I'm not going to buy this cereal any more,'' said Aunt Dee, examining the box after she had poured a healthy portion into her bowl.

''Why not?'' I asked. ''It looks all right to me.''

''All cereals look all right,'' she responded. ''But not all cereal boxes say, 'Thank you for buying our product.' If they have to thank me for buying it, it must not be very good.''

''They're just being polite, probably,'' I said.

''If they want to be polite, they should lower the price,'' Aunt Dee scoffed.

I agreed that that would indeed be polite. ''What would you say on the box if you were redesigning it?'' I asked.

''Another thing I wouldn't say is, 'New and improved.' Why wasn't it good in the first place? What I would say is I would put the name of the cereal---not some stupid name like crunchy wunchies, but a name that told what was in the cereal. And if I had to be a smart aleck I could say, 'You'll thank us for this cereal, because you'll like it so much.'''

She poured a generous amount of milk into the bowl and tasted the cereal.

''How is it?'' I inquired.

''It tastes like cereal,'' she responded. ''I didn't expect caviar.''