A friend of mine told me that he'd been warned about being late for work so many times that, when he finally knew that this time might be the last, he stopped and got donuts. "Hey, if you're that late, it's better not to arrive empty-handed," he says. "At least the crowd will be on your side."

Brian Busken, the self-proclaimed marketing weasel for Busken Bakeries, agrees. "How can you fire the guy who brought the donuts?"

He hasn't used that for an ad tagline yet, but he could. Busken is famous not just for fantastic donuts but also for incredibly catchy billboard advertising. A new book, Have a Crumby Book, by local author John Eckberg, covers both subjects well. (It's been released by Clerisy Press in Walnut Hills.)

It's amply illustrated with some of Busken's best branding campaigns, from the seasonal "Boosken" for Halloween and "O'Goodie" for St. Patrick's Day to the sublime "Bayou One," illustrated with a Mardi Gras King Cake.

There are also the vaguely sexy, like the pink heart cookies with the tagline "We've been making love since 4 a.m." The company hasn't been censored by Sheriff Simon Leis yet, but it's pulled the plug on some of its own racy ideas, including some in the book that I'm not reprinting here. You have to buy one to find out!

Brian doesn't claim these gems as his own. He freely admits that most of the great ideas come from Busken's ad agency, The Creative Group, whom the company has worked with for the past 10 years.

While the ads made the smiley-face cookie an icon, the cookie had to hold up its half of the bargain by being darn good. And it is a great cookie, whether it's decorated as a shamrock, a pumpkin, a baseball or an unofficial ballot.

Busken's doesn't quite have the influence of Iowa or New Hampshire, but its cookie polls are both tasty and astute.

Brian's favorite Busken creation is the Mountain Cookie, the recipe for which is generously included in the book.

"It's like a breakfast in a cookie, with walnuts, oats and raisins," he says. "In fact, there's a customer at our Hyde Park store who comes in every morning to get one with a coffee cup of hot water. And he's, like, 80 years old. So it's working for him."

I ask Brian if there are regional favorites within Cincinnati -- products that sell better on the West Side than the East, for instance -- and he doesn't think so. He says that there are gender differences, though.

"Men do not generally buy tea cookies," he says. "They eat tea cookies, but they don't buy them. Men buy bread and donuts. Women buy tea cookies."

I ask him about Cincinnati's favorites and about his own.

Donuts: cake or yeast? Cincinnati likes yeast, but Brian is a cake guy.

Cake: chocolate or yellow? Cincinnati's overwhelming favorite is yellow, while Brian goes for chocolate.

Bread: white or rye? Rye on both counts. Rye is in our German heritage.

Pie: apple or pumpkin? Surprise! Pumpkin for both. I had to double check. Apple pie is not the people's choice?

No, the baker has the numbers to prove it. It's pumpkin city.

Another Cincinnati phenomenon is schnecken, and when Tom Thei of Virginia Bakery gave his secret schnecken recipe to the Buskens, the city flocked to their doors.

They couldn't keep up with demand last year, but this year they'll be supplying my favorite buttery treat at all their stores, including their bakery counters in Northern Kentucky's Remke Markets. I had to do a little happy dance over this announcement. Yes!

OK, so, about the book. I've actually written a corporate history before, and trust me: This one is more fun than that one (sorry, boss). It's a great primer on advertising, especially on branding, and it gives as much insight into the zeitgeist of Cincinnati as it does into the Busken family business.

And there are recipes. Not that you'll really be tempted to bake your own Mountain Cookie when you can just roll into Remke's and pick one up with a side of schnecken!

But if you have dyed-in-the-wool Cincinnatians -- or homesick ex-Cincinnatians -- on your holiday list, this is a good gift idea. Or you can get one for your boss if you're late.

Just don't forget the donuts.