As a local history writer in Northfield, I was discontented when I read “Northfield rebrands with a fill-in-the-blank slogan” (Feb. 12) to replace “Cows, Colleges and Contentment,” which has served our town well since 1914. Actually, there was a time that another slogan was approved, the very blah “Northfield — A Special Place,” but the citizens demanded the return of the historic and unique one. I disagree with the civic brander, Jeff Johnson, whose firm was paid $45,000 (!) and came up with “Cows, Colleges and Community” and other variants. Johnson said that “contentment could signal complacency which has a less-than-positive connotation.” Oh, yeah? What’s wrong with signaling that contentment among the cows and colleges awaits here in Northfield? What could be more positive than that?
Susan Hvistendahl, Northfield
Last month, a local vexillologist wrote that the time has come for Minneapolis to replace its city flag (“Up next: A grand new flag for Minneapolis,” Jan. 6), saying: “A great city flag communicates identity. It says: ‘This is us. We are distinctive and our flag exhibits that.’ ” This week, our mayor drew wide attention to Minneapolis when he lambasted people who work from home, “sitting on their couch, with their nasty cat blanket” (“Mayor’s ‘loser’ joke hits close to home,” Feb. 8). As a joke it misfired but, fellow citizens and cat lovers, that “nasty cat blanket” could be our new city flag — a rectangle of cloth that is di-stink-tive and says “This is us.”
Chris Steller, Minneapolis
