{"id":92921,"date":"2015-12-15T15:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T20:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=92921"},"modified":"2015-12-15T15:00:13","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T20:00:13","slug":"doughnut-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/15\/doughnut-holes\/","title":{"rendered":"Doughnut Holes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_92937\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/optimists_creed_1939.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-92937\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92937\" class=\"wp-image-92937\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/optimists_creed_1939.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"602\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/optimists_creed_1939.jpg 2743w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/optimists_creed_1939-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/optimists_creed_1939-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/optimists_creed_1939-768x770.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/optimists_creed_1939-1021x1024.jpg 1021w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-92937\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heed the creed.<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p>As you ramble on through life, brother,<br \/>Whatever be your goal,<br \/>Keep your eye upon the doughnut,<br \/>And not upon the hole.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This \u201cOptimist\u2019s Creed\u201d could be read from the thirties through the seventies on every box of Mayflower Donuts, and on the walls of its stores. It was, says the\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em>, \u201cthe personal motto of the founder, Adolph Levitt.\u201d But its true author has been lost to the mists of time: Levitt\u2019s granddaughter told the <em>Times <\/em>that he\u2019d seen the doggerel framed in a dime store and made it his personal credo. Presumably someone working at a greeting-card company tossed it off one day; we can only imagine said copywriter\u2019s impotent rage when the Mayflower chain took off and the slogan appeared everywhere.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>For the rest of us, though, the Optimist\u2019s Creed evokes nothing but jollity. The words were presented in a vaguely medieval, nursery-rhymish way: two jesters\u2014a sort of doughnut\u00a0of tragedy and one of comedy\u2014juxtaposed against a large sinker.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A company called Cool Culinaria has made it their business to revive\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/coolculinaria.com\/products\/mayflower-donuts-rear-cover-1939\">the Optimist\u2019s Creed<\/a>: one may purchase\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/coolculinaria.com\/\">from them<\/a>, along with various old menu prints and ephemera, a series of mugs, dish towels, coasters, and even a throw pillow, all emblazoned with the motto.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Usually, seeing records of defunct restaurants fills me with melancholy. Each one looks so perfect, so glamorous, so wholesome, so wholly desirable. And yet Mayflower Donuts, though it\u2019s long gone, continues to inspire, thanks to the creed. Of course, I see that it\u2019s your basic glass-half-full ideology, but somehow that\u2019s much more fun, much more believable, when the world\u2019s a doughnut.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the Mayflower menu can incite era envy\u2014a \u201cFruit Shortcake Donut with Whipped Cream\u201d for twenty cents!\u2014but if you keep your eye upon the doughnut, everything assumes its proper perspective. When world events take the glamor out of sepia, take a breath and thank God for, at least, the palliative of the Internet, where nothing dies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review<em>, and the <\/em>Daily<em>\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As you ramble on through life, brother,Whatever be your goal,Keep your eye upon the doughnut,And not upon the hole.\u00a0 This \u201cOptimist\u2019s Creed\u201d could be read from the thirties through the seventies on every box of Mayflower Donuts, and on the walls of its stores. It was, says the\u00a0New York Times, \u201cthe personal motto of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[15177,19960,7577,20596,20594,4693,7221,11218,20595],"class_list":["post-92921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-americana","tag-chains","tag-doggerel","tag-donut-holes","tag-mayflower-donuts","tag-nostalgia-2","tag-poems","tag-restaurants","tag-the-optimists-creed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Optimist\u2019s Creed (Or, Donut Philosophy)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on Mayflower Donuts\u2019 enduring motto.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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