Saturday, January 14, 2006

And Now, A Word About Cereal

Had the 'Skins won today (nice try, but they couldn't give every player on the Seahawks a concussion quickly enough to win the game, just their star running back) this would undoubtedly have been a post about them. As I find it boring and depressing to rehash season-ending losses, I bring you this observation about cereal.

A few weeks ago, when my mother-in-law was about to come to help with the baby, I sent my mister to the grocery store with a rather specific list I'd drawn up after looking at the weekly circular. With me not working and with the baby here, I've been trying to economize. Also, with the in-laws in the house, I wanted to have some "adult" cereal available instead of the crap we tend to buy. I therefore put the adult cereal that was on sale on the list. It's the one with the slogan, "Rice on one side, corn on the other". I'm sure if you google it you can figure out what cereal I mean.

Needless to say, it's not a big draw. Weeks later, no one had touched it. But yesterday, I was hungry and that was pretty much the only thing that looked remotely palatable that we had in the house. I poured a bowl of it and took it to the living room, taking the box with me for refills if I was still hungry after the first serving. This gave me the opportunity to ponder the slogan.

I mean, what a weak effing slogan. Who looks at the cereal shelves in the grocery store and says, "Hmmm. That cereal looks okay, but it only tastes like corn. And that one looks okay, but it only tastes like rice. If only some genious would combine those flavors, they'd have a taste sensation!"

I actually meant to write about that yesterday, before the 'Skins loss gave me nothing better to talk about. But I put the first bite of cereal in my mouth, expecting to hate it and have some really good, snarky thoughts about how both rice and corn tastes were not enough to satisfy.

But damned if it doesn't actually taste pretty good. Who knew? I can't decide which side I like better. I actually tore a couple of them apart and tasted them separately, and I'm pretty sure the side that's more yellow is the corn side. Why I would do this, I can't tell you. But now that I don't have a football team to follow actively (for many months, anyway) I think I will have plenty of time for other cereal investigations. Keep your eyes open for my expose on the Lucky Charms leprechaun.

3 comments:

Shocho said...

I love that stuff. It's great for Geminis that can't decide whether to buy Corn Chex or Rice Chex.

erika said...

I laughed out loud at this post.

My mother never bought us sweet cereals so this particular cereal was a treat for us.

Also:

This was not commentary on your mothering skillz, but on my childhood.

I am having a hard time spelling cereal with a C. My fingers keep reaching for the S key.

Real grown-up cereal is Kashi. One flake has enough fiber for a small country.

Jason said...

I <3 Crispx. That's what I make my esrtwhile "Chex" Mix out of.