Here is a little video interview with a young lady who shares her thoughts on donuts with us.
I am putting together a few interviews as part of a class I’m taking at SF State. The class is an independent study on what donuts mean in our culture. Feel free to send me your opinions!
KR emailed me a lot of great thoughts on donuts. With permission I reprint them here:
“I’m not sure exactly what donuts mean in our culture, but I have definite thoughts/memories on donuts:
Donuts are Comfort
When I was about 4 or 5 I was at the playground trying to imitate and keep up with the older kids doing tricks on the slide. One kid went down head first on his stomach, so I did the same thing and it totally knocked the wind out of me. My mom ran over to console me, and I remember she was hugging me and asking me if I was ok and if I wanted anything. Without hesitation, I proclaimed through my tears “I want a donut.”
Donuts are Fantasy
I had a Micky Mouse cookbook when I was little, and one of the recipes was for “Sleeping Beauty’s Spinning Wheels,” which were just donuts with a scoop of ice cream in the middle. I never made them, but this obviously was a stand-out recipe for me as I remember it to this day, and I just remember thinking that there couldn’t be anything more awesome in the world than a donut with a scoop of ice cream in the middle.
Donuts are Progress
In my mid-20′s (sounds so long ago – ug) I worked at Harbor Treats candy and ice cream shop in Market Square. I used to get there at around 5:30am to make muffins upstairs, and to await the Downeast Donut delivery man. These donuts were the best. Obscene, even. He only delivered about 10, and some days I would treat myself to one: a giant hunk of sugary, soft dough on the inside, crispy and fried on the outside. Apparently Harbor Treats used to make their own donuts, and the candy cook was explaining to me how it would take like half a vat of oil to fry up a half dozen. I found this article on the closing of Downeast Donuts:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/2004news/10102004/business/42269.htm
It’s pretty funny. “We’ll do something special and large.” Ha! Apparently Eliot town officials feel the arrival of a Dunkin Donuts means Eliot’s arrival into the 21st Century.
Donuts are Money
When I took my financial analysis classes a few years ago, I ended up learning about Warren Buffet and all his folksy investing maxims, and how he apparently recommends that a person invest only in businesses that they know and understand. This made me wonder, what do I know about that I could invest in with authority? My first thought: donuts!!! Krispy Kreme! I signed up for the Krispy Kreme newsletter and requested a copy of their annual report. The newsletter was great because it profiled the special donut of the month being offered in stores. But then it seemed like Krispy Kreme was struggling: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_49/b3962079.htm so I gave up on it. That, and I was much more prone to spending my money on immediate gratifications like food and alcohol, not stocks.
Donuts are Culture
The importance of the donut in American office culture cannot be underestimated. A box of donuts is the hearth of the American workplace, where cube dwellers and middle managers alike can gather round and partake in the bonding ritual of the sugar high and the exchange of forced pleasantries. Gleeful exclamations tinged with faux amusement are triggered by the box: “Oh! Who brought these in?!” “I can only have one!” “Oh boy, who do we have to thank for these!?” People take their fill, sometimes cutting donuts in halves or thirds lest they appear greedy and piggish. Those who go back for seconds do so surrepticiously, like a junkie skulking around a park at night, to see what remnants of the glazed, the sprinkled, the creme-filled, they can score.
Donuts are Politics
Donuts are used primarily as tools of middle management to appear appreciative of their teams. Upper management never brings in donuts, and the typical cube-dweller wouldn’t dream of spending an extra $15 on anything but lunch or booze. The ‘ole donut trick, a/k/a “throw a dog a bone:” bring some in when you want to score a few cheap extra points with your underlings. Because of the delicate and tenuous relationship between middle manager and underling, refusing a donut brought in by your middle management boss is tantamount to treason. You’re better off taking at least half of one and then chucking it in the garbage at your desk, lest you appear unappreciative, or superior to your colleagues or worse yet, your manager who brought them in. Even with office delicacies one must be a “team player.”
Comment by jon — February 7, 2007 @ 9:12 am