the upside of hard times

More spam (the edible kind).

AUSTIN, Minn. — The economy is in tatters and, for millions of people, the future is uncertain. But for some employees at the Hormel Foods Corporation plant here, times have never been better. They are working at a furious pace and piling up all the overtime they want.

The workers make Spam, perhaps the emblematic hard-times food in the American pantry. . .

"There are all kinds of people who have an emotional connection to Spam," said Gil Gutknecht Jr., the former Minnesota congressman, who was in the gift shop at the Spam Museum buying a Spam tie, sweatshirt and earrings. Mr. Gutknecht recalled that he once served as a judge in a Spam recipe contest. . .

If we can just find enough pink, gelatinous equivalents in other industries to get behind, we might ride this out...

A 12-ounce can of Spam, marketed as "Crazy Tasty," costs about $2.40. "People are realizing it’s not that bad a product," said Dan Johnson... who operates a 70-foot-high Spam oven.

Is that the same Dan Johnson who sucked all year in 2006 because he had double vision after he shot suntan lotion into his eye? (That was SO k-mad!) If so, it might not be a good idea for him to be standing in front of a 70-foot-high Spam oven.