Winter Carnival, Minnesota: The Commercialism! The Cold!

The Saint Paul Winter Carnival
"The Coolest Celebration on Earth"

They may be right about that: although Minneapolis-St. Paul are 'down south' as far as I'm concerned.

Back to the Winter Carnival's home page:

"Our Mission"
"To foster a sense of community, pride, belonging and connectedness by celebrating Saint Paul's unique history and emerging heritage through fun and educational experiences."

This year, it's January 21-31.

Like an earlier post today, this is another commercial entity. As it says on the websites' about page, The Winter Carnival gets about 350,000 visitors each year. And has a $3,500,000 to $5,000,000 dollar economic impact on Saint Paul.

You'd better believe that that's a positive impact, or the Saint Paul Festival & Heritage Foundation wouldn't have been having the event for the last 122 years.

If you've been following this blog, you know I'm not opposed to commercial operations on principle. I've optimized my own life for something other than making gobs of money, but I also think it's a good idea to provide a sort of economic and emotional boost this time of year.

January and February in Minnesota are cold months, usually - and long nights don't do anything to perk up the mood.

I won't be getting down to the Twin Cities (that's Minneapolis and Saint Paul, for everyone who isn't familiar with Minnesotaese) - but I'm looking forward to seeing ice sculptures at the Winter Carnival in the news. This year, they shouldn't have too much trouble getting enough ice.

Of course, I came to that conclusion by drawing a line through the snow we've had. I could be wrong, you know.