The Meat We Like

If @jamie_oliver and friends wonder how North America got into such a state of obesity and poor nutrition, they need look no further than this ad from a 1957 issue of Everywoman's magazine, placed by the American Meat Institute, which was (or is?) based in Chicago, of course, the city that Carl Sandburg called "Hog Butcher for the World". (Click to see the image at quite a large size. It's worth reading the fine print.)

And look at this baby. Those orange columns around the outside are hotdogs!

Or this aspic displaying various forms of Spam-type canned, sliced meats. (Note how it's labelled "calorie-saving"!)

I would have been conceived about the same time as this layout, and I must say that in my childhood, "luncheon meat" (which we liked to call "munchin' meat") exerted a terrible hold upon me. I liked using the little key to open the can. I like the squelching sound as it slid out onto the plate. I like the fatty porky goodness of the cold oily stuff when I bit into it. I liked it especially in white-bread sandwiches with mustard.

Me and most of the rest of North America.