AMEN, BROTHER:

Ask Marty Gitlin to name his favorite cereal, and rest assured the answer he provides comes from years of thorough research that began when he just 8 years old. His passion for breakfast cereal goes back nearly 50 years.

Gitlin was a child when he decided it was imperative for him to try at least one bowl of every new breakfast cereal that hit the market. Lured by Saturday morning commercials and a host of characters from Tony the Tiger to Cap'n Crunch, and with the help of a permissive mother, he was able to do just that.

"I told my mother and she was cool about it. She just did it. I was a goofy 8-year-old kid," Gitlin recalls.

Now, the 55-year-old has his mother to thank for his new book, The Great American Cereal Book: How Breakfast Got Its Crunch (Abrams Image, $19.95). [...]

Q. Quisp or Quake?

Quisp. Quisp is still around. Quake hasn't been around for a long time. They were actually the same cereal, just a different shape. But Quisp's character was the little alien with the propeller on his head. Quake was a miner. Quisp just completely blew Quake away. Quisp was way more popular and it shows you the power of marketing.

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