The Sweet Language of Donuts

Friends

Did you know there is a language called Kannada? I don’t know whether it features a disproportionate use of the interjection “eh?” or uses the word “aboot”, but I found-out it is part of the Dravidian family of languages which has no connection to the 437 Indo-European languages (English being one) that are spoken by 46% of the world. In contrast, the 84 Dravidian languages are spoken by 3.6% of the planet’s population. Apparently there are nearly seven thousand languages belonging to 137 families (not counting 13 extinct language families). Many of these language families have a very small number of speakers. Tringua is at the extreme, with one speaker left, which makes me wonder whether that last guy in Colombia who speaks it talks to himself. (or maybe he’s bilingual). In any event language evolves, languages die and new languages replace them. I wonder how many of these languages have a word for donut. I suppose Kannada speakers (Kannadians?) must go to Tim Horton’s to procure them.

Happy Friday!

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Donut Doodle Dandy

Dear Members and Constituents, In trying to figure-out Wednesday’s cool-looking Google Doodle ( Jorge Luis Borges’ 112 th birthday ), I stumbled across a list of Google Doodles you’ll never see. This, and a Rockies game later that day, were sufficient inspiration to get my head spinning around what other doodles Google might never noodle? I’m sure you’ll probably have a few ideas of your own, but I was able to come-up with a couple. How about a former Colorado Rockies player whose unfortunate encounter with a moth put him in the news this week? The Matt Holliday doodle might look something like this… Another item which, surprisingly enough, has not been made into a doodle are donuts. Although I was slightly taken aback to find this delicious pastry has not been featured, after the initial disappointment, I decided to take matters into my own hands and take a stab at one (perhaps Google can use it next year for national donut day )… or to celebrate Greek police having “ blown a ho...

Gilding the Donut

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Out with the old

Friends, I’m not much for using arbitrary dates to make life changes – you can do that at any time. I am, however, very much into building and burning effigies to close out the year – an Ecuadorian tradition we call Año Viejo. The theme we chose to represent 2024 was Steamboat Willie, the Disney movie whose copyright protection had been extended through the end of 2023 by the 1998 “Mickey Mouse Protection Act”. Now that he’s in the public domain, Mickey has been rebelling and doing things his parent company would not approve (a nose ring, two earrings, smoking, a public domain tattoo and an Iron Maiden logo on his hat – a nod to Paul Di’Anno’s passing in October). Despite losing his head a few times (literally, it kept falling off) we proceeded to read his last will and testament (a playful roast of the party’s attendees), pouring accelerant and lighting a match at the stroke of midnight (after the obligatory countdown, of course). If you’re curious, you can find this year’s Año Vi...

Friday Donuts

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