what was the overall effect of hurricane sandy on bryson in the northeast? >> guest: i would like to talk about how much my heart goes out to the customers and other people from the storm. it has been great to be out with our employees. especially to see people coming through together. this was an impassable storm. as you know, it hit us right in the middle of our operating area in new jersey and came out with a path that was 1000 miles wide. it impacted us in our physical distribution and our pools and her cables, as you might expect, from the wind and storm surge. and in our central office facilities. our backup power process really had to kick in and carry over 300 central offices that were impacted at the peak of the storm. >> host: how many folks lost power? has everybody got their power back on? if you could please speak to that? >> yes, based on the width of the footprint, we had five and a half was 6 million customers who lost power folks really felt the impact and we felt that on the central office site as well. at the peak of the storm, we had over

jackie bryson. >> good afternoon, ms. bryson. >>> the print was in my row. [laughter] >>> never kiss a frog. good afternoon, directors, and what a good looking and attentive group. i want to thank you for that. >> you can have extra time. go right ahead. [laughter] >> >>> you're not the cutest guy up there, but thank you. [laughter] >>> anyway, [speaker not understood] is really important -- >> [speaker not understood]. [laughter] >>> i'm not going to tell you. anyway, i almost got derailed, but i didn't. the reason i need to have this item severed, and it has to do with the fax machine ate my homework. i followed the instructions on council's letter to me on checking friday, november 2 to make sure november 6 was going to happen and that this item was going to be on the agenda. so, i called and asked to have a copy of the agenda with the appropriate pages faxed to me. the fax machine ate the fax. i had to call back this morning because nothing came on monday. and i got the fax today. i got it this morning. i wanted to have an opportunity, but i needed somet

bryson if you knew about someone from funds to. come. as. per what. the club . claimed. good leverage tory was able to build a news most sophisticated. fortunately. found anything turns mission to teach creation why it should care about humans in the. dish is why you should care only. industry claims the process is perfectly. serious quests that brings nothing. but the environment. and the industry isn't telling. the goddamn why. they're here to. make as much money as they can and get. many more hospitals where you can get education about sexual health family planning things that you couldn't do in the time of the taliban. in the time of the taliban you couldn't even leave your house. after you think you did this. to seven years and this family planning. is ruined. and warm and. in the biz and talk about the family for the names of the midst of war to me to. tell you there's not a child. the films that i produce some mainly about women's rights. should i tell stories about the problems that afghan women face in their lives when i do i make different types of films artist

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you guys ever read bill bryson's books? i love his books because i learned a lot and i did know i learned anything. that's kind of what i try to do with his. defeats in history and then you start out with what happened when i was commissioned as lieutenant and kind of the process is that it takes to become a pilot. than the fighter pilot after that. talk a little bit about in the first gulf war, there's some funny things in there, too. you know, it's hard not to spend 20 years doing something without some funny things. my first combat mission was a very for a long day that culminate in the officer's club, in turkey. there's some amusing stories in the. won't ruin the book for you. and then i did an exchange two with the egyptian air force for year and a half. i had to go off to school and learn how to speak arabic and to learn about them and how they think and how they operate. got to go to that for you, which was pretty interesting. put a check in there about the called fly like an egyptian. anybody here old enough to reme

bryson's books? i've learned a lot and never realized i was learning. tickets in history and figure out what was happening when i was commissioned in the process it takes to become a pilot and a fighter pilot after that. i talk a little bit about the first gulf war. case in running things in there, too. you know, it's hard not to spend 20 years doing something without some funny things. my first combat mission is a very, very long day that culminated in the officer's club and there's some amusing stories in there. i won't ruin the book for you. i didn't exchange tour with the egyptian air force for a year and a half. i had to go off to school and learn to speak arabic and learn about them and how they think and how they ought to. got to do that for a year, which is interesting. i put a chapter in their called fly like an egyptian. anybody here old enough to remember the egyptians? anyway, i can come some amusing anecdotes and that you are spent some not so amusing. i think it opens with a test site and as soon as iraq up into decline, thinking how cool

. >>> joining us with more on black friday and what it means for the economy, jay bryson from wells fargohow does the shape of the consumer compare this year compared with this time last year. >> year over year sales this year will be around 4%. last year it was 5.5% or so. some of that is a price effect, lower prices this year so in general we cut through it all the consumer is holding up right now, kind of like they were last year as well. >> is it significant that unemployment this time last year was 9% and it's 7.9% this time? >> we have created 2 million jobs over the last year, another thing that helps here is the fact that consumer confidence is starting to trend up as well. what's that a function of? maybe it's because house prices are starting to stabilize and move up. those things help us here but just given the fact that you don't have the pricing power that you did last year at this time in terms of nominal year over year sales i think it's going to be tough to beat that 5.5%. volumes may hold up but in terms of nominal sales which most retailers look at, i think it's tough to

bryson should be acknowledged for having done the best job. we need to look at how and why they were successful and then all the stuff he did, you have to make that standard. we should spread the knowledge so that everybody else performs as well. >> going back to what you just said, and what you wrote on your blog, private industry taking over this infrastructure and having control of it. recently, the company's succeeded in not having to put it back up battery power on their cell towers. something you wrote about. if you would, a little bit more about this. >> we need to move away from the idea that this is not like the old system. therefore there can be no regulation, we are all dependent on this stuff now. no matter what kind of a private company you are, you still, if you are wal-mart you still have to put in a fire suppression system. it is not a violation you build it with private capital but we need to have basic public safety rules. these networks are providing critical services in an emergency. this is the time when you need to be con