I would be doing a heck of a lot better on my diet had I not discovered these in the vending machine at work. They are light and crunchy, spicy and sweet and they come (unfortunately) in a big bag. The bag used to have an Andy Capp cartoon on it, but they have done away with it. It's pretty bad when a product doesn't find it's own cartoon mascot amusing. To be honest, I'm not sure if anyone ever found Andy Capp amusing. Maybe drunk British people. (Note to Shannon - ask your boyfriend if anyone in England 'gets' Andy Capp)

I remember my first bag of Andy Capp fries quite clearly. My family had gone skiing at the downriver landfill cum ski resort, Mt. Trashmore. The best thing about this place, at least for a child, was that there was not one scrap of "real" food to be had. One had their choice of hot dogs, pizza, etc. and there were plenty vending machines full of snack foods that I had never seen. Sure, I was used to the Little Debbie line (the thought of Star Crunch simultaneously makes my mouth water and my teeth hurt) and Frito Lay, but I had never seen any component in the exotic vending still life of B-list snack foods. Who was this Andy Capp, with his hat pulled down over his eyes who seemed so happy while popping a fry

I suppose that I had seen the cartoon before, but it ranked with Prince Valiant in my book because it was not only not funny, but it didn't make sense. Kind of like the Lockhorns if it was translated from a foreign language. I had no idea that this cartoon merited it's own snack food. Of course, back in the 80's, not every syndicated piece of drivel had merchandising. It was something of a status symbol. So it had to be good. And it was.

I have a similar obsession with Pebbles, both Fruity and Cocoa. They are so far superior to Rice Krispies due to their shape. They don't get soggy in milk which is a key attribute in a cereal. Plus the cocoa was just a bit stronger in Pebbles than Krispies. Plus, I will just never get sick of Barney stealing Fred's cereal. It's a crack up every time. I don't mean to be too hard on Rice Krispies. I have a soft spot for them because my grandparents always served them to us. We were allowed to put sugar on them and the shape of the cereal hid the amount of the sugar added. So I always ended up with a bowl of sugar moistened with milk with a top crust of cereal. Breakfast - it's the most important meal of the day.