Althouse: Mitten-gate.

December 7, 2011

Mitten-gate.

Michigan insists it's the state that looks like a mitten. Miffed at Wisconsin's horning in on the mitten iconography.

45 comments:

edutcher said...: Yes, but do they love Mitt?; 12/7/11, 5:45 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Someone should tell them that mittens usually come in pairs.; 12/7/11, 5:51 PM
John Hawks said...: Michiganders routinely use their right hand to point out locations within the state, and "Miss Michigan" is universally understood as a bawdy reference to masturbation. I have never heard anyone do either in Wisconsin...

...which strikes me as a good thing.; 12/7/11, 5:57 PM
PianoLessons said...: I totally agree. My family almost won the Wisconsin "Name Your License Plate" contest ten years ago with our slogan (not our own but ----a movement) "Wisconsin - Shaped Like A Mitten".

Those Michiganders cannot take this away from us. The fight is on : - ); 12/7/11, 6:05 PM
Mr. D said...: So Michigan must not have the U.P. any more, then.; 12/7/11, 6:10 PM
ndspinelli said...: I worked a bank fraud case in the Thumb of Michigan. Spent more nights than I care to remember in Bad Axe, Mi. They grow sugar beets up there and it was harvest time. It was @ the same time the remake movie, Invasion of The Body Snatchers was out. There were truckloads of sugar beets driving down the road and they looked just like the pods in the flick. I'm a logical person and primarily use my brain instead of my "feelings" But it was creepy.

I hope and pray this makes the cut and is not deleted. I really think and "feel" like it's on point.; 12/7/11, 6:11 PM
Browndog said...: John Hawks said...

Aye.

This Michigander thanks you for saying all I had to say.; 12/7/11, 6:15 PM
David said...: I too spent quite a bit of business time in the UP.

It ain't Detroit.

Time for the Upers to rise up and join Wisconsin.; 12/7/11, 6:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Makes a nice change from the clenched-fist motif, anyway.; 12/7/11, 6:33 PM
ndspinelli said...: The UP is not the Thumb. They walk upright in the UP.

Just sayn'; 12/7/11, 6:46 PM
Meade said...: David said...
"Time for the Upers to rise up and join Wisconsin."

"The Upper Pennisula! WTF? Did we lose a war or something?"; 12/7/11, 6:53 PM
Irene said...: Now we have a group of people who always will think of Wisconsin as a fist.; 12/7/11, 6:56 PM
Curious George said...: "David said...

Time for the Upers to rise up and join Wisconsin."

There was a movement 20 years or so ago for upper WI and the UP to break off from their prospective states and form a new state called Superior.; 12/7/11, 6:57 PM
Prolixian said...: Russ Feingold mapped his campaign trips in his ads using his hand as the map of WI. "He knows Wisconsin like the back of his hand."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRlwa0v9Cf4&feature=relmfu; 12/7/11, 7:00 PM
ndspinelli said...: Look @ a map Meade, the UP is not the Thumb. Maybe you folks should take a DRIVE up there, Lake Huron is beautiful this time of year.; 12/7/11, 7:00 PM
ndspinelli said...: Google has good maps.

Just sayn'; 12/7/11, 7:01 PM
bagoh20 said...: It makes more sense to argue over which one looks more like an asylum. Wisconsin needs to pick a fight it can win.

But of course the winner there would be California, but we've been practicing for years.; 12/7/11, 7:04 PM
Snark said...: Wisconsin's mitten reminds me of a joke I heard.

Three mothers to be are sitting in the day room of the hospital. The first woman puts down her knitting and reaches into her purse and takes out a small bottle of pills.
"What are those?" asks one of the other women.
"Oh these are vitamin B tablets" she replies "They're good for the babies bones and hair."
Just then, the second woman puts down her knitting and takes a small bottle of pills from her purse.
"What are those? asks the first woman.
"Oh these are vitamin C tablets." she replies "They're good for the babies eyes and skin."
Just then the third woman puts her knitting down, reaches into her purse and takes out a small bottle of pills.
"What are those? asks the first and second women.
"Thalidomide, I've just fucked up the sleeves on this cardigan."; 12/7/11, 7:22 PM
Anonymous said...: I have to side with Michigan on this. The Door Peninsula is just too narrow to resemble a thumb, additionally the extension to Lake Superior detracts from the hand shape.

Peter; 12/7/11, 8:15 PM
Browndog said...: heh-

I see my local hang-out took up the Clash-

http://www.freep.com/article/20111207/NEWS06/111207045/The-great-mitten-debate-Here-s-what-you-said-about-Michigan-vs-Wisconsin?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Sorry, no hyperlink; 12/7/11, 8:22 PM
Browndog said...: @Meade-

Wisconsin was borne of Michigan Territory-

We tried to give it to you then, ...nobody wanted it-

Trust me when I say, the Upper Peninsula is made up of mis-placed Canucks....eh?

Da UP'ers rock.; 12/7/11, 8:28 PM
marylynn said...: My son is a college student in the U.P. He loves it up there, likes the U.P. people and the scenery is beautiful. Only downside are all the lower Michigan residents who attend school there - not nice people; 12/7/11, 8:35 PM
john said...: You call Michigan a mitten? Arizona is the mittens state well, technically maybe Utah).; 12/7/11, 9:09 PM
DADvocate said...: Why would you be smitten with a mitten?; 12/7/11, 9:11 PM
DADvocate said...: Florida should be the penis state.; 12/7/11, 9:19 PM
ndspinelli said...: Cattle mutilations are up in Adams County.; 12/7/11, 9:30 PM
DADvocate said...: Adams County, OH?; 12/7/11, 9:39 PM
Ralph L said...: Snark, that joke was just...vile.
I wish I could stop laughing.; 12/7/11, 10:50 PM
Anonymous said...: There was a movement 20 years or so ago for upper WI and the UP to break off from their prospective states and form a new state called Superior.

They even contracted with Dana Carvey to choreograph the state dance.(about 2:40 into the clip); 12/8/11, 5:37 AM
Beta Rube said...: Many of these same Michiganders said the Lions would win on Thanksgiving Day. I feel quite blessed that there is a large body of water between me and these poor delusional souls.; 12/8/11, 6:13 AM
Phil 314 said...: Hearkening back to the protests and the "Wisconsin fist" icon this explains Door County.; 12/8/11, 6:55 AM
John henry said...: The article itself in annoying. Talking about the shape of 2 states and they can't even have a picture of the shapes?

Lame-O-Roony

Doesn't Mittens Romney come from Michigan? Should they not have first dibs for that reason?

John Henry; 12/8/11, 7:38 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: I thought, according to the unions, that Wisconsin was supposed to resemble a clenched fist. Or are you trying to live that down?; 12/8/11, 8:18 AM
Lucien said...: What un-mittengated (and unadultered) gall. Of course, what's sauce for the michigoose . . .; 12/8/11, 9:12 AM
rhhardin said...: California is the rubber glove state.; 12/8/11, 9:56 AM
Dave D said...: Us Michiganders generally use our right hand turned palm-side towards the observer for the LP and the left hand held above at a 90 degree angle with the left thumb being the Keewenaw penninsula for the UP. The hands touch at the striats of Mackinac. You can't get much more graphic than that. Sorry cheeseheads.......; 12/8/11, 10:05 AM
John said...: Michigan looks like a Jack Russell terrier jumping over a boxing glove.; 12/8/11, 10:12 AM
Meade said...: Dave D said...
"Us Michiganders generally use our right hand turned palm-side towards the observer for the LP and the left hand held above at a 90 degree angle with the left thumb being the Keewenaw penninsula for the UP. The hands touch at the striats of Mackinac. You can't get much more graphic than that. Sorry cheeseheads......."

Us non-Michiganders, when Michiganders do ↑ that, generally point at them with one thumb while using our index finger on the other hand to make little cuckoo circles around one ear, indicating that we find Michiganders who do ↑ that to be about as looney as a block of green cheese.; 12/8/11, 10:56 AM
Dave D said...: And us Michiganders find it amazing that dairy state residents feel the need to continually dengirate themselves by affixing blocks of coagulated milk solids on their heads......

YOU. CAN'T. HAVE. THE. MITTEN.; 12/8/11, 11:13 AM
Eli Blake said...: Sorry, but I always thought Wisconsin looked like

A BRUSSELS SPROUT.

(don't feel bad, I think Tanzania also looks like a brussels sprout.); 12/8/11, 12:00 PM
Meade said...: Dave D said...
"And us Michiganders find it amazing that dairy state residents feel the need to continually dengirate themselves by affixing blocks of coagulated milk solids on their heads...... "

So do we.; 12/8/11, 12:07 PM
Dave D said...: Meade:

We fought a war in the 1800's with Ohio to see who got Toledo (we won!). Don't mess with us, man! lol/jk; 12/8/11, 1:01 PM
Meade said...: LOL. So you did, Dave D. So you did.

I know, because I've BEEN to Toledo, Michigan.

Congratulation's! Here, have a mitten.; 12/8/11, 1:27 PM
ndspinelli said...: Toledo has Tony Packo's. Had a very good meal there 2 year ago. They could plow under everything else.; 12/8/11, 4:24 PM
Mr. Forward said...: Michigan is the one with the idiot string.; 12/9/11, 4:28 AM