07/05/2015 archive

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

Click on images to enlarge.

July 5 is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 179 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1937, Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

Spam (officially trademarked as SPAM) is a canned precooked meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation. The labeled ingredients in the classic variety of Spam are chopped pork shoulder meat, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Spam’s gelatinous glaze, or aspic, forms from the cooling of meat stock. The product has become part of many jokes and urban legends about mystery meat, which has made it part of pop culture and folklore.

Varieties of Spam include Spam Classic, Spam Hot & Spicy, Spam Less Sodium, Spam Lite, Spam Oven Roasted Turkey, Hickory Smoked, Spam with real Hormel Bacon, Spam with Cheese, and Spam Spread. Availability of these varieties varies regionally.

Spam that is sold in North America, South America, and Australia is produced in Austin, Minnesota, (also known as Spam Town USA) and in Fremont, Nebraska. Spam for the UK market is produced in Denmark by Tulip under license from Hormel. Spam is also made in the Philippines and in South Korea. In 2007, the seven billionth can of Spam was sold. On average, 3.8 cans are consumed every second in the United States.

Name origin

Introduced on July 5, 1937, 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, who was given a $100 prize for creating the name. At one time and persisting to this day in certain books, the theory behind the nomenclature of Spam was that the name was a portmanteau of “Spiced Meat and Ham”. According to the British documentary-reality show “1940s House”, when Spam was offered by the United States to those affected by World War II in the UK, Spam stood for “Specially Processed American Meats”. Yesterday’s Britain, a popular history published by Reader’s Digest in 1998 (p. 140), unpacks Spam as “Supply Pressed American Meat” and describes it as an imported “wartime food” of the 1940s.

Many jocular backronyms have been devised, such as “Something Posing As Meat”, “Specially Processed Artificial Meat”, “Stuff, Pork and Ham”, “Spare Parts Animal Meat” and “Special Product of Austin Minnesota”.

According to Hormel’s trademark guidelines, Spam should be spelled with all capital letters and treated as an adjective, as in the phrase “SPAM luncheon meat”.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

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The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with George Stephanopolis: the guests on Sunday’s “This Week” are: presidential candidate, former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX); Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR); and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD).

The roundtable guests are: Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX); Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK); The Washington Post‘s Anne Gearan; Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol.

Face the Nation: Host John Dickerson’s guests are: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); and presidential candidate former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA).

His panel guests are: The Atlantic‘s Molly Ball; Politico‘s Mike Allen; The New York Times‘ Peter Baker; and talk-show host Fernando Espueles.

Meet the Press with Chuck Todd: The guests on Sunday’s “MTP” are: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX); and Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic.

The panel guests are: Chris Cillizza, The Washington Post; Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post; Carolyn Ryan, The New York Times and Michael Steele, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

State of the Union with Jake Tapper: Mr. Tapper’s guests are: Presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); and former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR).

Yeah, text and stuff goes here when I wake up.

  Angela’s Ashes: How Merkel Failed Greece and Europe

   Angela Merkel relishes her reputation as queen of Europe. But she hasn’t learned how to use her power, instead allowing a bad situation to heat up to the boiling point. Her inability to take unpopular stances badly exacerbated the Greek crisis.

By Peter Müller and René Pfister

Angela Merkel was already leaving for the weekend when she received the call that would change everything. The chancellor had just had a grueling day, spending all of it in meetings with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras — sometimes as part of a larger group, and others with only him and French President François Hollande.

They discussed debt restructuring and billions of euros in additional investments. When it comes to issues important to him, Tsipras can be exhaustingly stubborn. In the end, though, Merkel was left with the feeling the EU summit was the milestone that could quite possibly mark a turn for the better.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Breakfast Tune: “That’s Alright Mama” by Elvis Presley sung by Washington Square group, NYC.

Elvis Presley’s “That’s Alright Mama” played by left to right Gene, Sean in the straw hat, Danny with the recorder, Ellen -banjo, Andri, Sue Ellen, Jim on guitar.

Today in History

Elvis Presley holds his first major recording session; Birth of the bikini; Enron’s Kenneth Lay dies; Arthur Ashe wins at Wimbledon; Larry Doby follows Jackie Robinson; Baseball’s Ted Williams dies. (July 5)

Breakfast News & Blogs Below

The Stars Hollow Gazette has reached a milestone that many blogs never even get near.  We are five. Most blogs don’t last this long nor do most bloggers. This is my 6545th diary. Call me prolific, or, just someone who won’t shut up until you listen

I’ll try to make this brief. I started this site with my partner in “left wing, anarchist crime”, ek hornbeck, mostly as a place where we could vent and put our “stuff,” and it still is.

This site is also a tribute to Edger, without whom I never would have been able to put this together. He was a good friend and adviser. His passing left a huge hole in the Internet.

I also want to give a hearty thank you, to mishima, BobbyK, poligirl, triv33 and joe shikspack. You guys are terrific and have been one of the raison d’être for this site’s existence. Merci beaucoup.

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If you are looking for a place to vent, express your frustrations with the political process, or just have something you want to say, this is the place. Pull up a bench and welcome to our park.