July 5, 2007 -- Spam Trivia

Tonight we're talking about Spam. Not spam as in unsolicited bulk email messages. No. We're talking Spam - the canned precooked meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

TRIVIA QUESTION:

On this date in history... July 5th... Spam was introduced to the world. In what year did Spam first appear?


TRIVIA ANSWER:

July 5, 1937. Yes, today marks the 70th anniversary of Spam!


The labeled ingredients in the Classic variety of Spam are: chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added, salt, water, sugar, and sodium nitrite. The product has become part of many jokes and urban legends about mystery meat, which has made it part of pop culture and folklore.

Other varieties of Spam include Spam Less Sodium, Spam Garlic, Spam and Cheese, Spam with Bacon (Hormel bacon), Spam Spread, Spam Lite (containing pork and chicken), Spam Golden Honey Grail, Spam Hot and Spicy (with Tabasco sauce), Spam Hickory Smoked, and Spam Oven Roasted Turkey - the latter is a halal food, meaning that it is allowed under Islamic law, and is especially popular in Muslim markets.

The name "Spam" was chosen when the product, whose original name was far less memorable (Hormel Spiced Ham), began to lose market share. The name was chosen from multiple entries in a naming contest.

A Hormel official once stated that the original meaning of the name Spam was "Shoulder of Pork and hAM". According to writer Marguerite Patten in Spam - The Cookbook, the name was suggested by Kenneth Daigneau, an actor and the brother of a Hormel vice president.

At one time, the official explanation may have been that the name was a syllabic abbreviation of "SPiced hAM", but on their official website, Hormel denies this and states that "Spam is just that. Spam." The fact that the originator was given a $100 prize for coming up with the name, however, still appears on the site's Spam FAQs.

For more than you've ever wanted to know about Spam, visit the Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28food%29

or listen to the classic Monty Python Spam skit at http://www.detritus.org/spam/skit.html

and visit the official Spam web site at http://www.spam.com/ where you can join the Spam Fan Club...

Congratulations to all of you who got this one right (must be a lot of Google-ing going on out there!) Here's the list of folks that checked in to tonight's net and their answers.

>>>>>>>> NET CHECK IN's <<<<<<<<

* WB6A - Pat - 1940
* WB6ATV - Ron - 1850
* KE6CZH - Robert - 1930
* W6DTS - Ted - 1937
* K6FCC - Khalil - 1937
* KB6IS - Madeline - 1940
* KD6JEV - John - No Answer
* N6KAS - Andy - 1941
* KG6KTC - Leon - 1937
* NY6L - Jay - 1937
* KE6MSS - Thomas - 1926
* N6NGU - Lee - 1937
* KD6NIW - Oliver - 1942
* W6NVY - Gary - 1938
* KG6NWJ - Barry - 1917
* KF6PIH - Scott - 1955
* K6QVZ - Joe - 1937
* KG6RDA - Sidney - (checked in by KF6ZQM)
* AD6UP - Louie - 1937
* KF6YBM - Henry - 1938
* KF6ZQM - Harry - 1907
* N6ZZK - Theo - 1935
* K6MSU - Ron - 1940

Thanks to all!

73. de N6CIZ