Any chance we can read that notice in the blackboard? I see "Anyone ... will be ... [very important underlined word]!" I am intrigued.

Not one, but two ham shots. There is something about these two that crack me up every time I look at them.

Did Ms. Bresnahan finally come to her senses and leave?

A "pungent, cheesy flavor" in the meat?

That's usually when I toss the stuff in the trash.

That's what this Mr. Carroll is. The decline of our great American culture began when a bunch of pointy-head university people sold us the bill of goods that three days per pound was ample curing time for a ham. Oh, it looked like a ham and it smelled like a ham, but it didn't TASTE like a ham. Mister Carroll might have been able to fool the young college folks, but now there's been three or four generations who have never had the exquisite pleasure of tasting a ham that has been coated with black pepper (to keep the bugs away) put in a burlap sack and hung in a curing barn for many months. Now that's a ham!

No wonder that today's kids are listening to their rap music and texting on their tweeters and wearing their baggy pants; they've never tasted a real ham.

Photo captions, Washington Post, Oct 30, 1937

New Curing Method at University of Maryland
Experimental Station Ages Hams in Six Weeks

1. Speeding up Nature. In co-operation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mr. F.D. Carroll of the University of Maryland, shows how the ham is rubbed in a mixture of salt, brown sugar and saltpeter before it is smoked. Three days are allowed for the curing of each pound of ham.
2. A specially constructed incubator maintains temperature from 107 to 125 degrees F. The hams are set in the incubator and the thermostat, controlling the heat, is set at the required temperature. Using this process it is no longer necessary to age hams a year or more to obtain that ..
3. .. sharp, pungent, cheesy flavor in the lean meat so characteristic of the Southern style ham. From time to time the hams are taken out of the incubator to check for shrinkage that results during the aging process. Depending upon the weight of the ham, the curing method ..
4. ..seldom extends over ten weeks. In the photo above Mr. Carroll has just removed the finished product. Miss Ruby Bresnahan, coed at the university is permitted to inhale the aroma from the quickly aged, fully cured ham.