Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist, humorist, satirist, humanist, and counterculturist died late Wednesday night in Manhattan, NY. As cereal lovers, you may know him as the author of the 1973 novel, Breakfast of Champions. I would like to encourage you all to take a closer look at Kurt’s work if you haven’t had a chance to do so before.

In the wake of this sad news I figured I could help answer some questions you might be asking. Namely this one, “Where did the phrase Breakfast of Champions even come from?”

The story begins in 1933, when Wheaties cereal began to sponsor radio broadcasts of the Minneapolis Millers, a minor league baseball team. Wheaties was provided a nicely sized billboard in the ballpark to peddle their wares and try out new slogans. When brought to task of coming up with the first of these slogans, Knox Reeves, an employee of a local Minneapolis advertising firm thought briefly and the best he could come up with was “Wheaties - Breakfast of Champions”

An interesting (to me, and maybe Russ) tidbit to note is that the Minneapolis Millers came close to being league champions in 1932, the year before the Wheaties slogan came into existence, but were never actually crowned chompions until 1955 when they nosed out the Rochester Red Wings 4 games to 3. I like to call the period between 1933 and 1955 the “Curse of the Knox Reeves” Era.

Fast forward to 1973, adjust the tracking on your VCR, and watch Kurt Vonnegut release his novel “Breakfast of Champions.” If you haven’t read the book, a waitress utters the titular line when serving up a martini.

There you have it folks, a condensed history of that thing people sometimes say now. RIP Kurt. By the way, if you only have time for one Vonnegut novel, I recommend Cat’s Cradle. Feel free to leave your opinions in the comments section below.