While we are on abr and acr:

Anyone can add a page to the open encyclopedia project at
http://www.wikipedia.org

Here is one of its pages on SPAM.


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

SPAM is a canned meat product from the
Hormel Foods Corporation
company that has entered into folklore. SPAM luncheon meat is also used
as an artistic medium in SPAM carving contests.

The labeled ingredients on the original SPAM are chopped pork shoulder
meat with ham meat added, salt, water, sugar and
sodium nitrite.

A Hormel official once stated that the original source of the name SPAM
was "Shoulder of Pork And haM". Other explanations of the origin of the
term include
"SPiced hAM", "Spiced Pork And haM", "Specially Processed Army Meat";
the current official expansion is the
acronym "
Specially Processed Assorted Meat" as the SPAM Lite variety contains
both pork and chicken meat.

According to Hormel's trademark guidelines, you should spell SPAM with
all capital letters and treat the mark as an adjective, following it
with a more
generic descriptor, for example "SPAM luncheon meat".

A little known
religion
called
Spammism
worships the meat. It may just be an
Internet
joke,
though.

Monty Python

SPAM was the subject of a well-known and much-loved
Monty Python sketch,
in which various customers of a cafe requested a meal without SPAM.
Inevitably, all of the comestibles available came with varying
quantities of SPAM. The
sketch reflected British rationing policies, in which SPAM was one of
the few meats always available. Towards the end of the sketch a song,
satirical in
nature, was sung, extolling the dubious virtues of SPAM, with a repeated
chorus:

SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM
SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM
Wonderful SPAM, marvelous SPAM!

E-mail

The endless repetition of the word in the song led to the use of the
term
spamming
for unsolicited commercial E-mail. Concerned by what might have been a
widespread violation of their trademark to the SPAM logo, Hormel
consulted with trademark
lawyers. They eventually reached a compromise solution, which the
company prominently displays on its Web site:

"We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE (unsolicited
commercial email), although we do object to the use of our product image
in association
with that term. Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in
all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which
should be
used with all uppercase letters."

Hormel is on record as deploring the sending of junk e-mails. The only
SPAM they want you to get is their delicious meat product.

See also
Spamming

Received on Thursday, 24 April 2003 07:37:22 UTC