Minnesota

The phrase exists only because an older phrase rhymed.

Transplants to Minnesota commonly report that the state's famous courtesy never turns into an invitation, and Minnesota ice is the name local writers give that gap. It is a deliberate answer to Minnesota nice, chosen for the rhyme. Minneapolis newspapers have run features on the complaint, which suggests it is widely recognized inside the state as well as outside it.

The phrase names a politeness that outsiders often read as a closed door.

The expression turns up in Minnesota newspapers in the 1980s, alongside a wave of books and broadcasts about the state's Scandinavian and Lutheran habits. Historians who have examined it tie the trait to nineteenth century immigration from Norway and Sweden rather than to any single coiner. Minnesotans produced the rhyming counterpart Minnesota ice for the same behavior seen from the outside.