There is nothing as Spamtastic as salty pork foodstuffs.
Good for you? Absolutely. It's got all the processed nitates a growing boy needs.
What's the best way to enjoy this Icon?
Spam, Ritz Crackers and a can of Easy Cheese.
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This Little Piggy… In 1937, in Austin, Minn., J.C. Hormel unveils the revolutionary concept of pig parts in a tin. The ingredients in the snack “food” are primarily pork shoulder, ham, spices, salt, more salt, salt-flavored-salt, sugar, water, and sodium nitrate, ensuring it will outlive us all. A company contests is held, and $100 is given to the man who melds “spicy ham” into SPAM (so for the last time, it is not an acronym for Salty Preserved Ass-Meat).
Went to the Marketplace… To drum up interest in the porcine product, the mascot “Spammy the Pig” is a guest on the George Burns and Gracie Allen radio show. Spam develops a cult following despite packing 170 calories and 16 grams of fat in each tasty two-ounce serving. Hormel sells approximately 120 million cans a year worldwide, and they pass the six billion total mark in 2002.
Uncle Spam: The potted pork becomes as vital to the Allied victory as Fat Man and Little Boy. Since Spam doesn’t need refrigeration, it becomes the meal of choice for the troops. By the end of World War II, Hormel supplies more than 100 million pounds of the stuff to the military and aid programs. Among the world leaders who fondly recalled wolfing down the swiney glop are President Dwight “I ate my share of Spam along with millions of other soldiers” Eisenhower; Nikita “without Spam we wouldn’t have been able to feed our Army” Kruschev; and Margaret “ a war-time delicacy” Thatcher.
Spam on It: A testament to its popularity as a graphic icon, the original Spam can is on display at the Smithsonian. Spam is huge in South Korea, Malaysia, Great Britain, Hawaii, Guam, and anywhere else American nutritional values are embraced. Hawaiians are per-capita the greatest ingesters of Spam in the U.S. at some 4.3 
million tins a year. The “Spamily” now includes Spam smoke-flavored, Spam oven roasted turkey, and Spam Lite, but mercifully they retired the 1970s gastronomical monstrosity, Spam with cheese chunks.
Aping Theodore Geisel… I do not like this jellied Spam, I will not eat it slathered in jam. I will not eat it with a Hawaiian; I will not eat it with Meg Ryan. I will not fry it with a green egg; I will not wash it down with beer from a keg. I would not eat it on the Red Planet Mars; I would not try to eat it after hitting ten bars. I will not eat it cold or hot, Sam I am—Spam I am not. I would not have eaten wit with Dr. Seuss; I will not share a can with Wally the Moose. On second thought, why not just a taste? We don’t want all that pork loaf to go to waste. Perhaps on Spam I am being too harsh…so please slice me a hunk of that pink salt marsh.
(As always, the genius drawing comes courtesy of Julia Rothman.)
(City, 2003)
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