Combined OP Article List

[Mary Marino]

I will admit without hesitation that, though I am not British, I like
Marmite (spread thin on hot buttered toast) - I think we should drop the
subject. Mary


At 07:04 PM 5/24/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>On Mon, 24 May 2004, Mary Marino wrote:
> > Vegemite is the Australian version of Marmite - nothing to do with
> > artificial meat.
>
>Ah, yes, but marmite is an artificial or heavily processed and somewhat
>dubious food product, in that respect analogous to or conceptually
>resembling spam.  I couldn't remember the term marmite until I had sent
>the message, but I remembered vegemite from the Men at Work song.  (M at W
>were from New Zealand, I believe.) Marmite is a little rare in my neck of
>the woods.
>
>Now, since spam for me is a product of American ingenuity (not unlike
>individually wrapped slices of plastic-like cheese or, for that matter,
>2x4s of velveeta), I thought that perhaps the analogous marmite, which I
>associate with the British, might be employed as the analogous British
>term for junk email.  (I am definitely smiling or at least grimmacing as I
>write this, and I do apologize for the obscure and labored analogy.)
>
>Perhaps the analogy was weak.  I think nobody admits to liking spam, but
>the British are said to take a perverse pride in marmite.  This is not
>unlike the American attitude toward artificial cheese products as, for
>example, a hallowed ingredient in cheeseburgers or Philly cheesesteaks and
>a various dips.  There are those who consider real cheese in these dishes
>to be both revolting and unnatural.
>
>Admission:  It has been some years, but I have, in my childhood, eaten and
>like both spam and a homemade concoction called scrapple.