"The Minnesota Department of Transportation's "Name a Snowplow" contest is back for the third straight year.The agency is accepting name suggestions for the next 10 days. Last year, MnDOT received more than 11,000 suggestions after putting out a call for the public to help name eight snowplows — one for each district in the state. "Betty Whiteout" was the runaway winner.MnDOT was the first transportation department in the country to launch a snowplow naming contest — an effort to bring some levity to winter, Meyer said. Agency officials had seen an article in "Roadshow" explaining how Scotland names its entire snowplow fleet and posts maps showing their locations. The country calls the vehicles "gritters," the article said, which led to witty handles such as "Gritney Spears" and "Gritty Gritty Bang Bang.""
More information at the StarTribune. Entries can be submitted to the DOT here. "Gosh darn it, nothing vulgar please." And politics-related names are verboten.
Addendum: Here are the gritters of Scotland (hat tip for link to reader Marge):
Addendum: The results are in (hat tip to Miss C for tracking down the results):
Reposted because the contest is open again for the new winter season. Anyone (not just people lucky enough to live in Minnesota) can submit suggestions using this entry form, but remember no politics and "gosh darn it, nothing vulgar please." And for the benefit of those in warmer climes who conflate snowplows with humble road graders, I'll offer this photo of what is being named:
Is there a woodchipper naming contest as well? (Sorry. Rewatched Fargo a while ago; couldn't resist.)
ReplyDeleteOurs are not only named, you can track them too
ReplyDeletehttps://trunk-road-gritter-tracker-scotgov.hub.arcgis.com/
"Gonnae snow dae that" is a personal favourite :D
Thank you, Marge. I've added the graphic from that link to the body of the post. :-)
DeleteThis settles it. My empty liberal American threat to move overseas if Trump is re-elected goes to Scotland. Somewhere between "William Wall-Ice" and "Icesweeper Willy" lies the truth.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the demographics on the people who voted for each winner. I'm sure it doesn't exist but it would be fascinating, especially the voters age and sex.
ReplyDeletexoxoxoBruce
Chicago does the same, and the live tracker link is embedded in the following article:
ReplyDeletehttps://blockclubchicago.org/2023/02/03/holy-plow-here-are-the-winning-names-for-seven-chicago-snowplows/
Mrs. O’Leary’s Plow
DeleteDa Plow
Salter Payton
Sears Plower
Sleet Home Chicago
Holy Plow!
Jean Baptiste Point du Shovel
Re: your snow plow photo - is that why MN has only eight snowplows (one per district)??? cuz they're so big?
ReplyDeleteThose are not your grandfather's snow plows. I've seen them in action in NW Pennsylvania. They are an engineering marvel to behold.
ReplyDelete