It's good for everyone ? it's good for families, it's good for all of us. It's going to be busy this next year, too, just going by what's happening lately.

It's a shame this happened. It hurts everybody.

Everyone's tired, but they're happy.

Every indication that they've given us formally or informally is that they don't plan to make any improvements to their proposals.

The Iranian situation is making us all very nervous... We don't seem to be getting anywhere on the diplomatic solutions.

Many of us dismiss talk that does not convey important information as worthless - meaningless small talk if it's a social setting or "empty rhetoric" if it's public. Such admonitions as "Skip the small talk, " "Get to the point," or "Why don't you say what you mean?" may seem to be reasonable. But they are reasonable only if information is all that counts. This attitude toward talk ignores the fact that people are emotionally involved with each other and that talking is the major way be establish, maintain, monitor and adjust our relationships.