Klarinet Archive - Posting 000177.txt from 1995/09

From: Bill Hall <billhall@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: SPAM - HOW TO RESPOND
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 1995 21:28:43 -0400

At 08:28 PM 9/8/95 CDT, you wrote:
>For greater edification of klarinet members who may not be familiar with
>the derivation of "spam" as it applies to inappropriate notes sent over
>the net, I suspect it comes from the product "spam" which is a kind of meat
>product sold in tin cans. The "meat" product is a conglomerate of
>various substances some of which are actually meat, some of which are not.
>I suspect the term "spam" or "spamming" refers to the inclusion of objects
>in a conglomerate that are something other than what one expects, and which
>probably would be rejected if/when properly identified.
>
>=====================================================================
>Tom Ascher Internet: u15310@-----.edu
>University of Illinois at Chicago Phone: (312) 413-3665

Good guess. Actually, the story that I've heard is that it comes from an
episode of Monty Python that featured a restaurant that served only Spam or
things with Spam in them, like "eggs and Spam" -- everything was
something-and-Spam, including Spam and Spam. They sing a song that has words
like, "Spamity-Spam." If you've ever seen Monty Python, I'm sure you get the
picture. So from, this, the term "Spam" means something like, "an excess of
something you didn't want in the first place.