Verbatim

'I nearly had a heart attack.' PAUL KALAS, of the University of California, Berkeley, whose team of scientists snapped one of the first photographs of a planet outside our solar system

'Is Kashkari a chump?' REPRESENTATIVE ELIJAH CUMMINGS, questioning Neel Kashkari, manager of the Treasury Department's $700 billion rescue plan, after bailout recipient AIG spent $503 million on executive bonuses

'Today the school is open, but there are no girls.' MEHMOOD QADERI, principal of the Mirwais Mena girls' school in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after a group of men attacked 15 girls and teachers with acid

'You know, they're not expecting miracles.' BARACK OBAMA, President-elect, when asked during an interview on CBS's 60 Minutes what voters expect of him when he takes office

'It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world, and it hurts just as much.' AMY TAYLOR, an Englishwoman who filed for divorce after she discovered that her husband had been having an affair in the online role-playing game Second Life

'Well, now I'm screwed. I can't sell.' MARK CUBAN, Dallas Mavericks owner, in a 2004 call with the CEO of Mamma.com about the company's shares; Cuban faces charges of insider trading for selling his stock after the conversation to avoid a $750,000 loss

'If President-elect Barack Obama can forgive, so can we.' THOMAS R. CARPER, Democratic Senator from Delaware, on allowing Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to serve in the Democratic caucus despite Lieberman's campaigning for John McCain

Back & Forth:

Iraq

'We are a professional army, and professional units don't conceal their identity by wearing masks.'

Lieut. Colonel STEVE STOVER, U.S. military spokesman, on the decision to bar Iraqi interpreters from wearing ski masks to disguise themselves, citing security improvements

'Why risk the lives of those who work with us?'

Staff Sergeant JEREMY ZIEGLER, stationed in Baghdad. More than 300 Iraqi translators have been killed for working with U.S. troops

Drilling

'They added 51,000 acres of tracts near Arches, Dinosaur and Canyonlands without telling us about it.' CORDELL ROY, Utah's chief park-service administrator, blasting the Bureau of Land Management for its plans to auction land near the iconic Arches National Park for oil and gas exploration

'There are already many parcels leased around the parks.'

BLM state director SELMA SIERRA, denying that her agency failed to notify the state's park service about the December auction

LEXICON

meh adj.--Signifying boredom or indifference; a term first popularized by The Simpsons

USAGE: "There is nothing meh about the journey of the latest entry in the Collins English Dictionary. Rather, it illustrates how e-mail and the internet are creating language."

--TIMES OF LONDON, NOV. 17, 2008

Sources: New York Times; Bloomberg; AP; CBS; TIME.com AP; CNN

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