Thou shalt put processed meat in tins

In a bid to halt the torrent of junk email that goes around the world every day, the US government passed a law called the CAN-SPAM Act. You can read here about how effective (or otherwise) the law has been since its implementation at the beginning of this year. No surprises there, right? What had me rolling around on the floor in pained laughter though, was that CAN-SPAM is an acronym for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing. This is sheer brilliance. I want to meet the writer who was given the responsibility of coming up with that.

Politician: We want something that says we're going to get rid of spam but we also want it to stand for something. Writer: I'll go you one better. I'll give you something that stands for what you're trying to achieve AND I'll allude to the fact that spam is also the name for a certain processed meat product which is sold in tins. Politician: Good work. I'll leave you to it Writer: Hang on, I'll also use a word with a double meaning which will allude to spam being thrown away or gotten rid of. Politician: Excellent Writer: But wait! There's more. I'll also make it a two-word hyphenated acronym, where the hyphen actually belongs between the two words whose letters are represented in the acronym. Politician: um... right-ho!

Someone put a 'Genius at Work' sign on the door.