We might be the Twin Cities, but there are clear dividing lines — and differences — that distinguish these siblings with a love/hate rivalry .

Often enough, it's easier for someone who doesn't know any better to just refer to anywhere near here as "Minneapolis." Consider when the TODAY show's Matt Lauer recently identified a retired Maple Grove school principal as being "from Minneapolis."

Or when Andrew Kornfeld, the Californian who was taken to Paisley Park in suburban Chanhassen to administer life-saving drugs to Prince, told the 911 operator that he was "at Prince's house" and "in Minneapolis."

Hell, even outstate Minnesotans will sometimes refer to the whole metro area by the name of its biggest city.

It's different when the mistaken call is coming from inside the house. Like in this local TV ad from the Greater Twin Cities Honda Dealers (based in Brooklyn Center, not to be mixed-up with Brooklyn Park, Minnesota; Brooklyn, New York City, New York; or Brooklyn Decker). While declaring that "LizSanity is back, baby," this woman riding her bike says she likes to "shred it up in St. Paul."

Only... she's clearly in Minneapolis. On the Stone Arch Bridge, with the Guthrie Theater and the Mill City Museum in the background. If this camera panned up five degrees, we'd get a shot of the "Gold Medal Flour" sign, and basically be working on a tourism ad for the city of Minneapolis.

"LizSanity" (if you insist) is indeed on a bridge that crosses the Mississippi River, and if you're traveling east on some such bridges, you will indeed leave from Minneapolis on one side and arrive in St. Paul on the other. This isn't one of those. Get to the other side of Stone Arch Bridge and there's just more Minneapolis.

Maybe it's some sort of cosmic payback for all the times the state capital city was called by its bigger neighbor's name. Or perhaps it's a way of saying we're not so different after all.

As mix-ups go, either of these cities being mistaken for the other is hardly insulting. Both are lovely in their own ways. Everyone in America (in the whole world!) should visit them both.

And then learn to tell them apart.