The other day I saw a TV program that showed how the Japanese had perfected an absolutely realistic human-looking robot (much more well coiffed and perfect-looking than any real person of course!). Among other modern wonders, scientists have honed their skills so far that even a full face transplant for severely-damaged accident victims is now possible. Our lives are filled with some ingenious invention or another that promises to solve every one of our nagging problems, big or small (some that we hadn’t even quite realized we had – case in point, the electric portable nose-hair trimmer!)

I often mentally hear the words of my dear old mother who used to tell me I should be grateful I have so many “gadgets” to help me around the house and how she had to slave from dawn to dusk to keep the house in immaculate condition “all by herself” in the good old days. I do appreciate the wonders of modern living which have released women from a large amount of household slavery, but at the end of the day, the invention that I am really waiting for is actually quite simple though I don’t believe it's been done yet.

I’m talking about nothing more complicated than a healthy, equally tasty substitute for the everyday cream-filled doughnut. I’ve been a fan of these calorie-packed, sugar-filled pieces of heaven for as long as I can remember. As a teenager, I would stuff myself with them so often that I was on first-name daily-greeting basis with the pastry-shop cook near my home – and my conscience would silently stifle any possible threats of spots on my face or a burgeoning waistline from this indulgence.

Even today, whenever I’m spending a quiet rainy afternoon at home, my taste buds salivate in anticipation of a curl-up on the sofa watching my favorite program with a steaming mug of coffee in one hand and a delicious doughnut dripping with cream and sweetness in the other. Ah, how I enjoyed those little pleasures, those little previews of paradise on earth. You may not believe how I can wax so lyrically over a doughnut but maybe it's because I haven’t had one in the last three years! 

Diabetes runs in my family and a few years ago the doctor told me to go easy on the sweet stuff because my blood sugar levels were getting pretty precarious. So I’ve been dutifully following a self-imposed almost total ban on sugar but no sacrifice was as painful as that of my well-beloved doughnut. My daughter took pity on me and tried to entice me to try a sugar-substituted, all-healthy new type of what she called “diet doughnut,” but to me, it tasted like an old rubber shoe with icing on it (not that I have ever tasted the latter!).

So any kind-hearted strangers out there, if you know someone who has invented the perfectly healthy substitute to this nugget of bliss, lead me on… there’s a goldmine in it!