"Never make fun of North Dakota."

Dave Barry, "Flowing Grand Forks tribute warms the heart"

Barry: Never make fun of North Dakota. Because the North Dakotans will invite you, nicely but relentlessly, to visit, and eventually you'll have to accept.

...Without question the most memorable experience I had in Grand Forks was a public ceremony in which a municipal sewage pumping station was formally named after me. I am not making this up. They took me in a limousine to the station, where more than 100 people had gathered, despite that the temperature was an estimated 8,500 below zero.