Skip to main content

Undiagnosed Donuholic

Friends,
Does your inner hypochondriac ever make you wonder whether you have an undiagnosed mental condition? Whether it’s ADHD, OCD, ASD or some other acronym ending in D, we seem bent on labeling any distinct behavioral pattern we find as a “disorder”. Part of me feels that having a diagnosis and a name would take an integral part of who I am and make it something that needs to be “treated” or “cured”. I’m not talking about debilitating conditions or extreme cases that prevent you from functioning in society—each of us should make that call for ourselves and seek professional help if needed. Rather, I’m worried about tagging and treating normal neurological variability because it absolves us from personal responsibility. Maybe the “D” should be for “Donut” instead of “Disorder”, after all a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down—and I’m sure there’s at least that much in each sweet pastry. Better yet, a donut should be the prescription—talk about taking sugar pills, and the ensuing placebo effect, to the next level.
Happy Friday!

Donuholic. n. One who is obsessed with donuts, who frequently finds patterns resembling the torus-shaped food and makes extraneous connections to the deep-fried pastry.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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

Friends, Despite writing about donuts (sort of) for over 20 years, I don’t believe in sugar coating, after all, honesty is the best policy. Gilding, on the other hand I’m good with. Take the church of the Society of Jesus in Quito, (AKA La Compañía). Built in fits and starts between 1597 and 1765, the volcanic rock baroque facade conceals a spectacular interior. I had the chance to go inside this week and although I had heard about the gold leaf work inside, the descriptions had not done it justice. The details from floor to ceiling transport you to another world, perhaps that’s the point. If you’re ever there, be sure to visit. And while you’re there stop by one of the many panaderĂ­as … if you’re lucky they might even have a donut. Happy Friday!

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...