Donut Deserts and Giant Inflatable Colons

This morning, I couldn't remember if I was supposed to meet at the botanical gardens at 8 or 9, so I went down to the Tower Grove neighborhood at 8. Got a text halfway there that said they were meeting at 9, so I stopped for two donuts and a small, sweet coffee at World's Fair Donuts, so far my favorite donut shop in St.Louis.

There's a massive donut desert in the first and second ring suburbs of St.Louis, of which University city is pretty much the epicenter. If you go a google search for donuts in St.Louis, you can see what I mean.


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I was talking to a local historian about the issue and in his opinion there are two potential causes- first, there was the health food craze in the 80s and 90s which marginalized donuts as they are admittedly full of sugar and fat. (Come on, like donuts are the reason that our country is so overweight!) Secondly, the areas currently with local donuts shops in the city and inner suburbs had a large German immigrant population, which have strong cultural connections with donuts, if not the actual inventors of the donut. Areas like University City and Clayton, wealthier, whiter communities, were predominately settled by Anglo-Saxon stock. Also likely is the fact that the local donut shop was supplanted by corporate coffee.

This is really interesting to me, because in contrast with the historical immigrant populations of these older cities, places like Phoenix and LA have local donut shops which are predominantly run by southeast Asians. Why? The patrons at these places were not necessarily immigrants either- they were a mix of buisness people and locals whos wanted a good place to meet and drink coffee and chat. At a few donut shops in Phoenix which I frequented, it was just as easy to order a boba milk tea with a box of really good, fresh donuts. Maybe I'll do my thesis on the cultural geography of local donut shops.

Anyway, I digress.

I got to the botanical garden about 45 minutes early. It's free for local residents saturdays, so I took a stroll through the grounds. I'd never been to the gardens before. It's really pretty. If you know St.Louis, you know how lush and green it can be. It's almost perfectly situated between two climatic regions, so we get plants from both regions growing here. The park is also well over a hundred years old, founded shortly after the Kew Gardens in London. There was a "Green Homes and Healthy Living" festival going on, which was basically a mishmash catch-all. Lots of people from Barnes-Jewish. They were signs posted around the grounds, pointing to the various events and activities.

Wait, what?

So, I wandered through the park, following the signs which pointed me in the direction to the GIC. And finally, walking around the corner, there it was:

It was part of a table of Barnes Jewiish/Wash U's medical school raising awareness of colon cancer. I asked where they got  the thing. They said it was a custom order. I can't even imagine what the ordering process would be like. It would be fun to work for a company that does custom inflatable structures.

And a view from the inside, with giant approximations of polyps and growths.

That was pretty much the highlight of my day. Like a ten year old, I snickered through the rest of the morning.