Duck!

Here's Tamara El-Khoury on Vanessa de la Torre's story about a closed Krispy Kreme: "I liked it because I knew exactly what she was talking about. "That smell. Remember?" Talking about the sign saying they were hot. She made me miss Krispy Kreme and I haven't had one in a while! She appealed to my senses. The smell of the doughnuts, the sight of the neon sign. The story took me back to when my younger brother first introduced me to Krispy Kreme. ... It's one of those dailies that you know your editor is going to assign so you duck your head and pretend to be busy because you don't want it. It's just a doughnut store! She got stuck with it and turned it into a nostalgic journey."

And that's what we're trying to do, right? Make people feel and smell and hear and see things. Read her piece, And the neon fades to black: That smell. Remember? Driving down Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard with the windows rolled up and A/C blasting. Didn't matter if a tub of chili cheese fries sat languishing on the passenger seat.

That smell wafted over traffic lanes, penetrated car doors.

Then the driver would see it: the big boxy pastry haven with the neon lights and sign that was like a siren, tempting the strong and weak-minded alike.

Hot Doughnuts Now, the sign read.

No more.