It's one of the coldest cities in the nation -- bitter cold. It can snow anytime between November and April. When it does warm up it can be so muggy the humidity makes you wish you had gills.

But hey, what's a little frostbite or heat stroke when you are having a good time?

Hardly suffering from the exposure of being named the nation's No. 1 Fun City, Minneapolis is the place you want to be if you want to paint the town red.

Cranium, Inc., the Seattle, WA maker of mind-building (or mind-numbing, depending upon your point of view) games of fun with the same name, commissioned "Best Places to Live" expert Bert Sperling of Portland, OR's BestPlaces.net to track down towns where you can really get down and make merry.

"When we came up with the idea of searching for the most fun city in America, we wanted to find a place that mirrored what we try to capture with every Cranium game: An outrageously fun experience with something for everyone," said Richard Tait, Cranium's CEO who also has a fun title borrowed from the animated Flintstones cartoon show's Loyal Order of Water Buffalo -- Grand Poo-Bah.

Minneapolis, at first, seems to be an unlikely candidate. Slogging around for more than half the year in a fur-lined parka can't be a whole lot of fun. But yielding history's first "professional" wrestler who served as governor, as home of the artist formerly known as Prince and with residents with accents that are fun to listen to, well, yah, it makes sense, it does.

"At first blush, it seems a little surprising that Minneapolis is that place. But when you realize that it's home to Mary Tyler Moore, four professional sports teams and the largest shopping mall in the U.S. (America's Mall), it's almost a no-brainer," Tait said.

But seriously folks, Sperling takes his surveying duties to heart and based the rankings on number of sports teams, restaurants, dance performances, toy stores, and the amount of city budget spent on recreation, social and recreational club memberships, performing arts and movies, dog parks, acres of parks, playground equipment and a host of other fun factors.

Minneapolis, has more theaters than Boston, more parks than Denver, more golfers per capita than any other city in America, and with 10,000 lakes in the state, Minnesota, has more coastline than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined.

"These factors combined create a community with something for everyone in the family to enjoy. Even the dogs have fun in Minneapolis," said Sperling, noting that there are at least 15 dog parks in the greater Minneapolis area.

That's nothing to bark at.

After Minneapolis?

Orange County, CA -- There's been a recent spate of television programming about 'The O.C.' it's so much fun. Amusement parks and the most toy/hobby stores (for the most brats per capita?) make for good times. It's an affluent community (money is always fun) where residents spend a high percentage of their money on sporting events, musical instruments, and outdoor recreation equipment.

San Jose, CA -- This town is another unlikely winner, given it's technology-based economy often gets the blame for being at the center of the nation's recent economic downturn. "San Jose Is Growing Up," used to be the city's slogan during years when there were frequent grand openings of everything from its model new city-state university public library with a view to die for to the opulent Santana Row urban-styled shopping center that isn't downtown. San Joseans had the highest rate of expenditures on bicycles and residents shell out for sporting events, musical instruments and camping equipment. With the lowest crime rate for cities of its size, criminals are at a loss to find much fun.

Atlanta, GA -- Atlantans spend a lot of money on participant and team sports and musical instruments. Atlanta, with a fiber optic network so connected it helped bring the Olympics to town, is considered the Financial Capital of the South and also has a relatively low unemployment rate. Again, money is a hoot.

Chicago, IL -- Another town that chills the body but is also chilly for the soul, the Windy City offers lots of golf courses, symphonies and theater productions, and a wealth of zoos and aquariums. And The Loop can be loopy.

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC -- Residents of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area buy lots of musical instruments, and thanks to its world renown Research Triangle Park, the area offers a playground for nerds and a big farm for jobs.

Washington, D.C. -- What's NOT fun about this happening town? Democrats. Republicans. The President. Special interests. D.C. is a hot spot for night life, culture, botanic gardens, world-class symphonies and national museums. It's also the turf of dog parks, sporting events, government jobs and gates -- Watergate, White Watergate, Travelgate, etc. Also, what's more fun than a good conspiracy theory?

Oakland, CA -- Given its growing murder rate, Oakland is another unlikely Fun Town candidate. But there are the Raiders (who are getting murdered this year), the As (who rarely get murdered) and the Golden State Warriors (who always get murdered), in addition to social and recreational clubs and dog parks. Oakland residents also spend a high percentage of money on having fun and on camping and boating equipment to get away from it all.

Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT -- Not as stodgy as sometimes assumed, Salt Lake City residents spend a relatively large portion of their money on fun things like musical instruments, bicycles, and camping equipment. Salt Lake City also has nearly a half million acres of parks. That's fun per acre.

Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA -- Seattle has even more fun per acre -- more than one million acres of parks. It also received the maximum points for number of restaurants. Seattle also has a high concentration of musical instrument and toy stores and then there's the King of Fun, Bill Gates who lives nearby.

How did some of the large cities known as "party towns" fare? Not well. Las Vegas, America's Playground was only No. 25 -- it's not fun to lose your shirt; New York, where the cloud of terrorism rains on parades these days, came in at No. 41; Boston, at No. 42, didn't amount to a hill of beans and in Miami, at No. 46, there's just too much vice.

Finally, Mardi Gras, Schmadi Gras. Among the 50 cities included in the ratings, New Orleans, LA was the least fun. Too much voodoo.

Even Newark, NJ, at No. 45 -- if only because it's near Hoboken, a town with a name that's fun to say -- is more fun than the Big Easy.

Published: November 19, 2003

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.