Can't tell the difference between some of these selections? Welcome to Keckler's and my lives during the set-up of these tourneys. Heh. Vote for what you've heard of, tried, or liked, and we'll sort it out from there.
Pepperidge Farm prelims remain open, so if you haven't voted in those, please do so.
My piece for Brokelyn on top-five diner plates around the borough; great pix by their staff photog, too. Stay tuned to Brooklyn Diners tonight for a review of the Emphasis in Bay Ridge.
Greetings, snacklings! Please give Wing Chun a round of applause (or clink your spoons on your bowls) for her excellent co-captaincy of the N Cereal AA.
It's already time to do it again. The N Cookie AA will launch for real next month, but Keckler and I have decided to do things a bit differently this time around, and we'll need your help.
Our initial listing of cookies stretched into the hundreds — Keebler alone is trying to gaslight us with the staggering number of cookies it produces — and yet somehow, in our first pass at the list, the proud warrior fortune cookie got overlooked until Keckler knocked two brain cells together and remembered it.
We'll need to make some cuts, in other words, and we'll need you to make sure we didn't forget anything. How it works:
1. I'll post preliminary polls here on TN so that we can start weeding out some of these categories. In the past, you've voted for a single cheese or ice cream; here, you can vote for as many varieties as you like. We want a sense of what people actually eat/buy/care about. (You're free to vote in a loathed cookie for the pleasure of seeing it get beaten up later; pure motives aren't necessary here.)
2. When a particular poll goes up, if you don't see a cookie of that type that you'd like to see included, please post it in the comments. For example, when I post the Pepperidge Farm prelim poll, if we'd left Lidos off the list, you could suggest those; please do not post about Girl Scout cookies, Lus, or any other brand until their prelim comes up. We can't use every suggestion, of course, but your feedback is appreciated.
Questions? Ask 'em. PF prelim polls will go up later today.
Frosted Flakes ekes out the win at last after a closely fought battle with Honey Nut Cheerios. The final bracket is right here if you'd like to review the goings-on in their entirety.
Stay tuned for the N Cookie AA next month. Starch Madness! And thanks for playing; we'll see you next time.
Edited 8/3/09 to add: It's still a dead heat. The current plan is to close the poll the morning of 8/4/09, but in the meantime, please Facebook, tweet, or otherwise share this entry to bring in some new voting blood, before this turns into that game from that W.P. Kinsella book that lasted two thousand innings and had a piece of cemetery statuary playing the outfield.
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Honey Nut Cheerios vs. Frosted Flakes.
Tara Ariano: The final match-up! But man, now I have to try to predict what you guys are going to pick as the ultimate cereal victor now that there are no other contests you can use to hedge your bets. And look, we all love Tony the Tiger and the product that bears his image and personal stamp of approval. And while I have kept in mind, throughout this contest, the disappointment that General Mills has changed its formula, the fact that Honey Nut Cheerios has lasted this long suggests that this is not such an issue after all. Honey Nut Cheerios will triumph.
Sarah D. Bunting: Once again, it comes down to how many of you vote these pairings based on what qualifies as part of a nutritious breakfast, versus snackability and sheer delicious taste. Honey Nut Cheerios is serviceably tasty if your priority is meeting a fiber quota — but it isn't the better-tasting cereal, because it isn't frosted. If I could only take one of these to a desert island, I'd take Frosted Flakes, and I think you guys would too. Flakes: champions.
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suspiciously strong swimmer and ex-wife
Typhus, the Brooklyn Dodgers of Flatbush, lesser Kennedys, seminal animé (say that five times fast), Argentine nutbars, and cod on the Cape — plus the N Cereal AA and the fall contest. These stories and more, after the jump.
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Frosted Flakes vs. Honey Bunches of Oats. Honey Bunches of Oats is what I buy so that I can tell myself that cereal isn't just a sugary snack. Frosted Flakes dispenses with that fiction, so, although in a vacuum I actually prefer it, it's HBoO I end up buying. Don't get me wrong — it's a delicious cereal on its own merits (and it mixes really well with yogurt, if you like that sort of thing, which I occasionally do). But I suspect that its ability to pass as a component in a healthy breakfast may give it an edge here…although Frosted Flakes could take that gr(rrrrrr)ound back with nostalgia. I can't even say how I'll vote; as to how you'll vote, I think it's Flakes for the win.
– Sarah D. Bunting
Honey Nut Cheerios v. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. If you had told me in the first round that Cinnamon Toast Crunch would make it to the Final Four, I would have told you that you were high (possibly on that brown dust they use to coat Cinnamon Toast Crunch). The fact that it has survived so many potential eliminations proves one thing definitively: I have no idea WHAT you-all are going to do. I want to say that Honey Nut Cheerios will take this round, but given the view that General Mills has changed its formula for the worse, have enough of you turned against it to end its run? I think not…but I'm not that confident about it.
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…Hi! …Good, good. You know: vacay. What's up with you guys? …Awesome. So: cereals, right?
Every time I think it's safe to close the poll, Frosted Flakes climbs back into it. The rest of the bracket has been updated with three of your Final Four: Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch will face off for a spot in the ultimate match-up, but Honey Bunches of Oats still awaits an antagonist.
You've got 'til 6 PM EDT to choose me a winner in Krispies v. Flakes, people. Let's get it done.
Edited, 6:05 PM: Flakes FTW! 52% of 2316 votes. Watch this space for the Final Four, going live tonight.
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1 Rice Krispies vs. 2 Frosted Flakes. Wowie. Now this is a contest! I have to hand it to you fiber-loving TN voters: truly, these are the two entries that deserve to be facing off as the last two Classics standing. Frosted Flakes have a lot going for them, granted: the basic (solid) corn flake, Tony the Tiger, and sugar that melts off so pleasingly in milk. But Rice Krispies…y'all. They truly do offer something for every taste, in that they kind of have no taste. They're like the tofu of breakfast cereal! With apologies to Tony: they're also grrrrreat! And they will win.
1 Honey Bunches of Oats vs. 2 Raisin Bran. Okay, seriously, how have I gotten this far along in life and never tasted a Honey Bunch of Oat? You guys are making an extremely powerful case for me to add them to my cereal-cabinet roster. It's obvious the HBoO has a very vocal cheering section, and if Raisin Bran had been knocked out in an earlier round, maybe it would have a chance to go to the finals here. But I think the simple purity of Raisin and Bran will strike down the upstart.
8 oatmeal vs. 6 Honey Nut Cheerios. We didn't expect oatmeal to get this far, honestly — we kind of threw it into this draw to fill it out, and yet here it is, fighting for the Fiberfest crown. Having come this far, can it beat the last Cheerio standing? It seems unlikely — it got into this round with only 52% of the vote, not exactly a mandate, while HNC posted a healthier 67% of the vote last time — but we could see a bloc of oatmeal-cookie lovers carry it to victory. I don't think so, though. Honey Nut Cheerios as your Fiberfest champ.
5 Cinnamon Toast Crunch vs. 2 Froot Loops. …I know, right? I thought we'd see the Cap'n in the semifinals, but after a previous-round upset in the Sugar Shock draw, it comes down to this: starchy sweet against fruity sweet. Both of these cereals present as rather stale, no matter how fresh the box, but CTC is slightly worse in that regard. On the other hand, if I could only eat one for the rest of my life, I'd probably vote cinnamon over fruit. …Excuse me: "froot." All that said, I predict a win for the Loops, which is a comforting old-school favorite.
– Sarah D. Bunting
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