Gather members with better memories will have to remind me how the Breakfast Cereal Group came to be.
This article was published on March 21, 2007, and removed about three months later.
It is re-published here with minor editorial revisions and most of the original Comment thread.
My commitment to "Lucky Charm" publication was never fulfilled, although one popular "Lucky Charm" article will be re-published in the near future.
I cannot remember which illustration appeared with this article, but a relevant image has been added to the article.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Exclusive Non-Correspondent for Lucky Charms
Another week of indifferent articles by Gather Correspondents has inspired me to seek my own "niche markets" for reporting distinction.
Beginnning today, I am assuming sole responsibility for creating articles containing the words 'lucky charms" in the title.
In return for this exclusive reporting privilege, I will post four "relevant" and "interesting" articles every month that contain the words "Lucky Charms" in the title.
As an added bonus for Gather members and administrators, I will leave Comments at irregular intervals that contain the words 'lucky" and "charms".
While there is no precedent for individual Gather members assuming responsibility for product placements, there is a precedent for assigning a quota of dreary and uninspired drivel to certain writers each month.
I want to join that exalted company, and I can promise work of equivalent reader value.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Janna R., Mar 21, 2007
This article is a lucky charm on the Gather charm bracelet.
♪Joanne Huspek, Mar 21, 2007
Peter Wimsey is lucky to have charmed us.
Olga M., Mar 21, 2007
Delightful. Where do you get your wonderful illustrations? Do you draw them yourself?
Wilma M., Mar 21, 2007
I was very lucky to find this charming article.
Peter Wimsey, Mar 21, 2007
Thanks for the charming compliments, Wilma, Joanne, Olga, and Janna!
I am lucky to have such readers!
Olga, I use a couple of clip art sites that have free graphics for non-commercial use. Microsoft Office has a huge image resource archive, too.
Jai S., Mar 21, 2007
I am all for luccky charms. I need more of them and will keep looking for them.
Peter Wimsey, Mar 21, 2007
Then you are in luck, Jai.
I will churn out charming articles every week.
Cheri Cabot, Mar 21, 2007
cute
Peter Wimsey, Mar 21, 2007
Thank You, Cheri.
Marilee C., Mar 21, 2007
Pink hearts, purple moon, purple horse shoes, rainbows, did I miss anything?
Oh yah, that sugar coated oat stuff kids leave in the bowl.
Marilee C., Mar 21, 2007
Blue diamonds
Ina Townsend Young, Mar 21, 2007
As luck would have it, I'm charmed, I'm sure.
Peter Wimsey, Mar 21, 2007
Thank You, Marilee and Ina. I am turning into a regular leprechaun.
Peter Wimsey, Mar 21, 2007
Lucky for most of the world, Kathleen M.
Can you imagine what the children would be like?
Geoffrey B., Mar 21, 2007
They would no doubt be magically delicious, Peter. Crunchy, though.
Peter Wimsey, Mar 21, 2007
Would Elvis devour his children?
Geoffrey B., Mar 21, 2007
Wimsey, devotee of Lucky Charms
would likely be filled with alarms
if aware its allure
was based on manure
that comes from a few select farms.
Peter Wimsey, Mar 21, 2007
I thought Lucky Charms were hand-made in Ireland by paunchy little guys in green suits.
Geoffrey B., Mar 21, 2007
You're buying the General Mills/Ralston Purina story, Peter... you must look below the surface. What do these farmers have a lot of that they want to get rid of?
Kathleen ☼ L., Mar 21, 2007
Witty and charming as usual! gather is so lucky to be graced with your presence!
(p.s I have some lakefront property in Arizona to sell...)
Missy W., Mar 21, 2007
4-leafed, or is it leaved, lucky leeks? Is what some farmers get, when they've been properly charming to the harvest gods.
Missy W., Mar 21, 2007
What farmers have 'beneath' the sod that they want to get rid of -- lucky clovers are above ground and grow near the ocean in AZ -- charmin' potatoes?
Missy W., Mar 21, 2007
Oh, I didn't see Geoff's charming little ditty. I get it -- I think -- not sure about "select" farms tho I'm sure they have their charms.
Peter, you didn't say anything in the fine print about using "lucky" and charms" in the same entry. In fact, consistent with "gather" drivel, there doesn't seem to BE any fine print.
Felicia R., Mar 21, 2007
For you being you, and taking the time to publish this piece you get a lovely ten. Yea For you!!!! :)
Also hun,
If you have not yet already submitted this to my group called: "E" ~ Articles/Images That Start with the letter "E" (All subjects matter allowed...). Please do so...
But if you had sorry I have not approved it just yet... Fell kind of behind due to appointments so far this week... :)
Rob Appell, Mar 21, 2007
I can hardly wait. Spoon us up one soon. We know they'll be magically delicious.
Peter Wimsey, Mar 23, 2007
Kathleen L. I am NOT in the market for lakeside property in Arizona.
Missy, your responses to the dank suggestions of Geoffrey were inspired.
"Potatos" is the correct response.
Rob, the first one is on the way!
Mary C Legg, Mar 23, 2007
Lucky Me
De- Flagged!
Celebrating Flag Day in the Democratic Republic of Flag-Wavers, Come Join the Party!
REMOVED FLAG! (Miracles happen after all or maybe it was the Toilet Blessing that I gave the Ubiquitous MA, may her toilets never back up)
I've been FLAGGED AGAIN
This time for a very mild objection to mass emailing.
I am 80percent certain of the Flagger
Who obviously will benefit greatly from the traffic pointing toward his page
GNN-- First Chapters NonCritic responds
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976937015
GNN-- First Chapters NonCritic responds
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976937015
GNN-- First Chapters NonCritic responds
please do me the kindness of posting this and passing it along its merry little way/
We should have a Flaggee's Club with a Flagged Unite Fight Song
And it totally confounds me that such a person can consider himself to be a serious writer when it's very obvious that he couldn't handle a rejection slip. The world is full of mystery. We have yet to discover the depth of it.
Peter Wimsey, Mar 23, 2007
I am not sure I can help, Mary. The fly-encasing piece of solid-resin has flagged three cartoons of mine for the last two weeks!
Seems like the "Celebrate Gather" festivities must have fizzled rather quickly.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 12
That is, all too often, likely to be true, Dannielle.
I will look up the description of the Breakfast Cereal Group.
It is identified as an affiliate of the Gather Non-News (GNN) network.
Maybe Sandy can recall a few more details.
Maybe Sandy can recall a few more details. "
I do not recall the origins at all.
I remember creating this article only because I was "charmed" by the name of the group.
"Here are photos of all the worms I ran over in my driveway this morning. Can anything be done to revive them?"
I don't remember exactly how the Breakfast Cereal group got started. I remember either Johnny or Adam posted the Trix rabbit one night and the comment thread was one of the funniest things ever seen on Gather. It was gone by morning. But I don't remember if this group came about as a result of that.
Many groups were created on the spur of the moment to satirize a current Gather trend. For example, when Gather first announced their news correspondents, they "hired" one guy whose news was anything but newsworthy events - for example his wife went shopping or he spotted a full moon the night before. I wrote a mock news article about purchasing a clock and withing days ten or so other people wrote mock news articles and the GNN group appeared. As with any joke, these things get old quickly. The groups usually die out and are replaced as new events present themselves for satire.
Unfortunately, Gather does not provide a mechanism for removing a group when the time comes.
In fact, I remember posting my own article about the disappearance of AlphaBits cereal and the demise of literacy as a result of this loss -- but it was all a long time ago.
Which accounts for the proliferation of hundreds of useless and redundant groups.
Thanks for your recollection of this phenomena, Sandy.
Dannielle, does this informative article still exist?
I do not remember seeing it.
It sounds delightful.
That would be helpful.
I do not plan to remove all my content again. but, should I leave, I could "freeze" the groups so that they would no longer collect articles.