when you get there, hit the ask the show link to submit a question for our panel or if you would rathil us your questions and comments to, the address is yourbusiness@msnbc.com. >>> the holiday season comes at us faster than expected every year. so make sure your business is ready for the busiest sales quarter by keeping these five tips in mind, courtesy of yfs magazine. one, make a good impression. potential customer maze be coming across your brand for the very first time. so make sure your store windows and website are in order . >>> two, don't forget visual merchandising, give gift items or services better positioning on a online and offline. >>> three, upsell and cross sell. there are more opportunities for add-ones and complimentary merchandise offers. train your sales team to know the ins and outs of everything your company provides. >>> four, have adequate holiday staff. you do not want your customers to get stuck in a long wait. and, five, use social media. engage holiday shoppers on facebook and twitter with sales promotions and entertaining content. bet those unfinished dat

beyond this place of rath and tear but looms the shadow and the shade. yes the menace of the years shall find me unafraid. matters not how straight the gate and how punishment chars the; i am the master of my fate, i am the master of my soul. >> rose: this is a major cull moment -- magical moment in the history of this show to hear you do that. >> thank you. >> rose: he had it and he memorized it and it was his anchor. >> yes. >> rose: when the winds were at their worst. >> yes, yes. and he wrote this moment out and gave it out. and i think it served the purpose it needed to serve because when francois and the team built robin island, this poem played in francois' head. and i think he knew then that not did they have to win but could. >> rose: the state department official. you got your ph.d. at oxford. and you had an opportunity to know people that knew mandela. tell me about them and tell me about the man that you learned about and then knew. >> well first of all charlie, it's great to be on this show. and the world mourns. a world away, a million year

. >> reporter: a striking port rath painted by a modern master and the focus of a courtroom battle betweenoved the iconic actress and the university she bequeathed her art collection to. ultimately a los angeles jury decided ryan o'neal who had a son with fawcett was entitled to keep the painting which could be worth up to $12 million. but o'neal says to him, it is a priceless reminder of what he lost when fawcett died from cancer in 2009. in court, the actor testified, it is her presence in my life and her son's life. we lost her. it would seem a crime to lose it. on the losing side of the verdict, fawcett's alma mater. the university of texas who claim the portrait, part of a matched pair of canvases painted by anldy warhol in 1980 belonged to them. >> the university of texas had no choice. we had to pursue this matter because farrah fawcett left all her artwork to the university of texas. br but according to o'neal, warhol gave one portrait to him and one to the university. the paining sat in a similar position until 1997, the year fawcett caught o'neal with a younger woman. the univers

not once, but twice. 400,000 commuters felt the rath between the whole thing between the b.a.r.t.management and workers. oh my gosh, the strike raised all kinds of questions over how to best deal with the impasses that really strangle the local economy. for many californians, for many in the bay area, particularly, gosh there's residual anger that still there. that gets to related question, the pension debate. that's the top here. what started in san jose is bouncing from one part of california to another. it has to do with the recent court decision that prohibits san jose from reducing retirement payments but allows the city to go ahead and reduce employees' salaries to fund the benefits. now, the question is, what will happen next? we're only in the first inning of this one, and i'll tell you something, a lot of cities and counties will be leaning pitches one way or another over the year to come. look for zingers from all over the state all starting here in the south bay. watch out. >> yes, some memorable headlines. thanks for compiling that list. >> thanks so much, larry. >>> a

the man oversees a 200 billion-dollar platform and john hundreds sells rath "wall street journal" correspondent lot of people did. jon, i will talk to you first. a lot of people were expected 10 billion. a lot of people calling january or march meeting. is it high time the fed stepped up and did this? >> they thought it was. i think what they were looking at is an economy that's in better, looks like it necessary better shape today than was the case in september when they decided to hold off on doing this. so, you know, the employment numbers have picked up. the growth numbers for the second half of the year look like they're coming in all right. of course there is less fiscal restraint for 2014. so i think, you know, the fed thought it was time to put trigger. ashley: doug, ironically the data today has been pretty weak. i don't know if that has any bearing what the fed said yesterday but you think they should have started tapering back in september? >> absolutely. because back then corporate profits were coming in very strong. you had manufacturing back then was coming in strong, consumer, ho

. >> it doesn't compare to the hot blooded rath of a city after the dallas cowboys seemed to rewrite the definition of meltdown. >> that was an absolute disaster that you can only explain by it being the dallas cowboys. only team in the nfl, the only team in football going to pop warner that can blow a game like that. >> on sunday, the cowboys had a 23-point lead at halftime over the green bay packers. after it was all over, the packers walked out of the stadium with a 37-36 victory. the cowboys' defense couldn't stop the packers' backup quarterback, and all the team had to do was run out the clock in the end. but cowboys quarterback tony romo threw two interceptions, yes, two, in the last three minutes of the game to complete the epic meltdown. after the game, cowboys players mastered the sports cliches that kevin costner's character crash davis, mocked so brilliantly in the classic baseball movie "bull durham." >> we have to play them one day at a time. >> pretty boring. >> of course, it's boring. that's the point. write it down. >> this is obviously a tough one. we're in a positio