From This Valley

By Pete Steiner

So for, 2022 has been:

Interesting?

Exhilarating?

Distressing?

First it seemed like we were finally emerging from pandemic status. Exhilaration! Then a miscalculating dictator invaded a peaceful country in the most heinous and bloodthirsty fashion. Distressing. Minnesota weather has been… interesting, to say the least, and, well, we’ll elaborate, as we herewith announce this year’s winners of the annual STEINIE awards. One note: To avoid any untoward assaults on the presenter and any egregious face-slapping, the STEINIES remain virtual this year. Besides, we couldn’t afford a red carpet or auditorium rental or even real statuettes. If you are a lucky winner, just cut out this page and grab your favorite magnet and post it on the fridge. As always, some categories are quirky and occasionally weird.

We typically start with STEINIES in the weather category:

Most-observed icon in my new weather App: that little squiggle that looks like hieroglyphs or cuneiform, that indicates “windy.” Did the wind ever stop blowing from January through mid-May? A STEINIE to the wind icon.

SHORTEST-SEASON STEINIE goes to SPRING. With sub-freezing nights, frost until past the tax-filing deadline and wind chill readings on Easter, our eventual spring only lasted about three weeks before we hit upper 80s!

CRUELEST MONTH: This time T.S. Eliot nails it: APRIL. Thankfully we had basketball to ease the gloom of endless clouds and wind and below-normal temps; this STEINIE, to borrow Final Four terminology, is a slam-dunk.

We’ve added a new category this year: While out shopping for toilet seats, your beloved scribe came upon something he decided would merit an award for most astounding advertising claim. The inaugural STEINIE in this category goes to AMERICAN STANDARD: Their “Champion” toilet “flushes a bucket of golf balls in a single flush!” (I’ve heard of s--tting bricks, but golf balls?)

MOST-VISIBLE stereotypeshattering construction vehicle: The PINK DUMPTRUCK earns a STEINIE. Our grandchildren gleefully point it out. Kudos to Holtmeier Construction for using it to support breast cancer awareness.

This year we bring back perhaps our favorite category, one we had to skip last year because of pandemic restrictions: BEST MALT. Previous winners include Toody’s in Henderson, Mom and Pop’s and Culver’s.

To find this year’s recipient, we went far afield, after we finally emerged from quarantine for a little vacation. Up North, on the Gunflint Trail, the Trail Center merits a STEINIE for serving up a rich, thick malted with a metal sidecar. (Foodie footnote: If you’ve come this far, go just 15 more miles toward the border to the Gunflint Lodge: Their superb walleye chowder is what the Vikings order in Valhalla!)

Now to the Category: BRINGERS OF CULTURE:

We have a couple of winners here. For years Minnesota State University faculty member Dale Haefner has meticulously organized an annual Music Series, open to the public at various venues, including Halling Recital Hall.

So far in 2022 alone, he’s brought in Grammy-winning sax player Eric Marienthal, legendary New Orleans pianist Jon Cleary and Chicago bluesman Reverend Raven, not to mention various top-notch local and regional artists. For producing great music right on our doorstep, a STEINIE to “The Hawk.”

Speaking of local music, these days that’s almost synonymous with Ben

STEINIES

Scruggs and Chris Bertrand. Their Thursday afternoon show on KMSU has given a big boost to numerous local musicians, and the two are nearly ubiquitous playing their own stuff at various local venues. Ben and Chris earn the “Let There Be Local Music!” STEINIE.

For 2022, we award a special STEINIE for CIVIC ACHIEVEMENT to Michelle Schoof and Dave Wittenberg. Along with hundreds of volunteers, they organized a spectacular Hockey Day Minnesota event that actually encompassed a week of activities, even bringing back MSU grads who became NHL stars.

Thousands attended in person despite adverse weather, bringing a lot of positive media attention to our area, as well as raising generous amounts for charity. (Who needs Vikings Training Camp?)

Last year we created a new STEINIE category: the NOODLE, in honor of a friend who proposed it. The category was defined as going to “one who is open and gracious to all, who enthusiastically promotes connection and makes this a better place to live.”

This year’s recipient is a lifelong Mankato resident, who learned about giving back from his parents; their neighborhood skating rink in West Mankato still serves kids each winter. It’s impossible to list here everything DENNIS DOTSON has done for this city outside of his stellar business career, but his recent facilitation of expansion of the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota is just his latest good deed.

Denny has never sought acclaim or special recognition, but he gets a little of both here, with this year’s NOODLE Longtime radio guy Pete Steiner is now a free lance writer in Mankato.