Our recent cover story, "The Good Life in Minnesota," apparently came as a shock to French Journalist Pierre Billard. Writing in the newsmagazine Le Point, he explained that he was jolted not by "learning that the American Paradise is in Minnesota" but by "finding TIME devoting its cover and ten full pages [twelve in the U.S.] to the revelation." "TIME," he suggested, "has just invented a new kind of journalism . . . Cars that do not have accidents, planes that are not hijacked, rivers that are not polluted, politicians who are honest, couples loving each other without drama or complexes -- this is now news."

Others, too, were struck by our change-of-pace story. "What's this with a man and a fish on the cover of TIME?" asked Larry Woods, an Atlanta journalist. "What about inflation, the beef shortage and crime?" Roxanne Rich, a 22-year-old Minneapolitan working with runaways in the slums of Boston, felt a pang of nostalgia.

"It's so moving to read a story about home when you're far away," she said.

Not surprisingly, our cover story had its greatest impact in Minnesota. "We sold out better than four times the usual number of copies," said Roy Carlson of The Gopher News Co., "and we're still trying to get more." The Minnesota issue of TIME was in such short supply, in fact, that one barbershop chained its copy to the wall.

Minnesota's journalists were as excited as their French counterpart about the cover, but for different reasons. The St. Paul Pioneer Press noted that TIME had emphasized Minneapolis and virtually ignored its twin city. "If this article brings Minnesota an influx of fast-buck sharpies from the east, or smog-befuddled escapees from California," said the Press, "let them settle in Minneapolis. We won't be childish about it." "If the article seems to slide over some of our problems, that's all right," said a Minneapolis Tribune editorial. "Our problems, to one degree or another, are similar to those of other states. Our strengths, though, are not universally shared, and that is what TIME sought to portray. And that is why so many of us like it here in Minnesota."

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