I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing Memorial Day weekend.  I actually tried going somewhere on Metro this weekend, and the delays were horrible.  It took me twice as long to get from Rockville to Bethesda as it normally does, and I hadn’t even approached the repair work being done in DC.  I bet it was ridiculous.

I did get a lot of writing done.  I wrote about 15 pages this weekend and, after tonight, I will be at 50 pages completed in this book!  Things are coming along nicely AND I got to see my elementary school friend who moved away when we were 10 years old yesterday.  It was a great holiday weekend indeed.

Sorry this is so short, but I gotta get back to things.  Have a great short week everyone and I’ll hopefully be able to update more in June!

Best,
Greg

Every Friday, someone is scheduled to bring doughnuts into my office. I spend each Friday avoiding the doughnuts in my office. I was curious about their origin and found this story.

It has been said that archaeologists have found petrified doughnuts at ancient dig sites in various parts of the world, but for the sake of historical veracity I will tell the history of the little fried dough bits starting from the point of recent historical verification (be that recent legends and facts).

Many historians give credit to a Dutch sailor named Captain Hanson Gregory (also known as Mason Crockett Hanson) who lived in New England, as being the inventor of the modern doughnut. Hanson's mother, Elizabeth was a fine baker and would make him "olykoek" ("oily cakes") to take on his sea journeys. The cakes she made did not have holes and the story goes that Hanson would impale the cakes on the ship's steering wheel, so he could eat as he navigated. "One story says that the sea captain invented the donut by impaling one of the cakes on the ship's steering wheel, to keep his hands free in a sudden storm, on June 22, 1847". Hanson liked the "oil cakes" better with a hole through the middle, because the center was always doughy gooey and didn't taste like the rest of the cake. From that point on the Dutchman had the ship's cook make the cakes with a hole cut out of the middle and the doughnut was born.

Another legendary twist to the Hanson story is that his mother Elizabeth made the "oil cakes" with fry dough and nuts, which she stuffed into the middle of the cakes. Hanson it is said hated the nuts and punched the center of the cakes out with his ship's steering wheel spindle. Thus the dough and nut cakes became known as doughnuts or fried cakes.

Another tradition says that bakers knew if the fried cakes had a hole cut in the middle of the cake it would cook faster. It was hard to get the fried cakes to cook evenly and the middle was always doughy and not firm like the rest of the cake. Necessity was the mother of invention and a hole was cut in the tasty greasy doughy breakfast cakes.

The Dutch tradition of frying leftover bread dough in hot oil (funnel cakes is an example) came to America with the immigrants. Doughnuts normally are round with a hole through the middle. Dutch fried pastry took on the name doughnut even though many of the food items were not circular like a wheel. Examples of these non circular fried cakes are twisted crullers and apple fritters. It is said by some this braided or twisted fried cake looked like a rope with knots and that is where the word "dough knots" began, later evolving into doughnuts.

In 1872, John Blondell took out the first patent for a doughnut cutter. A new food product industry was beginning to take shape.

During World War I, the doughnut became an American favorite. American soldiers fighting oversees were served doughnuts by the grateful French when liberation came. And according to "Donuts and the Salvation Army" - the Army takes credit for [helping] the popularity of donuts grow. This June is the 70th anniversary of Salvation Army 'Donut Day" in Chicago, established in 1938 to honor the work of the Salvation Army supporting the troops in World War I.

After World War I the fried cake doughnuts began to grow in popularity and a New Yorker named Adolph Levitt invented the doughnut maker machine. The doughnut industry boomed when the 1934 World's Fair in Chicago called the doughnut "the food hit of the Century Of Progress". Levitt was making twenty-five-million dollars annually selling his doughnut machines to bakeries across America in the 1930's.

And in 1948 William Rosenberg opened his first coffee and doughnut shop named the Open Kettle in Quincy, Massachusetts. He changed the name to Dunkin Donuts in 1950 and began opening franchises across the country.

I had a disastrous day yesterday.  Waiting for the bus to go to the gym, I reach into a side pouch in my bag and my ID with my bus pass is not there.  My dad had picked me up yesterday and I guess I didn’t take my ID out of my pocket.  Luckily, the bus driver knows me and gave me a ride to the gym.  As frequent and scheduled as my commute is, the same bus drivers see me day after day.

I work out getting a ride from the gym to work.  My friend calls me to tell me that he is here, so I go out and meet him…I leave my headphones in my locker.  No music for me at work!  I somehow got through the day, got my headphones and went home.  When I get home, there’s a message on my machine.  Apparently my bus pass and ID fell out of my bag and one of the people who takes the bus at my stop found my pass and said he would drop it off at my house when he gets off work.

I get my ID and pass not too long after getting home and then have dinner—ribs and corn.  I put the corn on a separate plate because the two foods are messy enough alone and carry both plates out of the kitchen.  I bend down to put the corn down and proceed to spill my plate of ribs.  I was carrying the ribs in my right hand and I just lost balance in my hand—I guess that happens with nerve damage.

I got over it after it happened, but I was angry.  I hate when I can still tell that I’m disabled.  Working so hard for people to forget that I’m disabled, it’s painful to see it appear so effortlessly.  I did get another 3 pages written in book #2.   30 pages and counting now!  At least the things that matter are moving forward without falter.  Let’s just hope my luck (bus pass reappearing) carries on for a while longer still =)

I made my daily goal of writing 900 words in the book last night.  8 more days and I’ll be at 50 pages by the end of the month.  Starting June 1, if I can maintain my 900 word daily writing, I’ll have the first draft done by the end of July.  I’m hoping that by writing in these compact chunks will allow me to edit my syntax and vocabulary as I go so that the final edit doesn’t take months like last time.

I brought my laptop to work today so that I can write some at lunch.  Maybe I’ll write on the bus this evening too.  Man, I’m really enjoying this…and I really need something to be motivated about right now besides the gym.  Things are going well.  Hope everything is great with all of you!

So I had a funeral to go to this weekend for a family member who passed away.  It’s been a really tough situation for my immediate family to cope with, but now that it’s over with we can put it behind us and hopefully regain that sense of normalcy in our lives, as normal as any families function I guess, haha.

Yesterday was filled with writing and packing my sister’s car for her car trip to Texas for a summer internship.  My mom and her left late afternoon, and most of the time before then was filled with me being called at various times to lift these bags out of the car, put these suitcases in and moving everything around.  Sometimes it’s annoying being the strongest person in my family, but it sure beats where I could have and should have been.

Regardless, end of the weekend and I’m at about 24 pages written in the new book.  My goal is to get to 50 by the end of the month—900 words a day.  I think it’s doable.  Getting this family stuff further behind me, and my family, will make everything easier too.