Thanks to a combination of a non-working online check-in system, kiosks that wouldn’t read passports, understaffed airport counters, and the cruel, unrelenting march of time, I got bumped from the flight I was supposed to take to London last night and instead have to get up in like three hours to get on the one I’m supposed to take. I should get to sleep, but, as always, you deserve a Cold Start. And the coldest start you shall have!
I’d like to make this one short while also providing you with the important information you require, which, today, I think will be to remind you that there are multiple terms for driving your car in very tight, gleefully reckless and often smoky circles, usually where the wheel is at full lock and the rear tires lose grip.
Like this, for example:
A Beetle is maybe a less-expected executor of this maneuver that I suspect most of you call doing donuts, or something donut-related. That’s by far the most common term for this act of hoonery, at least according to this Harvard Dialect Survey from 2003, which pegged “doing donuts” as the term for this for about 80% of America.
There were others, though! It seems the Dakotas and some of the Pacific Northwest use a different dessert-related idiom, cutting cookies, for this same act! Who knew? Sometimes it’s making cookies or doing cookies, but the point is here the round donut is replaced with another round baked treat.
Then there’s what may be my favorite one, the largely-Minnesota-based whippin’ shitties, which is delightful in its cavalierly vulgar vagueness.
And then there’s what may be the most peculiar one, I believe the least common one, and the one less regionally-focused: pull a brodie. Maybe rippin’ or spinnin’ brodies,too.
That term seems to have originated from the tale of a poor sap named Steve Brodie who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge in a failed attempt to commit suicide in 1886. There’s some dispute as to whether or not a Brodie is a full donut or a J-turn or a Rockford turn – which, by the way, looks like this:
…but it does seem to be used at least sometimes to refer to donuts.
Here’s a crude map of the terms used, because this may save your life one day:
Which term do you use? Any brodie pullers out there? I’m very curious.
Oh, also, another car/donut related question is worth posing, too: which is the preferred way to make a donut car? Horizontal or vertical?
Okay. Now I really gotta get to sleep. Britain, here I come!
Growing up in N California, “Brodies” were what we committed while destroying the coaster brakes of our one-speed bicycles. My hoonigan days ended long ago when I started having to pay for my own stuff.
First:
*DISCLAIMER: Do NOT allow Brodie to attempt to whip shitty donuts circles in a Type 1 on a solid surface (asphalt, concrete, packed dirt, gravel) unless you want to spend your Sunday morning traveling in slow, sad circles in the Mall parking lot. Oh, Brodie can fry your clutch if you are aggressive. Trust me.* In a VW bug, even one with an open diff, it’s hard to throw a solid donut going forward, regardless if you are steering to the right or the left. In reverse, however, you can work up a few good spins; just go easy on the throttle unless you enjoy replacing clutches.
Second:
I vote for the horizontal donut car. It looks like a Miata MX-5 that had too many…donuts.
Third:
I promise I will get to the point. TL/DR, we speak different in NM
My family is from Northern NM, where we have developed a unique, sing-song accent when speaking English. A very old, colloquial version of Spanish is also spoken in the area. We use transitive verbs differently when speaking in English, and the translation is not direct. Therefore, we “throw a donut”, “throw gravel/dirt”, or “haga trompos”. Since New Mexico has many military bases and a large transient population, ‘Brodies’ and ‘Flipping a full bitch’ are part of the language. My favorite is “throwing a Rockford” (J-turn). We spent hours in dirt lots, on country roads, or in the church parking lot after Confirmation Class, backing up and throwing the wheel, hoping to avoid a bar ditch, median curb, fence post, or light pole, then learning to jam it into 1st/drive at just the right time.
(Link to learn more: https://newmexicocultural.com/lexicon/new-mexican-english/)
(Link to learn more: https://www.dailylobo.com/article/2024/09/keeping-traditional-new-mexican-spanish-alive)
Epilogue:
The last time I threw a donut or a Rockford was many seasons past, when I was teaching the Kiddo how to drive. I figured I would pass on my knowledge as well as showing them how to do stupid in a safe manner. I also enjoyed the hell out of it. As for nowadays, I have no idea what current slang the Sigmas with the rizz are lit about and what Skibidi…oh, never mind. Word.
I am born and raised in Minnesota, and can confirm it is whipping shitties. Very easy to do here in the winter. Also, we would grab onto the back bumper of the car and be pulled across the frozen parking lot skidding on our shoes. We called that “shizzing”.
Ooh I can add two for you from Australia,
1. Helis (as in helicopter)
2. Cutting Sick (although this can refer to basically any type of burnout)
I understood our local yooths referred to it as “Ripping Skids”…. unless you are on a farm, then it is simply “Circle Work”.
I like “circle work”. I think that’s even better than donuts.
Frank Zappa referred to “Brodie Knobs” in the Uncle Meat Variations. I heard that term in SoCal in the 60’s. Oregon was Cookies. Also flipped a cookie. Go figure.
Hell yeah whippin’ shitties.
This one extends a bit into North Dakota at least. I don’t know if it’s seeped into SD, IA, or WI in the same way.
Lifelong Minnesotan here – I can confirm that ‘whippin shitties’ is the correct answer. This is some of the first information passed down to my kids when teaching them how to drive in the snow.
I live in the desert SW, and yes, it does snow here from time to time. A six-inch snow gave me the opportunity to take my Kiddo (and their friends…shh) out and let them go nuts in my truck, but only after a demonstration and a safety discussion. We spent all day accelerating, braking, turning, and skidding. Then, we threw some Brodies. My only regret is that I did not know the phrase “whippin’ shitties” then. I plan to make up for lost time.