Story of spinach, olive oil, smoking
It is known that the Popeye the Sailor character was created by an American named Elzie Segar and appeared in a comic book in 1929, then became a character in plays, cartoons and films. In 1934, an agricultural epidemic destroyed the corn crops of popular American farmer John Charks, which he was supplying to tens of major food factories in the United States, which also recorded heavy losses.
One day, Hollywood short film producer Patrick Seally paid a visit to his friend Charks at a huge ranch north of Los Angeles, and saw material destruction that hit the farm and its owner. That visit coincided with the presence of agricultural engineers who came to present a summary of what they reached with regards to the future of farming. Their chief advised him to stop relying on just one crop and he should diversify his products to include fresh vegetables to sell daily, plant tobacco to sell seasonally and plant olives to create a long-term option that he can rely on, besides other products.
Seally listened to the agricultural expert’s report and his suggestions, and planned something in this mind, especially since his friend Charks wasn’t too happy with what he heard. When the experts left, the two friends sat together, then Seally told his friend he was ready to buy a small share of the farm for much lesser than its actual price, and in exchange he promised that profits from the farm will grow in a few years if he agreed with his ideas, and if the profits do not multiply, he will return the land free of charge.
Charks gave it a deep thought and did not comment, then after a period of long silence that included several puffs from the pipe that was hanging between his teeth, he got out of his chair and extended his hand to his friend, saying: I accept - give me what you have. Seally said what the expert suggested was logical, and that there is a cartoon character called Popeye the Sailor Man, which is very popular among various ages, particularly among mothers and children, and that a great idea occurred to him, which is to convince the character’s owner to make some adjustment and have Popeye eat spinach, which boosts his muscles and he becomes strong. He then beats his archenemy Bluto and recovers his love Olive Oyl. Then Popeye celebrates his victory with a few puffs from his pipe!
Seally said this adjustment will make mothers to indirectly encourage their children to eat spinach, which has a high nutritional value, and it will be easy to convince the family to consume larger amounts of olives and oil, other than urging men to smoke, as the bad effects of tobacco on health were not known then. Time proved Seally right, especially after the introduction of television in homes, and this was the start of the two men’s growing wealth out of a simple and small practical idea.
The story above, except for the first paragraph of it, is totally fictional, and some may have believed it out of their confidence in what I write. What I did here does not differ much from what many are doing nowadays with bad and sometimes criminal use of social media through publishing and republishing bad news and mostly lies, create mythical stories in order to create chaos and distort the movement of individuals and groups and countries for a certain purpose. So it is necessary to be careful and not believe in any message before looking into it, especially those related to health or politics, or benefits and harms of certain foods, besides other matters that may be confusing to us all, and it is enough to have doubts about a message to erase and forget it.
—Translated by Kuwait Times