A late hello from my hotel room in Houston. I just returned from a session with an MBA class at Rice University. My thanks to Dr. Shannon Anderson for the invite — and what ended up being a pretty interesting 2.5 hour session with her students.

Oh, and yes, Shannon and I did have dinner afterwards. No, class did not go until 11 PM.

And what, prey tell, did we discuss? Airlines. Strategic cost management. Gordon Bethune. American Airlines. Herb Kelleher. Doug Parker. Robert Crandall. US Airways. Delta Air Lines. Management compensation. Don Burr.

Don Burr?

Just wanted to see if you were still awake and paying attention.

Before I go and get some sleep before getting up early and winging my way back to the Worldwide Headquarters, a belated Happy 40th Birthday to the Boeing 737.

The workhorse of the industry, the 737 first flew on April 9th, 1967. Since then, almost 5500 have been delivered and more than 7000 have been ordered, making it the most successful jet aircraft ever manufactured.

And yes, I flew on one today, and I’ll fly on another one tomorrow.

Have a good night everyone.