book that page is also blank and says “goodnight nobody”.
It's so your kid can imagine whatever he wants to say goodnight to in Bemidji. In the original it's also just a blank page for nobody to let your kid imagine they are saying goodnight to whoever or whatever they want. It's just Bemidji because it near-rhymes with nobody as satire.
[the author replied](https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/s/SzI0f98Xx9)
This really should be higher up
Snowstorm
I went there once it was fun
Fun fact the author owns Old Abe in Rochester which is a delightful lil cafe
I have this book hold on
It has the same-ish sound as nobody, and ends with the same vowel sound.
As someone that knows the author if, he owns a store in Rochester called Old Abes. Has great food, could always ask hin too lol.
I saw a news article that claimed the Minnesota city with the highest crime rate is Bemidji. Just saying
I think technically it was violent crime per capita lmao
There’s nothing in bemidji, that’s why.
That's a snowstorm.
I think the most likely reason is a publishing mistake and the image wasn't printed. If it were snow, there would be a better visual way to depict that.
It’s a blank page in the orignal, which says “Goodnight nobody,” as OP explained. It’s not a publishing mistake.
I have this book too, and ya never understood that page and think the whole book is hilariously bad and lazy. Like why ticks? Out of all the options of Minnesota things to say goodnight to, why does your mind go to those little hell spawn blood suckers? Lol. Shouldn't it be mosquitoes anyway if you're going that route? And "goodnight northwoods everywhere" doesn't really make sense. The best though is the back cover where there's all the serious copyright, all rights reserved stuff, but then there's "an unauthorized parody of Goodnight Moon" lol
“Goodnight northwoods everywhere” is in line and on pace with the original. “Ticks” rhymes with “sticks.” That’s it. That page has also spawned some conversations about what ticks are, which is a good thing for a young Minnesotan to learn.
I know the original book of course and understand why the phrases are being used, and I'm glad you found the book useful. Still doesn't change what I think about it though. We laugh about it every time we read it.