Himalayan Pizza

I logged onto blogger.com to post a new blog tonight and instead of seeing my blog from yesterday, there was a notice that my blog has been removed temporarily for review and is suspected of violating the terms of blogger.com. At first, I was shocked, annoyed and frustrated, but within a few seconds, a curiosity and satisfaction settled in and I wondered how I managed to offend someone so much, and who. I felt that under the circumstances, my very own blog would become as provocative and popular as previously banned books. However, after a little investigation, I discovered my blog was being reviewed due to the possibility of it’s containing spam, which is apparently an inconvenient mistake made with anyone’s blog quite often. To expose a little secret, I haven’t really any idea what spam is, except for the mysterious canned meat by the same name invented in America sometime in the late 1930s due to limited resources, and still made today for God knows what reason.
I tasted Spam only once, and felt it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, but I probably wouldn’t give it a second try. It was back in November en route to the Everest base camp when I joined a group of six other Americans and eleven Nepali staff who cooked our meals. Our meals were usually very good and once or twice, I went to help out in the kitchen, which was a large tent with some camping stoves, to try to get some of the credit for the wonderful food though I was always asked just to cut the vegetables. One night, after a longer day of hiking than usual, the kitchen staff rewarded us by making a pizza for dinner. Himalayan yak cheese and Spam pizza. After six hours of hiking mostly uphill, over 14,000 feet above sea level, turning down some pizza isn’t done, so I tried the Spam. As I said, it wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined, and I was so cozy in the big tent huddled next to my fellow mountaineers at a small fold-up table by the light of lanterns and candlelight.
I am sure that within the next few days, my first entry will be found Spam free and re-posted. This entry, however, is all about Spam.