The Fifth Column: On Ratio Ratiocination or The Fight at the Gas House Gym

Some power utilities depend for survival on the use of very large volumes of natural gas. Securing future supplies of gas at a good price therefore assumes great importance in the minds of the heavyweights of such organizations. So critical is it, that all contract negotiations for natural gas supply are usually conducted “at the highest level,” that is, by the heavyweights in person. This story relates how one heavyweight nearly lost the bout on a knockout to an extra nimble heavyweight of a gas supply corporation.