I grew up in Minnesota, home of a particular passive-aggressive communication style which is summed up nicely by this chart and subsequent comments. Of particular import is the difference between "that's different" and "that's sure different" (though there isn't mention of "that's real different," which I think means just about the same thing) and examples of Minnesota Enthusiastic Neutral. Also worth noting is the classic book by sometime A Prairie Home Companion regular Howard Mohr, How to Talk Minnesotan. [more inside]
posted by larrybob on Jan 13, 2013 - 170 comments

A recent survey found that nice people are paid less. But as one Times reporter found, politeness can be its own reward.
posted by nam3d on Jul 25, 2009 - 37 comments

YouTubing this clip of Smedley serving Chilly Willy a tall stack of pancakes [More butter? More butter! More syrup? More syrup! Nice? Very nice!] led me to Chilly's Video Den at Chilly Willy's Sub-Arctic World. [Warning: Comic Sans font and a whole cold-butt-load of .wmv's] [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Nov 7, 2008 - 12 comments

Vietnamese maid finds Taiwanese employer is her long-lost dad
posted by Artw on Jan 22, 2008 - 23 comments

Northerners aren't overly represented on t'internet. Our kid reckoned the late Bernard Manning would make a comeback using MySpace, but that didn't 'appen. But hold onto t'whippet because The Lancashire Hotpots are filling the entertainment vacuum (I recommend Chippy Tea from the playlist). 30% Peter Kay, 30% George Formby, 39% Mike Harding (circa his Rochdale Cowboy phase), and 1% the UOGB, they're postmodern northerners for the 21st century (comparisons to Chas & Dave are inevitable and will be ignored).
posted by humblepigeon on Jun 23, 2007 - 34 comments

How's my niceness? Log on to... Apparently - there is not enough 'nice' in the world (not this nice, or this one) - but the generic 'nice', when someone just does something nice. These guys (shocking website - but anyway, I'm being nice), are trying to do something about it. Its fairly simple - their 'nice team' will roam around and give out tokens to people that they see being generous, polite, courteous etc and then, you'll be able to track these tokens on the web, and watch the spread of 'niceness'. I give it a week or two before someone registers nastytokens.com.
posted by mattr on Nov 23, 2006 - 15 comments

No more Mr. Nice Guy. Nice guys have believed a myth, this myth is the essence of what I call the Nice Guy Syndrome. The Nice Guy Syndrome represents a belief that if Nice Guys are good, they will be loved, get their needs met, and live a problem-free life.
Are you a nice guy? Take the test, if you are, better hurry, there are still therapy groups available!
posted by patrickje on Jun 13, 2002 - 35 comments

The Deacon Effect. "Two ladies will be tested. The two ladies chosen were "Sarah" and "Katie". Katie is the typical nice girl, on one hand she will probably put up with a ton of shit, on the other she probably has idealistic image of how men are supposed to act, think: Gentlemen. Sarah is your typical raving bitch, she won't put up with any sh*t, on the other hand her image of men is less idealistic and more "bad boy", think: Biker Trash. Both ladies will experience "Sabastian the ass..."

Two ladies. One man. Does being a jerk actually get you chicks, or does nice guys finish last? Sabastian finds out, in the name of science.
posted by jcterminal on Feb 12, 2002 - 38 comments

blog nicely!
posted by efader on May 21, 2000 - 179 comments