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An out-of-state tourist stumbling into a recent Planning Commission meeting here might have found something surreal about such utterances as "emotional attachment to the donut" and "integrity of the donut." "We don't want to be known as the guys who killed the donut."But, of course, this wasn't about just any donut. It was about the pink, fiberglass confection known as the Big Donut, which looms above the Original Grind eatery on Seventh near PCH.The drama involved the sale of that property, together with a shuttered liquor store next door, to a Dunkin' Donuts franchisee, Frontier Restaurant Group of Newport Beach. Frontier initially said that the drive-thru it built would not include the 25-foot landmark. 

While Frontier offered to donate the sign to the city, a storm of protests followed in the form of e-mails,because she designs her own hugely covetable range under her Wholesale Cheap Mermaid wedding dresses Online-fabulous label Stark. Facebook postings and phone calls.The reaction "was borne out of fear that the sign might be forgotten in the deep coffers of Long Beach in a warehouse," said Kerstin Kansteiner,Discount Vintage dresses for sale and she’s definitely not hankering after a handbag owner of Portfolio coffee shop on Fourth Street's Retro Row.Discount Sheath wedding dresses for sale has a wardrobe groaning with cashmere"I would be happy to become the caretaker of yet another discarded Long Beach landmark," said owner Kathleen Schaaf of Meow, a vintage clothing store that displays such antique business signs as Steak-O-Rama and Finck's Overalls ("Wear Like a Pig's Nose").Facebooker Joanna Alpizar viewed the world according to councilmanic districts: "The Donut: 3rd District's Trash. 2nd District's Treasure."Suddenly, the 61-year-old donut had numerous protectors in addition to its rooftop owl, whose hopeless assignment is to ward off pigeons (see photo).Dozens of pop architecture fans showed up for the Planning Commission session.Whereupon Dan Almquist of Frontier executed an about-face, announcing he would try to incorporate the pink beacon into the new development. He added he might even attach a "giant coffee cup" to it.Despite Dunkin' Donuts' name, coffee drinks are its main business.Big Donut partisans were cautious about the apparent good news. After all, Almquist, while insisting his group didn't want to "kill" the donut, also questioned the "structural integrity" and "safety" of the sign. "It hasn't been maintained," he said, sounding somewhat like a lawyer.