Let's Quisp!

I love breakfast cereals. I really do. Not that I eat them very much, but the idea of cereal gets me giddy, and I especially love to think about cereal mascots - where they've been, where they are, where they're going.

Now for the past several weeks/months, I've noticed Quisp for sale at my local supermarket. Oddly enough, it's in a special place, not in the cereal aisle, but in the final aisle, in its own little island, surrounded by a wall o' frozen food and organic stuff.

I've never eaten Quisp, it's before my time. But every time I'd eye the boxes and think, "Should I try it?" And even though it was on sale for $2.99, I wouldn't dare.

Thoughts would go to the uneaten cereals in my cupboard (Fruity Pebbles, Count Chocula and Franken Berry). "Do I really need to buy yet another shitty cereal?" I'd ask myself, and think that those boxes might be old or something (why else would they be isolated in such a way?).

And besides... I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a cereal that fully lived up to my hopes and dreams (Smurf Berry Crunch, Donkey Kong Jr. Cereal, original formula Count Chocula, Rocky Road Cereal, Urkel-Os and Addams Family Cereal). So NO. Or, as the Cow Who Laughs might say, FAIL.

Then a few weeks ago, the Quisp disappeared. I thought, "Shit! It was a summer promotion! It's gone! The box didn't say for a limited time! Damn it! No! Ugh!" And I resigned myself to a Quisp-less life.

And time passed, as it always does.

Yesterday I went to get some Fentimans Ginger Beer, and I saw it... Quisp, now placed at the front of an aisle in the spot of honor. We don't get many second chances in life, and almost no one gets a third, so of course I bought a box.

And I should say, it's a pretty box.


- I love the old-timey aspect of it, how it's a solid blue background and it bleeds to the edge.
- I like the quirky font, and then the plain arial font that reads "Crunchy Corn Cereal."
- The cartoon mascot is simple and stupid.
- The photo of the cereal juxtaposes perfectly with the rest of the design. This is solid cereal, not today's junk. I really love the box.

This morning, unable to sleep because I couldn't wait for breakfast, I got out the Quisp. Within a single bite, I was inspired and called to Sarah to take dictation (a la Max Fischer) as I slowly enjoyed my cereal (which, apparently, is the same recipe as Mr. T Cereal). Here, verbatim, is what Quisp inspired me to say:

- Similar to Cap'n Crunch in taste, without the unpleasant side effect of cutting the roof of your mouth.
- Mildly sweet.
- Fun to eat.
- Quisp is the perfect breakfast treat.
- It's "Quisp-y."
- It's a breakfast cereal that's [sung] out of this world.
- I'm going to kill myself tomorrow.