Minnesota DOT Name-a-Snowplow Contest Announces Results | Hacker News Reader

Minnesota DOT Name-a-Snowplow Contest Announces Results

dot.state.mn.us

104 pointsmsszczep236 comments

The best name in the contest, "abolish ICE", got rejected.

This is really sad to hear. What an excellent name.

Michigan's are better: https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,4616,7-151-9615-575096--,00....

Ctrl Salt Delete, Scoop Dogg, Betty Whiteout, Plowasaurus Rex are in both lists.

I wonder when the trend of funny names for this type of stuff is going to end. I find these names mildly amusing but I have to think that at some point a younger audience is going to find this type of naming convention really cringeworthy.

I dunno, I like it, I’m 31.

“Aaron Brr, Sir” from Michigan’s got a good chuckle out of me.

Why not have fun?

Eventually sites like reddit will go the way of Digg and meme culture will move on or evolve.

Where's McPlowface?

Won last year. Yep.

This makes me happy.

Absolutely great.

Snowplow McSnowface

"Plowy McPlowFace" already won last year. :)

That's fun. But Minnesotans might also be interested in the what happens to the road (and other) run-off water. Minnesota Pollution Control's 2021 impaired water bodies result just came out too: https://www.pca.state.mn.us/water/minnesotas-impaired-waters...

It turns out that the St. Croix river that makes up much of the eastern state border near the Twin Cities is so heavily polluted with perfluorooctane sulfonic acid only 1 fish meal per month is being recommended.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/11/08/minn-lakes-with-for...

https://eastmetrowater.org/2021/11/11/pfas-contamination-wor...

https://www.stcroix360.com/2021/11/every-st-croix-river-fish...

To be clear, the PFOS pollution in the St Croix is almost certainly from groundwater contamination from 3M manufacturing and dump sites near or in the lower St Croix watershed, not road water runoff.

The 3M-PFAS connection is clearly established. Run off is also a known problem and clear trade offs are being considered. (which is not a dismissal for the problems).

Yup. Minnesota's DNR is usually pretty well-informed and pretty proactive. De-icing around the Twin Cities metro has improved significantly over the past 5-10 years.

Now if we could just convince the property owners around the lakes not to dump so much fertilizer on their lawns...

I believe more specifically it is PFOS from the pre-70s. Interestingly, this was ww2 nation state technology that helped make missile components, then everyone wanted it to fight fires in ammo yards.

Wow and all they would have to do to fix it is not plow their roads? This sounds too good to be true!

I used to be an avid fisherman and thirty years ago I’d routinely eat every decent fish that I caught. Now days I’m strictly catch and release - I just get a bad feeling about water quality no matter what lake I’m fishing in. I don’t follow eco stuff as much as I should, but I think it’s sad we can’t trust our lakes anymore.

It’s worth looking into data if it’s available. There’s a waterway in my city that was very polluted a century ago and is locally considered to be disgusting. Recent data shows it’s one of the cleanest in the city, now. There are clean places still, but you often need to dig to find out.

In the 1980s and early 90s people didn't eat too many fish out the St. Croix because of the mercury (and other) levels. But in the 40 years since the river had seemingly cleared up really well and all the normal pollution indicators (like mercury) were low. I decided to start fishing it and eating fish from it again last year. Unfortunately they weren't testing for PFOS/PFAS till the end of last year. :|

I realize that it’s based on a movie, but it always surprises me how acceptable in the US are jokes about Eastern Europeans. Can you imagine “The big Leplowski” for a different group of people? It would cause an outrage.

What's the joke about Eastern Europeans? Both Lebowskis in the movie are American born.

I don't think most Americans would even see the stereotype to be offended about; I certainly don't. Jeff Lebowski identifies to me as a stereotype, but as a stereotypical personality type, with no racial/cultural connotation to it.

Why are you making this about Eastern Europeans? There are countless Americans with that last name, it’s an American movie, and as I recall the characters in the movie bearing that name are American. Lastly, these snowplows are also in the US.

Everything about this is American.

Eastern Europeans don’t enter into it.

It’s a Eastern European name. Countless Americans have it because they are of Eastern European origin.

That's part of what it means to be a melting pot culture. The Big Leplowski isn't insulting or deriding some individual or family out of malice - it's a celebration of an important cultural production.

The entire world makes jokes about USA and a lot of them treats it as their duty to comment and laugh about various aspects of USA. This is human, and it is what makes global society great. You just want to screech about something. You couldn't even use a real account for it. You knew you aren't being a good sport.

Sorry, it’s an American name now too.

I have an “Eastern European” last name too but I’m not Eastern European. My family has been in the US for at least three generations and come from all over Europe and different ethnic groups therein. I can’t call myself anything but American, and my last name is now American too.

how is the films title a joke? are you kidding?

The movie didn’t star Mike Ditka, if you recall.

One of the jokes in The Big Lebowski is about a Mexican-looking guy called Jesus (with the English pronunciation of the name).

Would Plowtrick O'Plowihan be more acceptable?

Very possibly I don't understand: It is the name of a movie, if that helps explain it.

Dude, I'm European and never once thought of Lebowski as anything other than American. Tune your sensitivity down, mate.

Plus, what's offending about all this?

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