Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 12, 1994 TAG: 9401110156
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ROB KYFF THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In this delightful cook's tour de farce, Staten reveals not only the succulent state secrets of the American food industry (there's more lemon in Lemon Pledge furniture polish, for instance, than in equal amounts of Country Time lemonade), but provides delicious "et"-tymologies of food terms and brand names as well.
The fictional character "Betty Crocker" honors a company director named William Crocker. "Sara Lee" comes from Sara Lee Schupf, daughter of the bakery's founder.
"Birds Eye" frozen foods are named, not for feathery field filchers, but for firm-founder Charles Birdseye. "M&M's" come literally from Mars: the last names of Frank Mars, founder of Mars candy, and Bob Murrie, company president in 1941; "Spam" is short for "spiced ham;" "Velveeta" means "velvety cheese; "Tab" helps you keep "tabs" on your weight, and the exotic "Haagen-Dazs" was simply made up by the wife of a Bronx ice-cream maker.
When nutritionists began caning sugar in the 1980s, "Sugar Crisp," "Sugar Frosted Flakes" and "Sugar Smacks" quietly changed their names to "Golden Crisp," "Frosted Flakes," and "Smacks," respectively, and almost no one noticed. But, when Coors renamed its "Banquet Beer" as "Coors Original Draft" in 1988, the company lost many longtime customers.
And, just in case you were wondering, "ketchup" won over "catsup" when Del Monte finally capitulated in 1988, and Yankee Doodle called his feather "macaroni" because "macaroni" was then a slang term for "dandy."
But perhaps the most memorable food name harvested by Staten is "Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifters." These were tomatoes so large and juicy that the West Virginia shade-tree mechanic who grew them paid off his mortgage with the proceeds.
by CNB