If you thought I was joking about having a thing for sugared kiddie cereals, I should report that the wife bought me three boxes of Quisp on the Internet for my birthday this week. Growing up in the 1970s, my five siblings and I could polish off a box in one morning. Quaker Oats made Quisp (the quazy space alien) and also Quake (a burly earthling).

Taste-wise they were both clones of Cap’n Crunch. Quaker didn’t go wrong until they tried to make “Quangaroos,” an orange-flavored cereal. That’s the box that sits in the pantry until ants and spiders eat it.