Raisins And Raisin Bran

Saturday morning. We drive to Primrose Hill to see Dana, Nathan, Dakota and Calvin. Anthony arrives and we have a lovely London day. Eitan none to happy about having to wear a proper shirt instead of his sloppy T-shirt; he cheers up when he sees Anthony suffering the same pattern.

Before we drive, I find Eitan putting raisins into water. I raise an eyebrow and he replies: "Testing raisins" matter of factly. Since I make tea he asks for the boiling kettle to compare raisin size to heat: temperate, warm and boiling, which kinda gets my interest. Science it is, after all. Later he notes: "they (the raisins) did not swell. They became very, very mushy." And water temperature? "It kind of turned into a different test. The hot ones became the mushiest, the cold the second and warm one the last." Mushiness determined by his touch. As to why the test - "because I was curious" which is right up there with Edmund Hillary's "because it's there." Bravo, I say.

And since we are on the topic of raisins, Raisin Bran is manufactured by several companies under a variety of brand names like 'Total Raisin Bran' and 'Raisin Nut Bran' (General Mills) 'Post Raisin Bran' by Kraft. Since I am sure you, Dear Reader, are as interested as I, Skinner's Raisin Bran was the first on the market in '26 by U.S. Mills, best known for the similar Uncle Sam Cereal. The name "Raisin Bran" was at one time trademarked, but it became genercised from widespread use of the term, so it is no longer trademark protected (according to HighBeam Research, Inc).

The mother of all raisin brans is 'Kellog's Raisin Bran' (called Sultana Bran in Britain confusing me all these years), introduced in '42. Who can forget the "Two scoops of raisins in Kellogg's Raisin Bran" and the mascot, an animated sun named "Sunny"? That campaign with us from 1966 into the 1990s. From Madison Avenue to the main street's high street to your upper kitchen cubbard next to the refridgerator. This how it is supposed to be done.