#1 2008-07-25 1:19 pm

RonPrice

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From: George Town Tasmania Australia

Registered: 2008-07-25

Posts: 1

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A Prose-Poem About Spam: Personal Perspectives

Thinking about spam gave rise to the following prose-poem which I submit to this Forum for the possible pleasure of readers here.-Ron Price, Tasmania
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A NEW PRODUCT HITS THE MARKET

The original term spam was coined in 1937 by the Hormel corporation as a name for its Spam luncheon meat: a canned, precooked, spiced meat product. The transition from meat product to internet term had a stop with the comedy Monty Python's Flying Circus.  In 1970 that BBC comedy show aired a sketch that featured a cafe that had a menu which featured items like: "egg, bacon, and spam; egg, bacon, sausage, and spam;  spam, bacon, sausage, and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon, and spam; and finally, lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pate, brandy, and a fried egg on top and spam."  To make matters sillier in Monty Python style, the cafe was filled with Vikings who periodically break out into song praising spam: "spam, spam, spam, spam: lovely spam, wonderful spam."

While the Hormel corporation was holding a competition to find a new name for their product, the North American Bahá'í community was formulating the details of its first teaching Plan in May 1937.  This formulation took place just eight weeks before the introduction of Spam onto the market.  As of 2003 the Baha'i Faith had spread to over 200 countries and territories with the largest number of adherents in India, Iran and the USA.  As of 2003, Spam was sold in 41 countries worldwide. The largest consumers of Spam were in the United States, the UK and South Korea.

Computer people adopted the term Spam from the Python sketch to mean, to include, the commercialization of the internet, the unwanted commercial messages that come in the form of electronic junk mail or junk postings as well as posts at Internet sites that: (a) nobody really wants to read/asks for and/or (b) are basically some form of plagiarism.  These have become the primary meanings, among other meanings, of spam on the internet.-Ron Price with thanks to "A History of the Term Spam," internet.com, 24 July 2008.

Yes, there was a new name, alright—
little did they know—and there was
no need to hold a competition for its
name---for it was not spam---it was
part of a Plan and as Isaiah foretold
His name long ago--His name shall be
called: Wonderful and yes Counsellor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace and much else......

One could say, if one wanted, but not
many would have wanted and not many
did put it this way, that this new Product
was finally becoming commercialized but
at a very low level of evangelism. Indeed
there was no aggressive proselytising here,
just the slow evolution of small groups all
over the planet and a Movement with many,
many meanings for the pluralistic society
with which it was engaged then--all the
years of my life--on this mortal coil......

Ron Price
(updated for Stop Forum
Spam on: 25/7/'08)