Spamageddon

Spamageddon is SWIL's annual excuse to poke fun at Spam. It should happen in April or early May, and should involve destroying Spam in some creative manner. Over the spring semester, the presidents should try to get people to come up with ideas, and someone should volunteer to run the event (it doesn't need to be the person who came up with the idea -- recruit a frosh). To give some idea of what works, here's a listing of all the events that have been run since this got started in 1994:

1994:

The Spam Drop. Swilfolk attempted to freeze spam in liquid nitrogen and drop it from a fourth-floor parrish window. It has been suggested that we try this one again sometime. Lesley Tsina '96 commented: ``if you are going to use liquid nitrogen on the Spam, make sure to use more of it than we did (ask Charles Danforth for details) and leave it in overnight, or it will bounce, embarassingly, when you try to hurl it off of Parrish onto Magill walk. Make sure there are lots of signs and you make a big show of clearing the area for spam hazards. Take lots and lots of pictures.''

1995:

The Spam Catapult. This was just what it sounded like, and was designed by the death triplets⁹, i think. It was pretty successful.

1996:

The Spamput. This was a shotput competition using chunks of Spam. It was reportedly not so successful because there was a shortage of people happy about touching Spam.

1997:

The Spam Cannon. Charles Danforth '95 lent us his potato cannon, which we used to send chunks of potato and spam catapulting down Magill Walk. The distances reached were quite impressive, and, though there was some cleanup time required, the activity was pretty successful.

1998:

The Spamyata. We bought a pig-shaped pinata, filled it with chunks of Spam, hung it in the belltower, and took turns hitting it blindfolded. Much fun.

1999:

The Spammish Inquisition. We stood outside Sharples patio at lunch, questioning people about their involvement with Spam. Then, before dinner, we captured Spam and burned it at the stake. This was not as successful as some previous years, probably because we tried to solicit campus involvement. The actual torturing and burning of Spam went pretty well, though.

The Spam and all other supplies can be purchased from our supply budget. Also, since handling Spam will be necessary, it's not unreasonable to ask a lab science major to get a few pairs of disposable gloves. Our Spam activities received some posterity in Carolyn Wyman's 1999 book Spam: a Biography.

By: Chaos Golubitsky '00 -- Last revised: 18 January 2000