Do you suffer from guilt by caloric association? Do you harbor lust in your gut for some secret food that you only eat when you’re feeling thin, or on those rare occasions when you can get into your clothes without pushing the limits of Newtonian physics and a forklift? Perhaps you like to reward yourself when you’ve gone light on dinner for a few days, or ran an extra mile that morning, or finally decided you look good in a 52 short. Yes when those times come around, and that forbidden craving hits you, there’s just one thing to do. As Oscar Wilde put it: the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

Some people treat themselves with pizza, or maybe ice cream, or a fatty hunk o’ prime rib….but for me it’ll always be a few hot ‘n fresh Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts.

By the time Lincoln Spore opened Vegas’ first Krispy Kreme shop on Spring Mountain Road in 1998, I’d been eating them for about thirty years. My earliest memory is of selling them in college as a fund-raising project. I got the bright idea of loading up my buddy’s VW van with about two hundred dozen of Krispy Kreme’s glazed best and making the rounds of certain dormitories and frat houses known for their after-hours enjoyment of a little herb-induced relaxation.

Those were the easiest sales anyone ever made. Boy did those guys love those doughnuts. One dude, and I’m not making this up, would routinely eat thirty-six at a time, and if you were at Barnard or Curry Hall at Vanderbilt University in 1974 (and you know who you are), you maybe remember leaving your smoke-filled room and handing me a few bucks for something other than a baggie of Maui Wowie.

Whether you were a stoner or not, Krispy Kremes had a mystique even then. To me it’s their unbeatable combination of yeasty, melt-in-your mouth lightness (especially when warm), and the vanilla-tinged sugar glazing that fall away like sweet shards from every bite—leaving their mark, and leaving you begging for more.

Over the years I’ve even refined my appreciation for Krispy Kremes by analyzing the most complimentary beverage for these fried dough masterpieces. Cold 2 percent milk works best in hot weather, and hot black coffee, is a must with these doughnuts when it’s cold outside. Frappuccinos, soda pop, or fruit juices work not at all, unless you’re the sort that enjoys having some sugar with your sugar. Best of all boomers, at one-hundred and seventy calories each, two will do nicely, unless you’re still like Mr.-I’ll-take-three-dozen-and-will-you-please-stop-Bogarting-that-joint. As for my favorite customer from 1974; I tracked him down a few years ago and guess what? He’s a Republican dentist in Cleveland. Go figure.