Q 01/05

Which General Mills cereal dropped oats from its name in 1945 after rival Quaker complained?

A) Cheerios

B) Wheaties

C) Lucky Charms

D) Cocoa Puffs

Answer · why

A) Cheerios

Cheerios launched in 1941 as CheeriOats. Quaker claimed the rights to the term oats, so General Mills shortened the name four years later.

Q 02/05

Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary called oats a grain that England generally gives to which animals?

A) Sheep

B) Horses

C) Chickens

D) Cattle

Answer · why

B) Horses

Horses ate the oats in England, Johnson sneered, while in Scotland the same grain fed the people. A Scottish lord is said to have asked where else one...

Q 03/05

In Dickens's Oliver Twist, which workhouse food does hungry Oliver ask the master for more of?

A) Pottage

B) Dripping

C) Broth

D) Gruel

Answer · why

D) Gruel

Gruel is a very thin oat porridge, often drunk rather than eaten. In the novel the starving boys draw lots, and Oliver loses, so he has to make the re...

Q 04/05

Which star of the film Cocoon fronted Quaker Oats television commercials from 1987 into the 1990s?

A) Don Ameche

B) Steve Guttenberg

C) Wilford Brimley

D) Hume Cronyn

Answer · why

C) Wilford Brimley

Wilford Brimley landed the oatmeal ads two years after his first leading role, as a retiree revived by a magical swimming pool in Cocoon.

Q 05/05

Which soft drink giant bought the Quaker Oats Company in 2001 for $14 billion?

A) PepsiCo

B) Coca-Cola

C) Dr Pepper

D) Royal Crown

Answer · why

A) PepsiCo

PepsiCo paid up mainly to get Gatorade, the sports drink that Quaker owned, rather than for the oatmeal.