Denver versus Twin Cities: What’s the difference?
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
| State capitals | |
 Denver |  St. Paul |
| Rivers | |
 The Platte River in Denver |  The Mississippi River, Minneapolis |
| Pedestrian/panhandling havens | |
 16th Street Mall in Denver |  Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis |
| Old civic phallic symbols now dwarfed by skyscrapers |
 Denver, Daniels & Fisher Tower (inspired in 1910 by St. Mark's bell tower in Venice, now a cabaret venue) |  Foshay Tower (inspired in 1929 by the Washington Monument, now a W hotel), Minneapolis |
| Big things made by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen |
 "The Big Sweep," (2006), broom and dustpan outside the Denver Art Museum |  "Spoonbridge and Cherry," (1988), Minneapolis Sculpture Garden |
| Acoustic singer-songwriters | |
 The former Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., a.k.a. John Denver, who passed through Denver |  Twin cities. The former Robert A. Zimmerman, a.k.a. Bob Dylan, shown here on a 1963 album cover |
| 19th-century masonry | |
 Larimer Square, Denver |  James J. Hill mansion, St. Paul |
| Emblematic spunky gals | |
 Denver. This is Margaret "Molly" Tobin Brown, a.k.a., the unsinkable Molly Brown, who survived the sinking of the Titanic |  Twin Cities. Mary Tyler Moore (whose TV show survived 168 episodes from 1970-77, shown here with Ted Knight, who played Ted Baxter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show") |
| Water craft | |
 Kayaking, Denver |  Canoeing, Twin Cities |
| Grand old hotels | |
 Brown Palace Hotel, Denver |  St. Paul Hotel, St. Paul |
| Weird-looking buildings | |
 Denver Art Museum's Hamilton Building |  The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis |
| Hard-drinking author who died an early death |
 Jack Kerouac, Denver |  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Twin Cities |
| Dive restaurants | |
 El Chapultepec, Denver |  Hard Times Cafe, Minneapolis |
| Presidential contenders | |
 Denver. William Jennings Bryan. (Bryan, right, shown here with Clarence Darrow at the Scopes trial in 1925.) |  Minneapolis, Benjamin Harrison |
Go beyond the scoreboard
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