1976 – Bruce Jenner wins Gold in the decathlon at Montreal

Loki — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:23:30 +0000

Born on October 28, 1940 in Mount Kisco, New York, Bruce Jenner attended Graceland College on a football scholarship, until a knee injury forced him to reassess his priorities. With the encouragement of his coach, he took up the decathlon, and represented the US in the event at the Munich Olympics in 1972. He placed tenth, and encouraged by this, devoted himself to training for the 76 Olympics.

At Montreal, as at the Pan-American Games the year before in Mexico City, he placed first, winning the gold medal for America.

He returned home a celebrity, and had a short-lived career as an actor and a celebrity endorser. These days, he makes his living as a motivational speaker.

Referenced in:

Spam – Save Ferris

1937 – Spam is first released

Loki — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:23:46 +0000

Spam didn’t used to have anything to do with enlarging your penis or getting cheap medicines of dubious quality.

It was originally the name of a certain kind of meat, although the ‘dubious quality’ part is well-enshrined in urban legend – known backronyms devised for it include “Something Posing As Meat”, “Stuff, Pork and Ham” and “Spare Parts Animal Meat.” Oddly enough, Spam wasn’t even the original name of the product – it was introduced because the previous name – Hormal Spiced Ham – was losing market share.

It wasn’t until Monty Python and Joel Furr got involved years later that the word assumed its modern meaning.

By the way: 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” – strange but true.

Referenced in:

Spam – Save Ferris
Spam Song – Monty Python
Spam – Weird Al Yankovic

The Centre Cannot Hold » Save Ferris

1976 – Bruce Jenner wins Gold in the decathlon at Montreal

1937 – Spam is first released