36 Comments

Hallelujah! Donuts are back. I was afraid churros had taken their place. I always get a kick out of your stock photo stories.

Expand full comment

A low bar, to be sure. But that's what I signed up for.

Expand full comment

My point, exactly!

Expand full comment

All good fun.

Expand full comment

And as your running mate, I think that's effectively saying it's factual.

Expand full comment

Haha! What a great little twist at the end of the cowboy story. And you’ve officially inspired me to want to eat about a dozen donuts.

Expand full comment

I forgot to mention that this Spanish politician was a Seville servant.

Expand full comment

Love the donut puns! I also wondered where the word “catgut” originated and thanks to John K Adams, now know. The history of the English language is filled with these quirky tales.

Expand full comment

In honor of my favorite doughnut: "Give me some cream, Boston".

Expand full comment

The legend goes that a local politician in Seville, Spain wearied of a local minstrel always singing derisive but humorous songs about politicians making sausages. This politician, who owned a sausage company decided to get even. He contracted with his cousin, who had a guitar shop, to use animal intestines when stringing his guitars. To everyone's surprise, the new strings were resilient and held a beautiful tone. The guitar strings became wildly popular and what had been intended as an insulting name, alluding to cats howling in the night, became an ironic honorific.

Incidentally, the joke about violinists differing from cats in that 'cats know when to stop scratching,' and the phrase 'cat gut your tongue?' derive from this same innovation.

Expand full comment
Apr 15Liked by Mark Starlin

You seem to have a real handle on the world of do-nuts, Mark A man after my own heart. Now - how about a song about do-nuts next time? I loved Charley's advice to the dude. Very wise.

Expand full comment

Every day, my cat walks by my guitar and thanks me for using nylon strings.

Expand full comment
Apr 15Liked by Mark Starlin

The behavior of the LED bulbs is actually a side effect of the AC-DC adaptors they use to fit in the old sockets. At some point, lighting systems will go to a plan DC setup (we have one for the lighting in our garden — low voltage, low amperage, instant on/off) and GenZ will explain to their kids how lights used to work in the same way Boomers talk about dragging their finger in a circle to make a phone call. Meanwhile, though, yes, it's a nice effect.

Expand full comment

This is what came to mind! :)

https://youtu.be/gs8QEYiDdHE?si=pYp-gfeVFOhKyWLB

Expand full comment