While going to work in Berne I often stopped at a local bakery. You always had to have something to eat at the 9 o’clock break. Those were the days when I could eat bakery goods including doughnuts without worrying about gaining weight or high cholesterol. I would buy things that looked good just to try them out. Everything always looked and usually tasted great.
Once I saw something at the bakery that looked like a doughnut (without a hole). It was cut in half and filled with vanilla crème, like a sandwich. There was no name tag on it so when it was my turn I just pointed and said one of those, please. The person behind the counter said “Do you mean a “Bee sting”?” I said “yes, that”. Then I paid for it and left.
At work, during the break I was faced with the problem how to eat it. If I could open my mouth wide enough I could eat it like a sandwich. Then I envisioned all that lovely crème spilling out and landing on the table. Too messy. I decided to eat it like an Oreo Cookie; screw the top off, eat the top, then eat the bottom. It worked perfectly.
My co-workers, admiring my eating technique, asked if I knew what it was called. I told them the pointing story and said “bee sting”. Then I realized this delicious, sweet crème doughnut was named after what happens when you get a bee sting. OMG! Gross. Who in the world would think up such a disgusting name for such a tasty treat?
I decided not to let the name stop me from eating them, they were too good. After all, it was just a name. Sometimes you have to look beyond that.
Other Doughnuts
On June 26, 1963 President Kennedy said in a motivating speech “Ich bin ein Berliner”, [“I am a Berliner”]. He compared a boast from 2 thousand years ago “civis romanus sum” [“I am a Roman citizen”] to being a free man in Berlin. Quite a noble thought indeed.
What is a Berliner? Someone who is from or lives in Berlin of course is a Berliner. On the other hand, a jelly filled doughnut can also be called a Berliner. No one broke out in laughter because no one in the audience thought “doughnuts”. Berliners don’t call Berliners “Berliner” but “pancakes”. Therefore no one from Berlin would have translated “I am a Berliner” into “I am a jelly filled doughnut”. When I hear the words “Ich bin ein Berliner” of course I think of the speech. I also visualize a huge powder sugar coated, jelly filled doughnut with arms and legs.
Luckily President Kennedy didn’t make his speech in Hamburg, then he would have been a Hamburger.
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