The longer this goes on, the worse it's going to be for shippers. They're still getting in holiday cargoes and freight. The longer they delay, the worse it's going to be to dig out from the mess.

I talked to several people smiling when they came out of rate negotiations.

I think the new rules raise the bars, but we're not sure how high. Their focus has been on making the final rules even less definite than the proposal they came out with last October. We only know what the rules mean when a case comes along and they go through it and analyze it.

I don't see any consistent trend toward improvement at all.

The travel industry is very interested in building up this holiday season travel market. Part of the reason, of course, is that right now is really a dead time of year for business travel.

It had elements of Miles Davis and Billie Holiday and little horn pieces. The way he combined that, I was like, ?Hmm. I bet he would get where I?m trying to go with this record.? It was taking a chance. God knows if he would even do it because it was kind of his first time, I think, even venturing into the ?pop? world. I knew that it would be a different and new thing for him.