In dealing with the press, do yourself a favor, stick with one of three responses: (a) I know and I can tell you; (b) I know and I can't tell you; (c) I don't know.

Music is important. It says things you heart can't say any other way, and in a language everyone speaks. Music crosses borders, turns smiles into frowns, and vice versa. These observations are shared with a hope: that, when schools cut back on music classes, they really think about what they're doing - and don't take music for granted.

And now the sequence of events in no particular order.

We are the "can do" country. We adjust to situations better than any people in the history of the world... We adjust to change.

Very big business is in bed with very big government in Washington, and has more to do with what the average person sees, hears and reads than most people know.

I'm a believer in what your record is. I am what my record is - some of it good, some of it bad, some of it hard to tell.

Texas: 32 electoral votes, another of the so-called big enchiladas or if not an enchilada at least a huge taco.