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Billybob, I loved the homburg story. Sometimes all the words in the world don't suffice, and a physical demonstration is required.

My father (who is still among us, albeit in a diminished capacity) was a general contractor and commercial real estate developer. He was the developer of an office building of substantial size, and was on the line personally, as was his company, for the repayment of the construction loan, which was, as I recall, at prime plus 3 or 4, adjusted monthly.

Oh, one more thing: this was during the Administration of a certain peanut farmer. So we're talking a rate of 20%+ for much of the construction process, payable until the building was complete, whereupon the construction loan would roll into a mortgage. Mortgage payments, of course, would be offset by rental income, but the construction loan was purely money flowing out. Or hemorrhaging. So time was indeed money; each day's delay in rolling the construction loan into the long-term financing cost something on the order of $30,000.

If my father had worn homburgs, he might well have stomped one at each meeting with the subcontractors. Instead, he arranged for $30,000, in one-dollar bills, to be dumped onto the conference table at such a meeting, as a demonstration of the cost of one day's delay. It was certainly attention-getting.

Dr. Rice, I think, has the ability to get her point across without physical props. While I regret her decision, I respect it, and I don't expect it to change.