Are your kids fat, lethargic, pasty and borderline diabetic?

      Don't blame yourself.   It's all on Tony the Tiger.

      A new study says--sit down now, this will be a shock to you--that cereal makers target children with ads that tout their most sugar-laden fare.

      And the newsy part in this story is...where?

      Commercials for crappy cereals targeted at children pre-date Milton Berle and the DuMont network.     I'm not one of those spiffy "Mad Men" but I know enough about marketing to be sure that one of the first things you do when selling something is to target the audience most likely to buy/use it with ads.

       I love Cap'n Crunch and have ever since I was a kid.   I'm old enough to remember when that stuff came out.     And, when it did, my mother seldom if ever allowed me to have it.     She knew that a steady diet of the Cap'n would rot my teeth and have me sugar-buzzing all over south side Sheboygan.       It was doled out like gold, on those few occasions it was allowed in the house, and the thought of eating a half-a-box at one sitting was about as foreign as me playing with a fresh pack of Gillette blue blades.

       Blaming General Mills and Kellogg's for our kids rotten snags, poor nutrition and dietary woes is an old, boring sport.     It comes down to parenting.     It's easy to cave in the cereal aisle and allow junior to toddle off with a jumbo-sized box of Cocoa Krispies.     It's hard to say, "Would you like bananas or strawberries on your Kaschi?"   

      And, there's no edict that says parents have to serve their children cereal.    There are any and all manner of options, some that are more nutritious and many that take a lot more work in the morning.   

      Want a real story about cereal?    I'd give someone a Pulitzer if they could tell me how come the stuff still costs more than $3.50 a box.      Seems like the price got pegged when grain costs spiked a few years ago, and never came back down.

      For that alone, it should make you want to reach for the pancake batter instead of the Sugar Pops.

      Oh, wait.   They don't call 'em that any more.    They're Corn Pops now, and I'm guessing they're still flying off the shelf.