The Fried Dough Ho

I wish I could take credit for this photograph. The image is a well known sculpture in Seattle entitled Black Sun, dated 1969, by Isamu Noguchi. It is located across from the Seattle Art Museum and is considered one of the “most touched, caressed, and fondled pieces of public art in Seattle.”

And the sculpture is of a giant doughnut. It is reputed that the rock band, Soundgarten, wrote the song Black Hole Sun based on this sculpture. Most people line up the Space Needle through the hole and while I took a picture during my recent visit, mine is not nearly as gorgeous as this, taken by Sunrisesoup.

So I will let you contemplate this stunning photograph of a pretty fantastic piece of art. Here’s what it looks like without the mist:

Born 227 years ago, April 3, 1783 and died November 28, 1859. Author of noted works like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle.

And, no doubt, you are asking yourself, “Why the heck do we care about Washington Irving on a site devoted to doughnuts?”

A very good question and the answer lies in his History of New York. Written  and published in 1809, it contains two of the earliest known recorded usages of the word “doughnut” in literature:

Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast an enormas dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks – a delicious kind of cake – at present scarce known in this city, except in genuine Dutch families.

and

Every love-sick maiden fondly crammed the pockets of her hero with gingerbread and doughnuts; many a copper ring was exchanged, and crooked sixpence broken, in a pledge of eternal constancy: and there remain extant to this day some love verses written on that occasion, sufficiently crabbed and incomprehensible to confound the whole universe.

So, Happy Birthday Washington Irving! And thank you…