Joseph Buckley (Bear Stearns): Your expectations for food costs for next year are an increase of about 2%. Are those still your thoughts and how much of that is locked under contract?

Brad Richmond: Our opinion on that hasn’t changed.

David Palmer (UBS): Your profit guidance in February for the second half was about $360 million to $385 million, which implies about $170 million to $195 million in the fourth quarter, which is about 17% to 34% growth. Could you give some insight as to what might be driving that guidance and what gives you that confidence?

Clarence Otis: We continue to have the visibility on the cost lines. We continue to expect our food costs with the pricing and things that we put in place earlier in the year to have some improvement there. On labor, we continue to get further along from the minimum wage increases. The opening schedule on the year-over-year comparison becomes a little bit more normalized and to a point, the synergies are significant drivers.

John Ivankoe (J.P. Morgan): You mentioned about Red Lobster broadening appeal. As we weigh out the plan for fiscal 2009 and even for the fourth quarter of 2008, could you give timing of specific deliverables that are going to be put into place at the store level or the brand level ?

Andrew H. Madsen: The three biggest things that we are working on sequentially that are going to change how people think and behave as it relates to Red Lobster are; a more consistently strong advertising and promotion; a menu that’s updated with broader appeal; and beginning the process of a remodel effort that’s going to change the look and feel of the buildings.

The advertising and promotion effectiveness continues to get better and more consistent at Red Lobster. There’s still opportunity to improve that. The new menu is something that’s in test now and we would look to have introduced later in the second quarter of next fiscal year. The remodel, which is going to be obviously a major change to atmosphere, which is one of the bigger opportunities, is also in test in a number of restaurants. That test is going to be expanded and refined in the fourth quarter this year and we would expect to have picked a design and begun implementation of that towards the end of the second half of next fiscal year.

Clarence Otis: In addition, as we look back over the last couple of years, Red Lobster has done a number of things that are starting to make changes. The promotional calendar for this year is much stronger than it was last year, even though there’s still significant work to be done. The introduction of fresh fish has made a meaningful difference in how some consumers perceive it, plate ware changes, a lot of those things are already having an effect and we are building on that. Red Lobster is outperforming Knapp-Track even though the average check for Red Lobster is appreciably higher than the average check for the Knapp-Track benchmark. We are therefore seeing some progress in the marketplace masked a little bit by the consumer environment we are currently in.

John Ivankoe (J.P. Morgan): In terms of advertising, I recall that there was some discussion of a real change in 2009. Is that something that you are still thinking about or would it be an evolution from the current message that you are sending to consumers?

Andrew H. Madsen: It’s going to be more an evolution that involves a change in the type of food that’s advertised. We’ve moved well away from deep discounting but we want to advertise food in a way that demonstrates culinary expertise more than we have in the past, which tended to focus more on quantity. That’s going to be the biggest change, as well as emphasizing freshness more than we have in the past.

Jeffrey Omohundro (Wachovia): On the current promotional initiatives and efforts to drive traffic in this environment, can you comment on the couponing strategy in terms of how it compares with prior years and what your thoughts are about this type of discounting in general?

Andrew H. Madsen: The coupon timing you are referring to isn’t a change year-over-year. The timing is different by a week or two but the notion of having a coupon out to promote trial, to have people go in to Red Lobster and see some of the new Lobsterfest dishes is the same as it was a year ago and so that’s not an increase.

As it relates to discounting, we tend to think more about giving people a reason to visit and that is either around compelling news, new dishes, or around value. We think about value differently than we do deep discounting, so the starting at $9.95 price point that Olive Garden had, for instance, or during the World of Shrimp flavors promotion that Red Lobster had, where they were featuring a range of items at moderate price points, those are more the things we think we need to do as opposed to deep discounting in the current environment.

Glen Petraglia (Citigroup): In terms of Red Lobster specifically, Easter is falling a little bit earlier. Would you have gotten a couple of weeks of extra benefit from Lobsterfest in this quarter?

Brad Richmond: There was a one-week shift forward but the impact of that wasn’t that meaningful to the quarterly performance.

Bryan Elliott (Raymond James): Comparable store sales are down 3.3 but you noted a decline in labor costs. Can you deconstruct that, because that seems a little counter-intuitive with a same-store sales decline of that magnitude?

Brad Richmond: In Longhorn, we are trying some different approaches in terms of wage management and we are having initial strong success with that. During the course of the quarter, we rolled that out concept wide, and we’ve seen the positive results. We are evaluating that and potentially could consider that for our other brands as well.

Larry Miller (RBC Capital Markets): You mentioned improving the effectiveness of Longhorn advertising. Can you elaborate on that?

Brad Richmond: The biggest things we’re currently working on is how to have advertising that still reflects the brand character of Longhorn, being a comfortable western steakhouse, but also has harder hitting news and reasons to visit in the short-term. The types of dishes that we put in the advertising, more new dishes versus items that are off the existing menu and don’t have the same special call to action in the near-term. The way we present the dishes in the advertising is to emphasize the news more aggressively.

Brad Luddington (Keybanc Capital Markets): Can you clarify on the integration costs and purchase accounting adjustments in the third quarter? You mentioned 33 basis points on G&A. Is that correct and was there any impact on restaurant expenses or depreciation?