My first recollection of Spam is eating it at home. Fried. With tortillas. I was fascinated with the whole process of opening up the can with the little key that was attached at the bottom. When my mother finally opened the can, I was expecting to see sardines. Not ham because the can was too small. So my mother fried the Spam and served it to us on tortillas. We ate it occasionally just to vary our diet a little. But not too much since we always ate beans, rice, and tortillas at almost every meal.
Since I am speaking of Spam, I am reminded of a certain British Comedy troupe who coined the term spam for all that unwanted e-mail that we receive. But not intentionally. They had a skit in which the waiter recites the menu, most of which is comprised of Spam.
When I was in high school, one of my friends introduced me to Monty Python’s Flying Circus on PBS, Sunday nights at 10 p.m. I was so young and naive that I just didn’t get the show. Who exactly was Monty Python? Where were the trapeze artists? Where was their tent? What strange language were they speaking?
Of course, I knew better than to actually ask anyone these questions. You know how teachers and college professors say there is no such thing as a stupid question? Well, I’m convinced that all my questions were stupid judging by the looks of the people who heard them when I occasionally voiced them. So I never asked questions.
I discovered that Monty Python spoke English–English English, as opposed to American English. Luckily, one of my friends was an English to English translator and he explained the jokes that I didn’t get, which was basically all of them. I would have quit watching Monty Python immediately if it weren’t for my friends and the home where we watched the show.
It started quite by accident when we were at Myrna’s house one Sunday night. Her father, we called him by his first name Tom, told us we had to leave about 10 p.m. because he had to get up early on Monday morning to go to work. He had been watching PBS and then Monty Python started on the tele. One of our friends had actually seen the show before and explained to the rest of us that it was a British comedy. Well, this piqued Tom’s interest and we all sat around to watch it. He forgot all about sending us away until the show was over.
The next Sunday, we all watched Monty Python again at Myrna’s house. We really loved the show and I eventually laughed because I got all the jokes without the aid of an interpreter. One Sunday, Tom told us that we couldn’t come over to watch Monty Python anymore. We watched it at Cecilia’s house for a few weeks, but it just wasn’t the same. Luckily, Myrna told us that we were invited back to her house on Sunday nights to watch Monty Python with her father. He told us that he missed us while watching Monty Python. So every Sunday night we watched Monty Python with Myrna and her father Tom.
But getting back to Spam, that was the skit we re-enacted the most. So the Internet term spam is derived from the Monty Python skit in the restaurant where just about everything on the menu includes Spam: “Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, eggs, and Spam,” etc.
Well, I thought of all this because of all the spam that I’ve been receiving lately. The maddening thing about spam is not so much that I receive a lot of spam, but rather that I have started to receive it from myself, too! And, I’m fairly sure that I didn’t send it out. I’m not sure why, but I thought I would share some of the Subject lines with you (in no particular order):
- You want yours bigger, all men do
- Iva debt consolidation
- I hadn’t had sex for a while
- Whip out your huge manhood
- Best offer in gambling history
- Huge discount watches
- Start seeing dollars pouring in
- How about a $2400 welcome bonus
- Best Rolex Replica
- Elite products for your style and reputation
- Enlargement of organs possible
- After that it’s only fun and winning
- Affordable luxury online in the world’s no. 1 rated replica watch store
- Legal software sales
- Gravidty (sic)
- Win $$$
- 10 inches is possible
- Online University Diploma degrees
- You have just received an e-card
- Penis Products Reviewed
- Looking for a watch? Visit Replica Classics
- Great sex secrets revealed
- Your diamond replicas
- Perfectly crafted luxury timepieces
- Suffer from short babymaker? Don’t loose (sic), the only solution is here.
- 15 mistakes every woman made
- We give out BONUSES to anyone who joins
- Stunning video with naked celebrity
- Unsecured debt consolidation loan
- Hey
- Male enhancement
- Small male aggregate is not trouble
- Convenient discreet online pharmacy
- Real enlargement
- Shaved pussies sell better
- Come find out
- Lovely present
- The opportunity presented itself
- I was “horny”
- Hot sexy latinas all craving for you
- Rejoice in your newfound girth
- This e-card is hillarious
- Do not let them mock at small weener (sic)
- Obtain PhD of your desire
- Take her longer, harder, and deeper
- Need a great gift idea?
- Drugstore which guarantees quality
- Size enhancement a scam?
- Shiny pieces of sheer beauty
- Want to be a hero in bed?
- Three inches in just weeks
Chicago USA 
Vito,
I received these spam messages as e-mail so they don’t affect my page hits. I didn’t pay too much attention to their origins. For some strange reason, I left like writing down the subject lines because seemed interesting to me as a set. Once I took notice that these messages were spam, I remembered that Monty Python was the source of the word spam. And from there, I remembered how I first started watching Monty Python. As far as my blog, the page hits are increasing steadily. My Spanish glosario gets accessed occasionally. When people google something, somehow I turn up on their results page. 🙂
I hope you will share your Internet traffic results for this entry. I’m curious to see how all those subject lines affect the traffic you get here.
The funniest thing about visiting Myrna to see Monty Python was how natural it became to visit solely for the show. No matter what we were doing on those Sunday nights we’d stop doing it, we’d come to her family’s bungalow at 9:50-something, usually greet Myrna (who would be wearing her pajamas, robe and slippers, drinking her lemon tea from her crystal-clear glass tea cup and saucer set) , sit around the kitchen table watching the show and leave at 10:30-something as if that was normal guest protocol: a scheduled, late-night booty call for comedy.