Xanthippe considers
The Boston Cream Donut Debate
Does the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by far the national leader in designating official state baked goods, need a state donut?
Background
The Boston cream donut is a filled donut loosely based on the Boston cream pie. It is typically a yeast-raised "bismark" type donut with vanilla filling and chocolate icing. The filling is also spelled creme and kreme; technically, a cream filling includes cream, while neither a creme nor a kreme filling do. I have followed the spelling used by the source without investigating the nature of the filling in the particular donuts referred to. I have also used donut, rather than doughnut, throughout.
Donut bills have been in the Massachusetts legislature since at least 1998.
The current donut bill (2001)
Anti-donut arguments
State Rep. Cele Hahn suggests that designating a donut may have political pitfalls (1998)
Southborough, MA police express a preference for Bavarian creme donuts (1998)
Massachusetts Senate deems Boston cream donut to lack "historical significance" (1998)
Boston tourist eats Dunkin' Donuts Boston creme donut as excuse to use restroom, then decides the major appeal of the chain is its coffee (1998)
State Rep. Cele Hahn bemoans the plethora of frivolous legislation to give official status to everything from Fowler's Toad to Necco candies (1999)
Long-distance cyclist settles for Tim Hortons Boston cream donut as second-best to yogurt (2000)
Canadian job intern uses demand for Boston cream donuts to illustrate Hobbesian view of human nature (2001)
State Rep. Cele Hahn still thinks official donut legislation is frivolous (2001)
Pro-donut arguments
Simon Fraser University student finds that free Boston cream donuts compensate for dull lectures (1996)
Baby Spice attempts to prolong her ephemeral popularity by declaring that the Boston cream donut is her favorite food (1998)
Professional wrestling heroine Rena/Sable says "Put a Boston creme donut in front of me and I'm a happy girl." (1999)
California Bay Area resident uses love as metaphor to describe eating a Krispy Kreme Boston cream donut (2000)
The band Virginwool is positively compared to a Boston creme donut (2000)
The Boston kreme donut is hailed as "the poor woman's eclair" (2000)
14-year-old girl uses Boston creme donut as metaphor for relationship between text and meaning (2000?)
Boston creme donuts used to model complex mathematical ideas at MIT (2001?)
Web journal writer places a Boston cream donut #1 on his wishlist (2001)
University of Maryland computer science professor uses Boston cream donut recipe to explain value of modular programming (2001)
State Rep. Cele Hahn concedes the symbolic importance of the donut (2001)
Other uses for Boston cream donuts
The Boston cream donut as the bun for a Whopper (2000)
The Boston creme donut as navigational device to information on Man of La Mancha (2001)
Boston cream donuts also figure heavily in online fiction and self-indulgent Web journals, most of which we shudder to reproduce here.
What's in that donut?
Ingredients in the Dunkin' Donuts Boston Kreme donut
Alternate donut paradigms
The Boston cream donut is not the only donut to assume cultural importance. The jelly donut, while not looming so large, has its followers.
MAC Users Group member uses a daily jelly donut order to explain how cookies work (1998)
The jelly donut diet (1999)
Jelly donuts become metaphor for multiple realities in Amber RPG
Animated Elvis says, "You're as fine as a jelly donut."
We determine that John F. Kennedy did not tell a Berlin audience "I am a jelly donut."
