Hmmm, I'm sure many of you in the US, and other countries too, are seeing crazy scenes at supermarkets and other stores as people are stocking up on essentials (and non-essentials to boot, I hear candy aisles are depleted in some stores), trying to prepare for a possible lockdown, or even just self-isolation, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

I know that as one of the people in the high-risk group (over 60, several autoimmune issues), and knowing there have been several *confirmed* cases in my county (meaning probably lots of unconfirmed cases) I am a little concerned.

All my FB friends are posting photos of bare supermarket shelves. Lists of non-perishable and longer lasting things to buy, like rice, dried beans, potatoes, etc, are not the sort of things most folks here would buy. I do have meat in my freezer but my freezer is not very big.

Anyway, one FB friend posted that there was a big run on SPAM and her local store could not keep it in stock!

Did any others of you grow up with this Mystery Meat? I know it's not actually recommended in these quarters but there is a local restaurant near me that is a Southern-Hawaiian fusion style restaurant, and one of their classic sides is fried Spam. I don't go there often but whenever I do I always have the fried Spam since it's a Hawaiian classic and I figure 3-4 times a year is not likely to kill me.

But funny to hear stores are running out. Of course it's canned so has a long shelf life. Funnily enough I went to Costco early in March, before all this frenzy started. However I was actually thinking that it might come to this so decided I'd be proactive and buy a bunch of stuff. I stocked up on toilet paper, paper towels, some meats I could squeeze into my small freezer, canned tuna, even some canned green beans if I get desperate! But I actually saw the Spam while I was there and for a minute or so actually contemplated buying it.

I didn't however. But if I run out of fresh meat and still don't feel I can go to the supermarket? I have lots of cans of tuna, sardines, smoked oysters. But I might get sick of fishy things. Maybe Spam would have been a welcome change!