Belly Achin' - No Futures in Bacon

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange butchered Hog Belly Futures yesterday. The cleaver came down on trading of this wonderful commodity at the closing bell - Friday July 16th in the Year of Our Lord 2011.

The closing had been expected. Trading in pork belly futures had dropped to nearly zero in recent years after the meat industry became integrated and used fresh pork bellies instead of frozen ones to make bacon.

Pork bellies, as the name indicates, are cuts of pork that come from the underside of the hog and are made into bacon. Demand for pork bellies and bacon increases in the summer when tomatoes ripen and people make bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwiches.

Because pork production peaks in the autumn, the frozen pork belly contract was created as a way to give pork companies a means to cover the cost of storing, or freezing, pork bellies until the following summer when they were thawed and processed into bacon, said long-time Chicago trader Bob Short,

"The name sounded attractive. Nobody knew it was bacon. It made people laugh," Short said.

Though Bacon is with us yet, one more historical item has been consigned to the Orwellian Memory Hole and Hog Belly Futures will go the way of carburetors, Conestoga Wagons, Zippo Lighters, Black Jack Gum, CTA Transfer Tokens, Coal Chutes in architecture, and historical sensibilties.

However, a young Korean American genius by the name of Bernard Moon* writes a Blog Silicon Moon which features his poetry. I found his Ode to Bacon most fitting.

Ode To Bacon
Bacon, oh, bacon
You wonderful thing!
The tigers and lions
All rise and sing!

The grease that comes
From your rich loins
Are an unequal sum
To millions of coins.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Teatime, bartime, late night too!
Every meal is a winner
And more enjoyable with you!

Wrapped on scallops,
Or in Korean stew
Nothing makes me gallop
More than you!

Clogging my arteries and veins
With your beautiful juice!
You drive me insane
Like a bull cut loose!

No matter how filthy you originally are
No care to what Vincent Vega thinks
Bacon is the shining star
That kicks the ass of sausage links!!

Bernard Moon

Joseph Addison might gripe that Brother Moon's line might not scan elegantly - could not pass the finger test, and old poetry scansion cranks might agree; however them lines is finger licking Okay!

Read more Bernard Moon poems by clicking my post title.


*

Bernard Moon
Co-founder & CEO of XS Groupe
I'm Co-founder & CEO of Vidquik, a new easy-to-use web conferencing platform, and Co-founder of XS Groupe, an online luxury private sale site. I was previously at a private investment firm, the Lunsford Group, which was involved in real estate, healthcare and other industries. I was Co-founder & VP of Business Development of GoingOn Networks, a social media platform for companies, and also led our product development where BusinessWeek recognized us in their "Best of the Web" list. I co-founded a couple other startups, raised over $50 million in venture capital, and love to help other entrepreneurs as much as possible.

I'm active on a few nonprofit boards, such as the Shih Yu-Lang Central YMCA, which serves the Tenderloin district in San Francisco, and Liberty in North Korea (LiNK).

I grew up in suburban Chicago, and attended Wisconsin (Go Badgers!) and Columbia University. I have a strong interest in public policy, which is what I studied during graduate school, and why I did the Coro Fellowship, a post-graduate leadership development program. I have lived in Springfield, IL, St. Louis, MO, NYC, Hong Kong, Seoul, San Francisco, and now reside in Palo Alto, CA. I enjoy writing and exploring various topics, so I maintain a blog about my random thoughts and write op-eds for various technology blogs, such as VentureBeat. I love to travel, eat, ski, play basketball, and watch our twin girls grow.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-cme-shuts-down-iconic-pork-belly-futures-market-20110715,0,2388573.story