photo #7908923

No it isn't Mitch McConnell 😂The image was published by Newsweek magazine on March 17, 1947. The caption on the photograph reveals that the man pictured is Edward Falasca, who gained a bit of notoriety in the 1940s for his unique position — Falasca was perhaps the only professional doughnut hole inspector on record.We found two other instances in which Falasca was quoted by news outlets.Falasca was featured in the March 9, 1947, edition of the Indiana Star Press newspaper in an article headlined, "Culinary and Hat Reform." In that story, Falasca talked about the need to shrink the size of the doughnut hole in order to give pastry aficionados a better grip on their sweet treats.He also spoke in rather lofty terms about what he apparently considered the art of eating a doughnut."Flexible fingers are as necessary for doughnut dunking as for playing the piano," Falasca is quoted as stating. "As a matter of fact, harp playing and balalaika playing are the best ways to practice for dunking."Falasca was again featured in an article in The Santa Clara newspaper in December 1949. The story described Falasca as the "only" doughnut hole inspector who "operates like a confidential agent," going to various eateries and taking away doughnuts, which he would then measure in the privacy of a hotel room, sometimes using a ruler, sometimes busting out a caliper, depending on the job.According to the Santa Clara article, Falasca was tasked with enforcing alleged consumer expectations for doughnut hole sizes: "In New England, for example, the holes are one and one-eighth inches in diameter. New Englanders hate a three-eighth inch hole."That said, we still know very few details of Falasca's life and work -- so few, in fact, that we're a bit skeptical of past reporting on the man and his unusual job. The Santa Clara reported that he worked "for a corporation that manufactures machines which produce 40 percent of the doughnuts sold in this country."But the newspaper didn't name the corporation, nor did it reveal where Falasca lived, or what educational and professional background a man who worked as the nation's only doughnut hole inspector had that would lead him to such an occupation. We will update this story if we locate more information about him, and invite our readers who might have such knowledge to send us tips.Does the Sign Show Real Doughnut Hole Sizes Over Time?This question is a bit harder to answer. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the first doughnuts, in their modern form, were made in the mid-19th century by a New England mother who was making a rather sensible pastry for her ship's captain son:Fast-forward to the mid-19th century and Elizabeth Gregory, a New England ship captain's mother who made a wicked deep-fried dough that cleverly used her son's spice cargo of nutmeg and cinnamon, along with lemon rind. Some say she made it so son Hanson and his crew could store a pastry on long voyages, one that might help ward off scurvy and colds. In any case, Mrs. Gregory put hazelnuts or walnuts in the center, where the dough might not cook through, and in a literal-minded way called them doughnuts.