had to pass this on...

tnb2d@server.cs.Virginia.EDU
Wed, 8 Feb 1995 17:36:54 -0500

This is snipped from a recent usenet Oracularity:

------------%< snip %<----------------------%< snip %<------------

..... some other stuff came first, this is the good part ......

} However, I think that Spider Robinson perhaps said it best when he told
} us a gripping tale of espionage and comedy gone sadly wrong. It seems
} that a Soviet spy ring had been operating from the cover of the Monty
} Python fan group at Ramstein Air Force Base. The fan group would every
} couple of months print up a 64 page book entitled "Spam" (named after
} their favorite sketch) filled with nothing but "Spam, spam, spam, spam,
} spam, spam, spam..." You get the point.
}
} Anyway, imagine the numbing effect that this would have on the guards
} who would inspect the thousand copies that would be shipped out all
} over the world by the fan group on a bimonthly basis. The spies would
} insert their coded message in the form of pinpricks on one of the pages
} of one of the shipments. They were only caught recently by a Soviet
} defector.
}
} The moral of the story -- and, not coincientally, the answer to your
} question -- is this:
}
} "No one inspects the Spammish Repetition."
}

-------> Tommy.
"I does art... art am fine."