This Connecticut town, home to Luke’s Diner, endless festivals, and one very opinionated mother-daughter duo, has become internet shorthand for peak cozy fall television
Car ride to Malibu/ Strawberry ice cream/ One spoon for two/ And trading jackets
What is Deja Vu by Olivia Rodrigo
This Casa Amor bombshell traded Northfield for Fiji in 2026 when he appeared on Season 8 of Love Island USA, this 2020 Carleton graduate studied Asian Studies and later pursued pre-physical therapy studies
Who is Carl Schmidt?
In 2024, creator Jools Lebron sent this adjective surging across TikTok by pairing it with “very mindful” and “very cutesy"
What is "demure"
This St. Paul native became the first Hmong American Olympian in U.S. gymnastics history and left Tokyo with the women’s all-around gold
Who is Suni Lee
George Clooney voices the title character in this stop-motion film, whose farmers are remembered by the rhyme “one fat, one short, one lean."
What is Fantastic Mr. Fox?
Said, not tryna be a nuisance, it's just urgent / Tryna make sense of loose change/ Got me at war in my mind
Carleton alum Chris Kratt ’92 went on to co-create and star in this PBS series with his brother Martin, where animated “creature powers” help them explore the animal world
What is Wild Kratts?
TikTok creator Olivia Maher coined this two-word phrase in 2023 after showing a meal of bread, cheese, grapes, and pickles inspired by a medieval peasant’s dinner
What is "girl dinner"
Long before Snoopy took to the skies as the World War I Flying Ace, this Minneapolis-born, St. Paul-raised cartoonist created Li’l Folks for the St. Paul Pioneer Press
Who is Charles M. Schulz
Wirt and Greg wander through a mysterious autumnal forest called “The Unknown” in this Cartoon Network miniseries
What is Over the Garden Wall?
Sometimes I think sittin' on trains / Every step I get to, I'm clockin' that game / Everyone's a winner, we're making our fame / Bona fide hustler making my name
What is Paper Planes by MIA
Carleton alum Claire McFadden went from performing with Cujokra and Lenny Dee to Second City before joining the writing staff of this long-running NBC sketch comedy show in 2025
What is Saturday Night Live?
Emily Mariko went wildly viral in 2021 reheating leftover salmon and rice with this seemingly strange frozen object placed on top
What is an ice cube?
Not everything made in Minnesota is a person: University of Minnesota breeders released this now-famous apple variety in 1991; it became Minnesota’s state fruit in 2006
What is the Honeycrisp
This CW series made fictional Mystic Falls, Virginia, the home of the Salvatore brothers, the Gilbert family, and an alarming number of town festivals
What is The Vampire Diaries?
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair/ Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air / Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
What is Hotel California by Eagles
Film producer Barrie Osborne ’66 worked on The Matrix before producing all three films in this Peter Jackson fantasy trilogy
What is the Lord of the Rings?
When TikTok users collectively created a virtual Ratatouille musical, this Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star was cast as Remy
Who is Tituss Burgess
Born in Duluth and raised in Hibbing, this musician eventually received an honor more often associated with novelists: the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature
Who is Bob Dylan
Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place” comes from this song, whose 10-minute version later got its own short film
What is "All Too Well" by Taylor Swift
Your hands are steady and you sleep at night / How did you turn your heart to stone? / I don't want him back, but I can't let go
What is Tyrant by Beyonce and Dolly Parton
In 1971, three Carleton seniors created an educational computer game for an eighth-grade history class. Generations of students would later learn the dangers of broken wagon wheels, river crossings, and famously dysentery in this game
What is The Oregon Trail?
This TikTok dance became so influential that the song behind it became the first sound on the platform used in 20 million videos. Jalaiah Harmon created the choreography
What is the Renegade?
Born in St. Paul in 1896, this Jazz Age author finished his first novel, This Side of Paradise, while living on Summit Avenue
Who is F. Scott Fitzgerald?