Who can follow Betty Whiteout? MnDOT wants your snowplow name ideas
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is once again taking nominations for snowplow names — searching for new monikers to join last winter’s tribute to TV star Betty White.
It’s the third year of the contest, which puts a name on a snowplow in each of MnDOT’s eight districts around the state. The first year's winners included “Plowy McPlowface,” a nod to a naval marine naming contest gone askew in the UK in 2016.
Other winners that year included two Star Wars references — “Darth Blader” and “Snowbi Wan Kenobi” — and the Minnesotanism, “Ope, Just Gonna Plow Right Past Ya.”
The contest apparently had several origins, including recent practice in Scotland, where schoolchildren named fleets of snowplows. Anoka County’s snowplow naming contest at the county fair dates back to 2004.
Last winter’s top MnDOT vote-getter, “Betty Whiteout,” was a posthumous honor to the star who played Minnesota native Rose Nylund in the sitcom “The Golden Girls.” White, who also played another iconic Minnesotan character on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, died last New Year’s Eve, less than three weeks from her 100th birthday.
The snowplow tribute to the TV legend was among 22,000 ideas submitted last year. MnDOT is taking entries for this winter online through Dec. 16. There is one entry per person, and entries must be 30 characters or less — and MnDOT said they can't be political or profane.
An online poll among the finalists selected by MnDOT will determine the winners.
Past MnDOT “Name-a-Snowplow” contest winners
Winter 2020-21
Plowy McPlowFace
Ope, Just Gonna Plow Right Past Ya
Duck Duck Orange Truck
Plow Bunyan
Snowbi Wan Kenobi
F. Salt Fitzgerald
Darth Blader
The Truck Formerly Known As Plow
Winter 2021-22
Betty Whiteout
Ctrl Salt Delete
The Big Leplowski
Plowasaurus Rex
Scoop Dogg
Blizzard of Oz
No More Mr. Ice Guy
Edward Blizzardhands
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