when i was a kid, my mother would buy a box of Honey Nut Cheerios about once every seven years as a treat. one might expect the life expectancy of those tasty O’s to be appallingly short and one would be correct if we were allowed to have at it. unfortunately, my mom was smart enough to know that we would’ve all but inhaled the cereal in a matter minutes if she didn’t intervene.

the intervention? to mix said box of Honey Nut with one or more boxes of regular Cheerios. my mom probably would’ve made a good (or bad, depending on how you think about it) drug dealer, cutting the good stuff with mannitol and persuading two kilos to become five.

i don’t, however, resent my mom for what she did. in retrospect, i think it was smart of her and i’m sure limiting sugar intake helped maintain my and my brother’s largely quiet, docile childhoods.

which might explain why my little sister is such a rebel.