CORPORATIONS: A Billion for Spam

G.I. legend has it that Spam is ham that flunked its physical. Among fed-up fighting men from Attu to Anzio, Spam became one of the most celebrated four-letter words in World War II, gave birth to a flavorsome literature of tales, odes, jokes, limericks. The story was told of a downed flyer who wandered through the South Pacific jungles for several weeks, subsisting on berries; when he finally found camp and was offered Spam, he fled back into the jungles, crying "I'm going to eat the berries."

Because G.I.s so cordially hated Spam,...

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