Iced Rings = “Items”
March 12, 2008
The saga continues.
I thought we had settled in to a standard nomenclature with the move from the self-service case to the behind-the-glass-must-ask-for-assistance a few weeks ago. Perhaps the “Iced Rings” sign was placed inside the case (facing out) so that patrons of the baked goods could direct the bakery staff to which delicacy they were in need of (a sort of “help me help help you” arrangement).
Apparently, this is not the case.
This morning, I walked back to the bakery section, and actually stood at the counter, waiting for someone to assist me. The woman came up, asked if she could help me, and I looked down. Birthday cakes. Birthday cakes!!
Mind you, this was definitely pre-coffee, so I confess to some cobwebs and fuzziness up in the ol’ brain-box, but surely anyone expecting to see doughnuts or do-nuts or iced rings, when finding birthday cakes, would suffer some momentary disorientation.
I mumbled something about doughnuts or iced rings, and the glazed look on my face (Thank You!) must have conveyed my deep confusion. She politely informed me that the “doughnuts/donuts” (not sure of the spelling, because she spoke the word, and did not write it down…) were *back* in the self-service case.
Curiouser and curiouser.
So, I walked back to the case (which I had walked past only moments before, completely unaware), and imagine my great surprise when I saw a sign, in large print that said “ALL ITEMS $.59, OR MIXED DOZEN $5.99.”
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!?
If you’ve been keeping up, the bizarre journey from “Doughnuts” to “Donuts” to “Iced Rings” to the now all-inclusive-yet-troublingly-nondescript “Items” has been a long, strange one.
This only strengthens the feeling that this is all some sort of CIA mind-control experiment. Surely these machinations are not the work of a simple bakery manager or staff. I sense something more dark and sinister behind the change-ups…
[Need some background on the story? Read about it here and here.]
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March 17th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Since there are more doughnut shops per capita in Canada than anywhere else in the world and since I am a Canadian, I will take a shot at answering your quandary.
I was able to find several references to “iced-ring doughnuts.” Thus, it appears “iced-ring” is a mere modifier to distinguish between doughnut varieties (e.g. filled doughnuts, doughnut holes, elephant ear/bear claw/beaver tail/pig’s ear, twists, long john/éclair, old-fashioned, cruller, etc.) The Bakery Lady was astute in identifying the difference between yeast and cake doughnuts for you. You may also find that these items are further classified by preparation type: baked or fried.
Doughnut, as a term, does not appear to be a trade name, nor is it copyrighted.
Doughnut appears to be the original term (c. 1800), with donut being the modern derivative.
Hope this helps ease some of the early-morning-pre-coffee confusion.