Can Anyone Remember What Words Originally Created the "SPAM" Acronym?

[SierraWasp]

This is a test of the institutional memory of FReeperdom.

My query is first about the tasty canned meat, but also to learn if the current common slang regarding undesirable e-mail is in anyway related, or if that term has it's own independent basis in origination.

[Seven_0]

Try FOLDOC


http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/

[farmfriend]

Are you nuts? Why did you open that spam of, I mean can of worms.

[BradyLS]

What SPAM is: Pork shoulder and ham.

With regards to e-mail: "Spam" is any piece of unwanted (and likely recurring) mail from sources known and unknown.

How the word "spam" came into internet usage: Folks have posted pleanty of references to the infamous Monty Python sketch, but I think there is a better example that ties the food with idea of unwanted mail. In WWII, there was a popular comic that soldiers read called The Sad Sack. Sad Sack was a luckless soldier who wound up with the worst details and missed out on all the fun that other soldiers seemed to be having (where possible). In a popular example of the strip, Sad Sack goes to breakfast, lunch, and dinner in his company's chow line and is served SPAM in every form imaginable and to his great disappointment and annoyance. (Much like the example the Marine poster offered earlier.) However, at mail-call he receives a package from home! Soldiers often received then, as now, "care" packages filled their favorite foods and snacks. To his shocked disbelief, Sad Sack opens the bulging package of hoped-for goodies to find-- fresh tins of SPAM!

[Electron Wizard]

http://www.spamhaiku.com/

[BradyLS]

The style for the SPAM cartoon reminds me of the comic strip 'Herman.' Do they share the same creator?

[Cloud William]

From spam site time line, contest in 1937 awarded 100$ to the person who combined sp from spice with am from ham.

If they say so. I've never been able to detect much in the way of spice in the stuff, aside from salt. Anyway, everyone knows that the name is an acronym:

Slimy Pink Artificial Meat!

[Congressman Billybob]

Fine piece of work. Had flashbacks of lupins, larches, and something completely different, the Ladies Guild doing the Battle of Pearl Harbor, while reading your post. I'll bet you even know how fast a sparrow flies.

Congressman Billybob

This Just In: Bush Defeats Clinton

Click for "to Restore Trust in America"

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Now that you mention it, they are alike. I wonder if they are the same person.

[Tribune7]

I miss the old Usenet too.

[stuartcr]

I think it may be because originally, they didn't raise much livestock due to land constraints, thus they didn't have a history of eating much meat. Also, most of what they received was shipped in from the mainland and spam is more versatile than canned beef products.

[TheLurkerX]

English or African? I'm just coconuts about sparrows...

[Cogadh na Sith]

I had a Hawaiian friend in the army. One of his favorite meals was a plate of Wolf brand chile over sticky rice with alternating strips of spam and velveeta on top. He'd then put it in the oven to melt the cheese. He called it 'Plate Dinner'--as in "Hey brah, let's make plate dinner and have some beers, uh?"

On another spam note--the German army in WWII had tins of potted meat like spam. The called it Moussolini's Ass. That's what I call spam.

[Britton J Wingfield]

I found a can of smoked spam while digging out some wrecked building after a typhoon on Guam. It was delicious.

[constable tom]

"No more of this I'm not worthy, forgive me this, forgive me that! Tee-hee, I feel better, I want to go for a walk! No more buttered scones for me, Mater, I'm off to play the Grand Piano!"

Say no more. Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.

[WileyC]

SPAM (the food-like product) is very popular in some south american, central american and pacific island countries. It has the amazing quality that it will stay edible for looooooong periods of time, is not totally unpalateable and is not too expensive.

In countries where food poisoning is a not-uncommon occurance (and where refrigeration IS), these advantages are not be scorned. Admit it now, given the choice between cracking a tin of SPAM and going out and slaughtering a goat, wouldn't your inner viking vote for SPiced hAM?

Amusingly, since it's viewed as a luxury in some places, foreigners who visit the locals looking forward to 'genuine native dishes' are dismayed to find their proud hosts have hauled out their best offering: SPAM. It's all a matter of perspective... =)

[FreedomFarmer]

The family name of John Cleese, (of Monty Python fame), is actually "Cheese." It was misspelled on his father's enlistment papers during WW1, and never changed back, according to one of the many 'official' Python (Ltd.) websites.
Hence, the extensive references to cheese in Python skits.

One Who Knows will have to explain his own lactic remarks.

*Brought to you by one of the Fondue Freepers.*

[valleygal]

Yep, IIRC = what you said (If I Recall Correctly)

IRC =Internet Relay Chat

[Don W]

AFAIK, the internet usage of "SPAM" refers to junk e-mail, and is an acronym for "Single Posting Across Many" newsgroups.

[valleygal]

I found this somewhat helpful.

Internet Jargon

http://www.houghi.org/jargon/IIRC.html

[F-117A]

There is a SPAM factory not thirty miles from where I sit. My friend that lives in that town informs me that SPAM is the sound of the pig hitting the bottom of the elevator shaft, right before it is scooped into the cans!