Black says he ate Spam only occasionally as a kid. But now he eats fried Spam sandwiches, Spam burgers with a slice of pineapple and Spam musubi (Spam, fresh seaweed, sticky rice and soy sauce).
Armstrong feels Spam has been hugely misunderstood, largely because of its color, a shade of pink more commonly found in certain types of exotic coral rather than meat.
People "say, 'Why is it pink?' " he said. "I say, 'Well, hot dogs and salami and bologna are pink. Meat is naturally gray and Spam has a little sodium nitrite in it to keep it pink.' "
Black feels Spam gets a bad rap because of the whole meat-in-a-can issue."
"I really feel people are afraid of shelf-stable meat," Black said. "And people are still scared of the gel. They talk about the gel all the time."
This would be the gelatinous goop that came atop Spam, ensuring that it would quiver like a mound of meat pudding when you plopped it on a plate.
But Black said the gelatin has been gone from Spam since 2001. That's when Hormel launched a secret initiative code-named Project Aurora - you can't make this up; it's in the book - that added potato starch and got rid of the gel.
Here's another astounding Spam factoid that Armstrong laid on me: It's big in Hawaii.
No, not just big. Huge.
"They serve it in every Burger King and McDonald's," he said. "You can get Spam McMuffins, Spam and eggs, everything. I don't think you can go to any food establishment in Hawaii and not find Spam."
You can debate whether this is good for tourism until the pigs come home.
But The Book of Spam also notes that those crazy Hawaiians hold an annual event called - we may be venturing into Spam Esoterica Hell here - Spam Jam on Waikiki Beach, during which 20,000 fans turn out to see top chefs show off their best Spam dishes.
In any event, Armstrong and Black say it's no surprise that Americans turn to Spam in these anxious times of buyouts, layoffs and whipsawed stock prices.
"I think psychologically it goes to a deeper core issue: It's comfort food," Black said. "People remember it from the '40s and '50s, and that was the golden era in their memories."
In Hawaii, apparently, it's still the golden era.
But let's not get into all that again.
