Cara Giaimo has a wonderful feature article all about the ongoing history of cops and doughnuts sprinkled with multiple anecdotes you didn’t realize you really wanted to know.
Reading the article made me think of my own anecdote. When I was going to school in Maine, a local radio station (WBLM aka “The Blimp”) had a rambunctious morning show that would often feature the game “Cop or No Cop?”
The format was delightfully straightforward. A listener would call in to the morning show and have to guess “Cop” or “No Cop.” The morning show hosts would call a coffee shop or similar bakery in the Portland area, introduce themselves, and ask the all-important question:
“Are there currently any members of law enforcement at your establishment?”
The proprietor would sometimes need to call out and check, but if there were cops on the premises, everyone won: the original caller, the coffee shop, the cops, possibly some passers-by for all I know. In fact, if the caller was wrong, I believe they and the shop still got some prize, albeit not as grand.
In its own weird way, it was a fun, community-building way to play with a cliché… so I hope I see its like again.