Sometimes it’s good to know we pedants are not alone in our insistence on correct grammar. The residents of the small Minnesota town of Lindström in the US are fighting the US Government for the right to display the two unassuming little dots that should hover above the ‘o’ in their town’s name (yes, an umlaut).
The former hamlet was established in the mid-19th century by Swedish immigrants. When in 2012 the Minnesota Department of Transportation replaced the town’s welcome signs, due to a code that bans anything but “standard English characters” on road signs, Lindström became Lindstrom. The move provoked strong feeling among inhabitants. “It’s a big deal to us,” the city administrator told the local newspaper. The situation escalated when the state governor, a Mark Dayton, weighed in by calling the situation absurd. “Nonsensical rules like this are exactly why people get frustrated with government,” he said, vowing that the dots would be restored “even if I have to drive to Lindström and paint the umlauts on the city limit signs myself”!
