Today I learned...that when people write "TIL," it stands for "Today I Learned." And it's never too late to do that.
F'instance, if you have been eating Spam (and I never have) believing the name to be some sort of acronym for "scientifically processed animal matter," or "squeezed pork and meh," or "shoulder of pork and ham," please lay those rumors to rest. Spam is a brand name for the combination of "spice" and "ham."
But when you look at what those spices and ham parts are, you will understand how their brand name became the perfect nickname for junk mail.
Similar story: all my music-loving life, I figured that the name Stax Records came from the term "Stacks of wax," which is what disc jockeys called a pile of records back in the day. But now I looked it up. Stax began as Satellite Records in Memphis, until they found there was another label by that name in Los Angeles. So the owners of the fledgling record company, brother and sister Jim STewart and Estelle Stewart AXton put their names together and soon were selling millions of records by Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes, the Staples Singers, and many more.
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