In 1926, George A. Hormel of Hormel Foods created the first canned ham. This canned meat product gained quick popularity at hotels and restaurants, who were happy to have ham in such convenient storage. Though canned ham would be a common item in grocery stores later on, Hormel saw the product as too bulky to appeal to customers, and didn’t really try to get them onto the shelves. Eleven years later, George Hormel’s son Jay Hormel hit upon a new way to sell pork. He came up with a combination of pork shoulder, ham, and potato starch, with salt, water and sodium nitrite added in. This new product was processed into rectangular blocks and placed in 12 ounce cans. It retailed for 10¢, and was a hit with shoppers during the Great Depression, when there was a large demand for cheap meat. This new product was called Spam. Exactly why Spam is called Spam is shrouded in mystery, according to Hormel. It’s widely assumed to be short for “spice ham” or “spare meat” or “shoulders of pork...

Remember Wheels, those cheese-flavored snack crackers that General Mills used to make?  Possibly not.  They were launched in Canada in the mid-1960s and never really broke into the American market.  An American version of Wheels was introduced under the name Daisies , but you’re not likely to find those in any supermarkets anymore.   Wheels have vanished from Canada, too.  You probably don’t remember the TV commercial for Wheels (or for its sister products called Flutes and Crowns ), since it’s uncommon to remember TV commercials from fifty years ago, especially ones that never aired.  General Mills had an ad campaign ready, but pulled it for some reason. The history of a now-vanished snack cracker for a foreign market might not be so interesting, but the cast of its commercial is.  Introducing Wheels was a TV character making his own debut, then known as Arnold the Munching Monster, and a terrifying monster he was. Arnold and an ...