Friday Donuts

Friends, Walls come in all sorts, types, shapes, sizes and colors. Think of an adjective, and there’s likely to be a wall that fits the bill. There are great walls, such as Pink Floyd’s iconic album, or China’s Mongol hoard deterrent. Quirky walls, say, Wall, SD’s Drug and Corn Palace. Figurative (firewall), past (Berlin Wall), scary (Walmart) and wrong (border wall). From the stock market (Wall Street) to stockades (log walls), there are walls all around us (hopefully, equipped with doors so we’re not trapped). Recently, I’ve been working on another kind of wall, one that is apparently popular at receptions, for my son’s wedding next week: a donut wall. My long term exploration of random donut associations somehow led my future daughter in law to believe building this odd donut display might be a fitting task for me. And so, it is with great pride that I present my creation (donut mind if I do). As for keeping it stocked with the dozen dozens it can hold, I’m pretty sure that won’t be

Friends, I’ve never officially held a cool, edgy title. You know the ones. Technoking (Elon Musk), Master of Coin (also at Tesla), Wizard of Want, Digital Overlord... you get my drift. This week, Michael Fiumano shared another edgy title I’ll likely never hold: Dodge’s freshly minted   Chief Donut Maker. .. you get my   Tokyo  drift. Sadly, the CDM won’t cook circular pastries in a deep fryer. Instead, they will burn circular rubber in a Dodge Hellcat (now there’s a company car!). Good luck getting 50,000 miles out of those tires! The cynic in me thinks a tire exec may have pitched the CDM idea to Dodge, inception style, as a ploy to sell more Goodyear Eagles. Whatever the case, all this talk of donuts has sparked the urge to get in my Firebird and buy some Donuts (and maybe make a couple). Happy Friday!

Friends, My first flight of the pandemic era put a lot of emphasis on face masks. While continuous mask usage can be taxing, I must admit eating and drinking were a particular challenge. That said, putting on your face mask between bites and sips (as advised) had the added benefit of serving as a napkin (flavor saver!). For what it’s worth, I highly advise removing your mask towards your chin. I found out the hard way that removing it upward results in a blindfold which adds a degree of difficulty to that bite or sip you’re trying to take. Of particular concern was the mid-flight announcement that “refusal to wear a mask may result in removal from the plane” —talk about a harsh face mask penalty! Granted, it may have been a recording, and they may have also made this remark prior to take-off, however, it seemed like a particularly ominous threat at 10,000 feet (do offenders at least get a parachute as part of the ordeal?). Finally, it seems personal alcohol is no longer allowed —ironic

Friends, Standing at Halloween’s door, it feels a tad creepy to see companies with obscene market capitalizations choose October to change their names. Google (valued at one proposed federal government spending bill) became Alphabet in October 2015. Now Facebook (worth half a spending bill) will become Meta. Which begs the question, who’s next? The logical candidates would be other tech stocks with market caps within spitting distance of the $1.75 trillion mark (I.e. the biggest of the big) with ambitious plans and egos to match. Fittingly, that leaves us with two candidates. Amazon — I’m rooting for “Market” as their new nom de plume — worth one spending bill and Apple, henceforth “Pear”, worth a whopping 1.5 spending bills. What about Ali Baba, you ask? Despite being ripe for a name change (owing to it’s connection to thievery), they’re not US-based and worth a measly quarter spending bill... so no. I propose a bracket to bet on which of these two tech giants will be next and what

Friends, Last night, I was awakened In the wee hours by the familiar aroma of deep-fried dough. It wasn’t a hyper-realistic dream of sweet pastries. It wasn’t a nightmare, induced by not having a topic to write about this morning. It wasn’t donuts either. Instead, it was my seventeen year old making air empanadas for a school club meeting. His movie night with friends had let-out very late and a last minute announcement of choir practice before school (Fridays are late start days) put a wrench in his plan to get up at 6 to fry them. While I’m proud that not keeping his commitment was not an option for him, if it were me, my classmates would be getting store-bought treats. Anybody want a donut? Happy Friday! P.S. Notice the time on the microwave clock -- and the pajama pants! 

Friends, When I write these notes, I sometimes wonder who actually reads them. If the ads placed on my blog are any indication, it’s filthy rich alcoholics looking to improve their diet. With ads for SEI Club’s “private matchmaking for the ultra affluent and exceptionally beautiful elite”, a Liver Health Formula for a “dying liver” and a Health Coach “holistic nutrition course”, it sounds like Google AdSense nailed it!! So, it is with great pleasure I raise a glass of the finest champagne to all you beautiful people out there eating omega 3-rich, sustainably-gathered organic caviar. As for donuts, we all need to indulge in the occasional peccadillo. So, enjoy! —it will be our little secret. Happy Friday!