'We will all be dead by then.' MATIDAISHE NZOU, a Zimbabwean who has lost five relatives to a cholera epidemic, on the news that President Robert Mugabe plans to hold new elections in 2011
'It's a symbol and a warning of how this year is going to be.' GERARDO PRIEGO TAPIA, Mexican Congressman, after masked gunmen attacked the country's top television station for reporting on local drug traffickers
'We can't fire our bears or furlough our sea lions.' JOHN CALVELLI, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, on the New York governor's plan to cut funding for zoos and aquariums
'It's hard to show why terror suspects should be housed in Kansas.' SAM BROWNBACK, U.S. Senator, on the possible housing of Guantánamo detainees in his state, as Barack Obama prepares an order to shut down the prison
'We won't need atomic weapons when U.S. nuclear threats are removed.' NORTH KOREA'S FOREIGN MINISTRY, refusing to disarm and accusing the U.S. of hiding nuclear weapons in South Korea
'Please accept my profound apologies for the terrible inconvenience that I have caused over the past weeks.' BERNIE MADOFF, the Wall Street broker accused of operating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, in a letter to his neighbors published a day before a federal judge allowed him to remain free on bail
'We don't need to make a movie out of the book. We are living it right now.' DAVID KELLEY, president of the Atlas Society, on rumors that Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's novel about excessive government intervention, will be adapted as a feature film
Back & Forth:
Digital TV
'The Obama Administration deserves time to bring order to what has been an appallingly mismanaged process by the Bush Administration.' Senate Commerce Committee chairman JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, proposing a delay in the Feb. 17 switch from analog to digital TV after the Commerce Department ran out of coupons to help subsidize the purchase of converter boxes
'All of our messaging has been about Feb. 17--not just ours--the industry's.' FCC chairman KEVIN MARTIN, arguing that postponing next month's heavily publicized transition will confuse consumers
Media
'What if the New York Times goes out of business--like, this May? It's certainly plausible.' MICHAEL HIRSCHORN, writing in the Atlantic, on the Gray Lady's possible demise amid slumping ad sales
'[Your article], on whether the New York Times can survive the death of journalism, leaves a lot to be desired from the standpoint of ... well, journalism.' CATHERINE MATHIS, Times representative, blasting the Atlantic for "uninformed speculation"
LEXICON
E-mail storm n.-- The result of a mass e-mail in which each recipient responds using the reply-all function
USAGE: "American diplomats have been told they may be punished for sending mass responses after an e-mail storm nearly knocked out one of the State Department's main electronic communications systems." --Associated Press, Jan. 10, 2009
Sources: Wall Street Journal; Christian Science Monitor; New York Times; AP (2); New York Times; Wall Street Journal
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