Previously, Balladeer’s Blog examined the Big Five Monster Cereals (Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Boo Berry, Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy), now I’m taking a look at the forgotten Cereal War between two Quaker Oats brands – Quisp and Quake.
As a sign of the times, Quaker Oats had developed two new types of breakfast cereals but rather than name the pair themselves, they went to advertising agencies and Jay Ward Productions, creators of Cap’n Crunch, to come up with two advertising mascots for the new cereals.
Ward, famous for Bullwinkle and Rocky plus other characters, quasi-cannibalized his own Moon Men figures from his most famous series. The result was Quisp, a zany alien, as the name and mascot for one of the new cereals. For the other cereal, Ward came up with Quake, a muscular miner in a hardhat.
In a gimmick that the General Mills Monster Cereals mentioned above would later imitate, the animated Quisp and Quake would be rivals, each one insisting that their cereal was clearly the superior product. That tongue-in-cheek rivalry was even more successful than the Quaker Oats people had hoped.
The series of cartoon Quisp vs Quake commercials so appealed to their target audience of children that a true Battle of the Boxes broke out in grocery stores across the nation. Kids, as kids will do, badgered their parents to get the cereal represented by their preferred mascot even though there really wasn’t all that much difference between Quisp and Quake cereal. Continue reading
TIMEBOMB (1991) – With Alien: Earth being streamed in recent weeks, it has brought with it the usual remarks from Alien franchise fans about what a raw deal Michael Biehn got when his character Corporal Hicks was killed off with Newt in between films.
DIVISION THREE OVER DIVISION TWO – Three NCAA D3 teams shamed higher Division Two teams yesterday. The UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT OSHKOSH TITANS beat the ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY LAKERS 38-21 ### Next, the BREVARD COLLEGE TORNADOES survived a 38-34 visit from the ERSKINE COLLEGE FLYING FLEET ### And the UW-LACROSSE EAGLES beat the WAYNE STATE WARRIORS 31-22.
SINKING NUMBER SIX – In the NAIA, the 14th ranked ST. THOMAS UNIVERSITY BOBCATS (should be Tomcats) hosted the number 6 team in the nation – the GEORGETOWN (KY) COLLEGE TIGERS. The Bobcats stunned GC, leading them 3-0, 17-0 and 17-7 in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Quarters, respectively before putting them away 26-7 in the 4th. 
ANOTHER NUMBER SIX GOES DOWN – Down in NCAA Div 3, the number 16 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT WHITEWATER WARHAWKS took it on the road against the country’s 6th ranked UNIVERSITY OF MARY HARDIN-BAYLOR CRUSADERS. The Warhawks were on top 13-6 at Halftime, then shut out UMHB from there to topple them 26-6. 
MARVEL PREMIERE Vol 1 #25 (Oct 1975) 
TIGER ON TIGER VIOLENCE – The BENEDICT COLLEGE TIGERS welcomed the storied TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY GOLDEN TIGERS last night. The Golden Tigers led 14-7 to end the 1st Quarter but Benedict College was up 28-17 by Halftime. After the break, the Tigers outscored Tuskegee 17-7 to win the game by a final score of 45-24.
UPSET IN THE RANKINGS – In this game the ITAWAMBA COLLEGE INDIANS took the field against the visiting number 12 team in the nation – the EAST MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE LIONS. At the Half the Lions were on top 17-3 but Itawamba College came out of the locker room ready for a comeback. The 3rd Quarter saw the Indians tie things up at 17-17 before winning it in the 4th 34-24. 
For the first time since October of 2022, Mary Harris Jones – aka Mother Jones – speaks with Balladeer’s Blog despite having passed away in 1930. Much of the fun comes from the way that Democrat fundamentalists froth at the mouth over her visits here. 
MOTHER JONES: Good to be back, Balladeer. I notice you’ve tended to let up on some basic, solid points you’ve made in your blog posts over the years. I’m here to provide your easily distracted mind with some refreshers. 
Before MST3K there was … The Texas 27 Film Vault! In the middle 1980s, way down on Level 31 Randy and Richard, machine-gun toting Film Vault Technicians First Class, hosted this neglected 1985-1987 cult show. Balladeer’s Blog continues its celebration of the program’s FORTIETH anniversary year. 
SERIAL: Before presenting Gorilla at Large our machine-gun wielding Film Vault Technicians First Class presented an episode of Mysterious Dr. Satan, a Republic serial from 1940. The serial featured a mad scientist called Dr. Satan trying to take over the world with a very, VERY goofy-looking robot while a pulp-style hero called Copperhead tried to thwart his plans.
THE MOVIE: Gorilla at Large provided a wealth of material for our hosts to work with. Remember, their previous show had been The Trivia Guys and this film about a murderous gorilla at a circus was packed with opportunities for pop culture shoutouts. 
* George Barrows, the man in the gorilla suit as our title monster Goliath, was the same guy who wore the ape/robot outfit as Ro-Man in that staple of Bad Movie shows Robot Monster (previously shown on The Texas 27 Film Vault).
PSI CASSIOPEIA, or STAR: A MARVELOUS HISTORY OF WORLDS IN OUTER SPACE (1854) – Written by Dr Charlemagne Ischer Defontenay, a French M.D. and author. Long before J.R.R. Tolkien churned out obsessive amounts of fine detail about his fictional Middle Earth, Defontenay produced this volume of history, poetry and drama from his fictional planets in the star system Psi Cassiopeia. 
The system where that planet is located is a three-star system. Ruliel is the large, white star at the center, around which orbit the two lesser stars Altether (green) and Erragror (blue). The planet called Star is orbited by large planetoids/ moons named Tassul, Lessur, Rudar and Elier. Throwing all science to the winds the planet is also orbited by a small red star called Urrias. 
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