We decided to shake up Easter tradition a bit and forego the staid ham for Spam.

Intrepid reporter Paige Wiser makes a good case for it -- Spam sales are up, way up, and people are looking for affordable meal solutions. Oh, and the president eats Spam (Spam musubi, to be exact - see photo).

So we were heartened to be greeted this morning by this e-mail from a reader:

"My mother used to fry it for us when times were rough - 1950s. But my sweetest memory of it was back in the '80s. My 14-year-old daughter decided that she wanted to cook my wife and I a five- or six-course dinner. We had soup, salad, veggies, dessert and my favorite Spam. She took a whole Spam and pushed whole cloves all into it. Basted it with a sweet sauce and baked it like a ham. Oh, so delicious,I can still taste it. She's 48 this year and she still remembers the dinner."

Thank you, Leonard from Chicago. Happy Easter.