The letter itself:
"For several years since I have been in this country, I have experienced a strange syndrome whenever I have eaten out in a Chinese restaurant. The syndrome, which usually begins 15 to 20 minutes after I've eaten the first dish, last for about two hours without any hangover effect. The most prominent symptoms are numbness at the back of the neck"--
Ira Glass - He runs through the symptoms that he's observed. Then he runs through the possible causes for this strange numbness, and eliminates them one by one. Soy sauce? No. Cooking wine? No. And then he gets to the sentence that's going to live on for a half century. Quote, "Others have suggested that it may be caused by the monosodium glutamate seasoning used to a great extent for seasoning in Chinese restaurants."
Jennifer Lemesurier -And that one line is what spawned this entire myth.
Ira Glass -The letter was signed--
Jennifer Lemesurier - Robert Ho Man Kwok, MD.
As is later covered, the letter was actually written by a Dr. Howard Steel. Here is the story behind it, with the journalist Lilly Sullivan discussing recorded interviews with Steel about it:
Lilly Sullivan - Howard's friend Bill was a doctor, too. They'd eat, drink, and talk shop. And they got to talking about being published in medical journals.
Howard Steel - Yeah, Bill Hanson, he said, you know, you're stupid, Steel, number one. You shouldn't expect to send articles out and get them published in these dumb journals.
Lilly Sullivan - Howard's friend was a doctor of internal medicine, which he was constantly reminding Howard is a much smarter breed of doctor.
Howard Steel - He told me that it was impossible for someone as stupid as an orthopedic surgeon, which I was, to write an article that could be published in something as magnificent as a New England medical journal. That was a threat, and he was willing to make a bet.
Lilly Sullivan - Bill bet Howard $10 that he couldn't get published there. It's one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, which Howard took as a challenge.
Howard Steel - And I decided, well, I'll write a little article and send it over there. So I went home and I just sat down and wrote a letter to the editor of the Journal of Medicine in New England. And I didn't sign it with my name, but I signed it Ho Man Kwok-- H-O, one word, M-A-N, one word, Kwok, K-W-O-K, figuring that someone, when they got this letter, would realize that what that word was was a breakdown of a not nice word we used to use all the time when someone was a jerk. We call him a human crock of you know what.