The "Dunkin" in Dunkin' Donuts is supposed to refer to dunking donuts in your coffee, but it always makes me think of the grease they were cooked in. The donuts produced by most large franchises are fried in huge vats of oil heated to very high temperatures, causing the oil to break down after a few days. Instead of changing the oil, a powdered chemical is added to supposedly restore the molecular structure of the oil and remove any hint of rancidity. The same oil may be used for weeks on end.

There's something else you should know about donuts (or doughnuts as the case may be). The fillings for "cream-filled" donuts contain not a trace of cream. They are made from a substance called "heavenly white," which is some sort of vegetable oil spun at high speed until it turns into something resembling white vaseline. The addition of sugar, flavourings and food colouring transform it into various kinds of cream fillings.

Better to order a muffin with your coffee.

Dunkin' Donuts got its start in 1946 when a man by the name of Bill Rosenberg laid down five thousand dollars and founded "Industrial Luncheon Services." ILS was a company specifically catering to factory workers in the outskirts of Boston, Massachusetts, delivering hot meals, coffee, and snacks.

ILS was a tremendous success, but Rosenberg noticed that nearly half (40%) of his revenue was generated by the sales of coffee and donuts. Capitalizing on these item sales, Rosenberg opened "Open Kettle" in 1948 - a shop dedicated to donuts and coffee located in Quincy, MA. Two years later, the name was changed to "Dunkin' Donuts" to more accurately reflect the business.

Within 5 years, and after the opening of the first six Dunkin' Donuts stores, the first franchise agreement was signed and executed in Worcester, MA. By 1963, 100 shops had sprung up, and Robert Rosenberg became President and CEO at the age of 25. 5 years later, Dunkin' Donuts went public.

In 1966, Dunkin' Donuts established "Dunkin' Donuts University", or the DDU, to guarantee product quality and consistancy in the form of a 5-week course. The DDU is located in Braintree, MA.

In 1970, Dunkin' Donuts went international, opening up a shop in Japan.

Dunkin' Donuts entered the foray of the Television Commercial in 1978, when their first commercials started hitting the airwaves. It would not be until 1982 when Dunkin' Donuts would make television history with the introduction of Fred the Baker, beginning a series of commercials that would become one of the most successful television ad campaigns in history.

After becoming the largest donut retailer in 1990, Dunkin' Donuts expanded their product line to include bagels in 1996.

Within a year, they became the largest bagel retailer.

There are currently over five thousand Dunkin' Donuts shops all over the world. Bill Rosenberg is now retired, and living in Florida.

Update: Bill Rosenberg passed away on Friday, September 20, 2002 at the age of 86. He died from bladder cancer.

Thanks for everything, Bill. Time to make the donuts.

Also the only place open all night in Highland Park, New Jersey; hence the only place where easily distracted English literature students with no reliable means of powered transportation can pull caffeine fueled all-nighters. During my last year of grad school, I practically lived at the place; I'd buy a small coffee and a French Cruller, and sit in the corner of the store with my iBook, grading or writing for hours and hours.

One of my most vivid memories of the place is of the Knight of the Woeful Countenance. No, not Don Quixote, of course. But someone very like him, in his strange poetry, his gift of the gab, his sadness, his isolation, his doomed, mis-aimed courage, his lack of dentition, his futile, noble rage. Tall kid, Mexican (there's a sizable Mexican community in nearby New Brunswick), narrow face, deep set eyes, sparse goatee and moustache. Big black coat. Greenish grey sweatshirt under half zipped dark shirt underneath that. Dark blue baggy jeans with red paint stains that made them look like he'd gotten into a food fight with a ketchup heiress about five months before and hadn't washed them since.

He walked up to me, and this is what he said, word for word, without stop or pause (I've tried to capture his tone and his pronunciation in my spelling--I know it looks uncomfortably like nineteenth century "dialect" literature, but really; this is what he sounded like, or at least what he sounds like in my head. As for the weird formatting, I'm trying to convey both the torrential quality of his speech, and its odd monotone rhythms):

"Yo, kin I ax you somethin, man, thass cool what you have there if I wanned to get one of those how much would it cost man a grand a thousand bucks, thass cool, man. I need to git me one of those 'cause I used to come home from work and get on one of those chatrooms you know like the New Jersey chat or the Bronx chat or whateva one of those crazy chatrooms with the people with those crazy names with like all the letters and the numbers and they talk and I'd juss start spitting into that thing man like typing all this crazy philosophy

like my words made flesh magnetic runnin
thru tha tubes like lightning
between the clouds like rain racing,
to the groun

and they be going like what the fuck juss happen here man whathafuck he talkin about but now my computer it juss a monitor Compaq and it slow as shit man and every time I turn it on all this pornography poppin up evry where man and I juss gotta get me a new one cause it's tough out here man you know tell me man are there really those places on the internet for singles where people put out to meet people I gotta find me one those man cause last time I kissed a girl on the lips last time I kissed for real I was sixteen and I'm twenty eight man iss bin twelve years thassa long time yo when you a kid when you have the woman all over you they give you hugs and kisses and they love you you feel loved and your mother loves you but now I'm twenty eight and time's just goin by like the nine planets goin round tha sun everything movin but I'm still just here just in tha same place and it's getting tough man I juss wanna find that someone to share my life with yo cause I just don't want it to be like this feeling like your whole life only your mother loves you for real and everything else it's just a lie and when I go out I can't talk to the women man because they're so powerful they're mysterious they have the power you know to give you sex or not and I'm just so shy I can't talk to them like I can talk to a brother man I juss can't I gotta pay seven hundred dollars to have my teeth fixed before I can talk to a woman because fucking black guys in New Brunswick man they mugged me when I was sixteen juss one fine October afternoon in 1993 I was five ten and skinny though now I'm six two six of them they ran up to me on Franklin Boulevard shouting hey man where you from and one of them just gave it to me man bam I dunno if he hit me with a brass knuckle or what but I was juss kneeling there going holy shit thass my front tooth yo he knocked out my front tooth man and everyday since then when I wake up and I look in the mirror everyday I look in my face and I just go damn somebody has to DIE and it's getting so tough man I go to church and juss stand there you know in my nice sweater and stuff and I juss can't believe I can't have faith man

ask and ye shall receive but I'm finding it hard to believe

juss standing there like a big tall
dummy and meanwhile the earth
it's moving around the sun like a beautiful
woman the earth with us and everything around
us just on it like a beautiful woman
with her babies going around
the sun the sun a ball
in the sky but also this huge burning
star like a fire burning in the darkness
but man
it's tough I need to believe but I
can't man but thanks man for
listening and
take care of yourself bro." He walked off into cold and dark and snow.