Rivalries...

Something I'm going to have to get a better feel for is the North Dakota/Minnesota rivalry. Right now, I'm just getting small previews of it, like this excerpt from this week's "A Prairie Home Companion," courtesy of my eagle-eared sister Meg:
TR (COWPOKE): That there is a man-telope.

GK: I thought the President came out against hybrids.

TR (COWPOKE): Too late.

GK: Is it fast?

TR (COWPOKE): Runs 30-40 miles an hour but he gets lost pretty easy. (MORE HOOVES, WHINNYING, MALE SFX)

GK: How come in North Dakota?

TR (COWPOKE): Evolution's a way of life in North Dakota. Survival of the fittest. Once you've seen Fargo, you don't believe in Intelligent Design anymore. So we got the Hammerhead carp. Part shark and part carpenter. We use it to build flood walls. We got a buffalo hybrid called the"Guy-son" — we're training it to play football.

GK: Interesting. You can read the full transcript here, or listen to the RealAudio file of just that bit of it here.

Now, there's a possibility that this reflects instead a more specific Grand Forks/Fargo rivalry, since this week's "Prairie Home Companion" was produced there. Definitely requires further study.