Cutting Doughnuts

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, this is Todd from Western Kentucky.

Hello, Todd from Western Kentucky. What’s up?

Hey, I have a couple of phrases.

Quick backstory, growing up in the South, learning how to drive and having fun, spinning the car around in the gravel or out in the field, we called that cutting donuts. And anyone you ask is going to tell you that. Hey, what do you call that?

Oh, we call it cutting donuts.

So in the early to mid-80s, I was able to take a trip out to Wessington Springs, South Dakota, pheasant hunt with a friend. And just in conversation out there one evening, we had a Suburban we were driving around in, and one of the locals said, we need to go spin some cookies. And my friend and I had no idea what they were talking about, and we couldn’t understand. Spin some cookies. We kept on spinning cookies.

And so, yeah, so the short of it was finally we said, oh, you mean cutting donuts? And they were like, what do you mean cutting donuts? And so we finally figured it out that, you know, in our part of the United States, it was called cutting donuts. And in their part of the world, it was spinning cookies. And I just have always marveled over that. The fact that they’re two pastries that I enjoy. And they’re both round. How about that?

Yeah, they go around.

Todd, I’m struck by the fact that in the middle of pheasant hunting in South Dakota, someone felt the sudden urge to go to cut donuts or to spin some cookies.

Well, you got to realize that if, you know, if the birds are not flying, you know, you got to have some kind of fun, right?

Todd, we also need to know what your preferred surface is. Do you like just dirt or what?

Well, you know, gravel’s great because, you know, it slings it all over. But it’s probably pretty hard on the paint, too. But, I mean, dirt, grass. I don’t do many donuts anymore. I guess the last donuts I did was a number of years back when my kids were young and there was a little snow on the ground. And we were leaving to go to some families for Christmas, and I took off down the hill in the four-wheel drive and spun it around a couple of times. The kids just loved it. My wife didn’t enjoy it as much as they did.

Well, Todd, I’ve got to tell you, I’m from Kentucky, too, and I always heard it as doing donuts. Cutting donuts is a new one on me.

Okay, doing donuts.

Yep, I’ll go with that. Doing donuts is all over the country. And cutting cookies is a new one on me, too. Making cookies, spinning cookies.

Yeah, spinning cookies. I think those are the two main ones, but there’s also the term pull a Brody. Do you know that one? Let’s go pull some Brody’s.

Pull a Brody.

No, no, I never heard of pulling a Brody. Who’s Brody?

Steve Brody, back in 1886, was a New York City bookmaker who supposedly tried to win a bet by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. And a friend of his picked him up out of the water. But everybody always suspected that what actually happened was they threw a dummy off the Brooklyn Bridge. And then it just looked like he had jumped off the bridge. And so to pull a Brody named after Steve Brody came to mean taking a fall or or faking something or or doing some kind of stunt that was foolhardy, which, you know, could apply to doing donuts in somebody’s front yard.

Especially if it’s the mayor.

Yeah.

Fantastic. I have marveled over that ever since I heard it. The fact that, you know, pastries, you know, number one, and doing a donut or cutting a donut or spinning cookies, it’s pretty funny. You know, it’s like at what state did they decide they didn’t like donuts anymore and they wanted to go cookies, you know? I’m surprised nobody spins a pizza, you know, or cuts a pizza.

Right.

New Jersey and New York, maybe, if they spin a pizza.

Well, I think I’m going to migrate into doing a Brody. That’s a good one.

Todd, thank you so much for your call and sharing your thoughts and memories. We really appreciate it.

Yeah, thanks for this great question. Thank you so much.

All right, bye-bye.

Enjoy the show.

Bye-bye.

Bye, Todd.

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