Smart Shopper

In the last year or so I've become a big breakfast cereal guy. I don't sit and read the box like I did years ago. Now I catch up on e-mail, this thing, and check out the news. There must be an awful lot of reading that goes on while Americans eat their cereal.

I picked up a box of Smart Start cereal the other day. I tried it a year or so ago because the box said it was full of anti-oxidants and what not. I liked it but somehow dumbed down and wandered away from this delicious and useful breakfast product. Trying it again, I think they've made a change: The flakes appear to be coated with a lacquer to prevent sogginess. This recalls National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation in which Clark W. Griswold, Jr. reminds his boss of the cereal lacquer he had created for the company to do just that. So I'm thinking...did Kellogg's get the idea from the movie? The flakes in my cereal are hard as stone chips even after a good five minute soak. And then, would this product do to my little snow sled what it did for Clark's??

The other thing this new cereal reminds me to think about is the American consumer. Does anyone really buy a cereal thinking that Smart Start will be just that, a smart start to the day? I'm thinking it does, in fact, work that way. To the contrary, however, I don't feel or perform any smarter after Smart Start than with granola, Grape Nuts, or Raisin Bran. My mouth and teeth might be a bit sensitive but I'm no smarter.

Now, if they offered one called F'n Good Lookin' I might have a go at that.