Old-timers and collectors of food kitsch might remember Quisp, the beanie-wearing mascot for the Quaker Oats cereal of the same name. Created around 1965, it vanished from most local supermarket shelves in the 1970s, available first only by mail-order and then online: The first “internet cereal,” or so folks said. Last year Quaker brought the flaky corn disks back to one brick and mortar outlet, that being SuperTargets. Our city Targets, sadly, are not super, but now there are four boxes — four! — available at Spuyten Duyvil Grocery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They’re $4. Quisp, by the way, used to have a cohort cartoon and cereal named Quake. In the 196os kids were asked to vote one cereal off the island, based on the cartoon commercials at the time, which were created by Jay Ward, the animator behind Rocky & Bullwinkle, and some of the same voices were used. Quake, still going strong at 40, was the winner. We’re tickled to admit this is only a small portion of the amazing food marketing trivia associated with Quisp, but with such a tenuous connection to Manhattan, we’re just going to go back to eating our sweet corn cereal.
