Word: potato
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Most Americans have never heard of Jack Richard Simplot. But they know of his product and doubtless have eaten it. As the "Idaho potato king," as well as the nation's largest supplier and processor of potatoes, Simplot funnels millions of ready-cut spuds to McDonald's, which turns them into millions of French fries to go with its quick-food goodies. But Simplot has a reputation as a wheeler-dealer in his favorite commodity, and last week he found himself entangled in the biggest potato-futures default in the 104 years of the New York Mercantile Exchange...
Even by the standards of the often rowdy commodities market, the potato bust was bizarre. It resulted in 50 million Ibs. of potatoes, worth $4.2 million, not being delivered on schedule, sending almost 1,000 potato-futures contracts into default. That in turn promised to touch off scores of lawsuits and an investigation by Government regulators...
Short Sellers. On May 7, trading in the May Maine potato-futures contract expired after a 15-month term, leaving the unprecedented number of 1,911 contracts unsettled. That meant that owners of contracts to deliver potatoes were still obligated to fulfill their promise. When the final delivery deadline set by the exchange arrived early last week, 997 contracts were still not settled, and none of the 50,000-lb. car lots of potatoes that each contract represents had been shipped from Maine to New York City for distribution...
Simplot will not say how many of those defaulted contracts were his; he claims not to keep close track of numbers. But he and a fellow potato titan, P.J. Taggeras of Othello, Wash., are believed to own all of them. The Mercantile Exchange has already begun moving against the clearinghouses used by the spudmen. Exchange President Richard Levine said the houses would be liable for the cost of the potatoes and required to pay fines for not abiding by the default rules of the exchange. Presumably, the firms will try to get the money from their defaulting clients...
...Potato Latke. But Brando does think. When he arrived in Montana for The Missouri Breaks, he had definite ideas for changing his character which he says "was as heavy as potato latke." (Brando's speech is loaded with Yiddishisms, from his days in New York with Stella Adler, the famous acting teacher, and her family. "I'm all Jew," boasts the Protestant-born Brando...