Holes

Dear Dr. "M.," McNeil would like to know more about your encounter with the donut machine in the Smithsonian. McNeil is curious! Speaking of round things with holes in the middle, I am bewildered that I have not received any outside communications regarding Mickey Rooney's invention of "The Weenie Whirl," mentioned here recently. Back in the olden times, Mr. Ward and I were astonished to discover that we shared vivid memories of an episode of the Johnny Carson Show on which Mr. Rooney came out and plugged his new product "Puppy Pop," a refreshing carbonated beverage for dogs. THE STAR MACHINE (the Jeanine Basinger book from which I extracted the Weenie Whirl information) explains how Mr. Rooney found himself needing to invent and sell these sorts of products, your Weenie Whirls, your Puppy Pops. It made me ashamed for giggling. Though Basinger does not refer to Puppy Pop in her text, she does mention Mr. Rooney's spray-on hair for bald men.