I have to look this up every time it’s used:

“Contango is a term used in the futures market to describe an upward sloping forward curve (as in the normal yield curve). Such a forward curve is said to be “in contango” (or sometimes “contangoed”).

Formally, it is the situation where, and the amount by which, the price of a commodity for future delivery is higher than the spot price, or a far future delivery price higher than a nearer future delivery.

The opposite market condition to contango is known as backwardation.”

There’s no end of the fun one can have using the phrases “in contango” and “contangoed” in just the right context. The same is true of “backwardation”. This is interesting, if true. Or not:

The term originated in mid-19th century England, and is believed to be a corruption of “continuation”, “continue” or “contingent”.

I wonder how that corruption worked. How does “ango” get substituted into a word?

And who can forget the most famous use of the word:

We skipped the light contango
turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, ‘There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.’
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well’ve been closed

“I love it when Alphavillers get their nerd on.”

If I were younger, I would feel that way about Tracy, Stacy-Marie, and Izabella. Alas, like Groucho, I’m still ardent, but ineffectual.

Wow, I just looked that up, and I must have remembered the expression, incorrectly, from Testament Of Youth:

“young men who were ardent but ineffectual,”

True enough, I’ve always been this way.

This question is for Felix Salmon, Last July you wrote a column Profile on Daily Journal Corporation. I’d like to know how you got the detailed information, ex. paying subscriber count? were those actual count of paying subscribers?

I’d appreciate your input. I am writing up a paper on adjudication and I selected a few local agencies and DJ among them.

Thank,

L