Wednesday, January 23, 2008

MAY I PROPOSE MANTENO, MN - An Open Letter to the Mayor and Trustees

Dear Mayor Nugent and Honorable Trustees,

Due to the script of a popular recent Motion Picture, Juno, many people now think that Manteno, IL is located in the state of Minnesota. You undoubtedly must know this by now. My website, which is supposed to be dedicated to a civil conversation on the relationship between Canada and the United States, now gets dozens of hits each day based on an afterthought comment in a blog post I wrote earlier this month about this very subject.

I think Manteno has an unprecedented opportunity to capitalize on this exposure. Here's my proposal - secede from the state of IL and become a city in MN. As a former resident of both states, I can tell you that the state of MN has many benefits. Among them:

  1. It is consistently ranked as one of the two or three healthiest states in America. Illinois - not so good.
  2. There are plentiful outdoor activities including thousands of lakes. Some even claim there are 10,000 of them.
  3. The State Fair is much better than the one in Illinois, mainly because of butter heads.
  4. Prince
  5. You can get Bell's beer there.
I know you probably think this is a bad idea, especially since the portrayal of Manteno, MN is not very positive in the film. I didn't like that part either. But if I learned one thing from Rudy's little brother (who was my PE coach at BBCHS), it was that you've got to grab the opportunity when you can. With Juno getting four major Academy Award nominations, now is the time. In the fickle world of Hollywood, it's now or never Manteno.

As for the logistics of this, that's not for me. I'm an idea man. I leave it to you, the elected officials, to figure out if you want to relocate the entire town, or if you just want to create a satellite location for the state of MN. Whichever you decide, think of the festival you will have in Manteno, MN when Juno comes out on DVD. I know I'd be there with some hotdish.

Sincerely,
Johnada

P.S. I meant to email this, but I couldn't find an address on your website. Maybe you should put one up.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have yet to see the movie... but at least, I'd know the facts!

Anonymous said...

Is the mayor related to Ted Nugent? If so, I bet he's a Republican.

Unknown said...

I'm from Bradley and went to BBCHS (also had rudy's bro for PE. I just saw Juno and have been searching the net for a connection to Manteno,IL. The only thing I found was your blog and the writer was from "Chicago". I wonder if that really means she was from somewhere closer to Kankakee? or just had a really bad experience there.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1959505/

Anonymous said...

I actually grew up in manteno class of 2000, and when I saw the movie I heard them say manteno and I immediately said "nooooo" she said something else, but being that there is only one, I'm not sure what else they could be referring to, not sure about the negative light though, it's actually one of the nicer towns in the area. And actually this is manteno's second time in the limelight, ghost hunters came here once too, google "manteno state hospital"

Anonymous said...

And the manteno nugents aren't related to ted, but they do own a small construction monopoly

Anonymous said...

I am from Manteno and what a shock to here Manteno said in this movie. Nobody has ever heard of Manteno so I have to say it was kind of exciting to here.

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