In my opinion, a CEO has the right to priortize his activities on behalf of the company as he sees fit. So blackout or not he does not have to answer his phone or anwer e-mail if he chooses not to. Having said that, an efficient and effective CEO should have excellent customer service skills and place high value and priority on customer contact or in our case shareholder contact. In a blackout, he may simple want to avoid contact during that short heightened period of scrutiny to ensure there is no chance of even a perception of non-compliance with rules. That is why it is often so quiet before a news release. Like now with FNC. Hope JL meets his Januuary commitment date regarding the Magpie analysis news release.