SPAM

I've done a few posts about cyber crimes and the word SPAM has come up quite a few times, referring to the bothersome and sometimes overwhelming onslaught of unsolicited, unwanted, and often illegal e-mails that can cause problems for home and business computer systems.

Funny enough, many people have no idea of where the term SPAM comes from and that there's history behind the label, originating in a "food" by the same name that comes in a tin! Originally, SPiced hAM, also known by the misnomer Speciality Processed American Meats, was a way to increase the sale of the unpopular meat cut of pork shoulder back in the late 30's. It became quite popular during the second world war and has a niche market even to this day.

Hawaiians have a special love of SPAM and even developed their own speciality dish known as Musubi. This started out being sold as a quickie food item in a local convenience store, consisting as a piece of Spam brand luncheon meat, packed between a rectangular shaped wedge of rice and bundled in a wrapping of dried seaweed. As shown in the above photo, there are now several variations of this dish, but all still contain that thick slab of processed meat.

Now, let's go in a totally different direction with a SPAM carving contest! Seems like people find it fun to take the little block of gelatinous meat and make it into objects, as pictured below.

And if you can't sculpt the SPAM as accurately as you'd like, how about using a synthetic material to represent the processed food and then name it "SPAM, the cat"!

Spam, the cat

How about this beautiful PhotoShop creation as a political statement?

 "Spamold Trump"

Did I mention that there are other flavours of SPAM, pictured here with a bonus carved sculpture.

One of the first comical references to SPAm came from the British comedy troupe, Monty Python, in their television series skit.

Now, making the rounds and doing quite well is the The Monty Python inspired theatrical play, SPAMalot, a slightly adapted version of their movie "Monty Python And The Holy Grail"

photo courtesy of Mercury Theatre