Verbatim

'I got my work cut out for me.'

DAVID LETTERMAN, on repairing his relationship with his wife after confessing to having sex with female employees. The Late Show host disclosed the affairs, as well as the alleged extortion attempt he faced as a result, on his show Oct. 1

'I don't know what the poker analogy would be. "Please, see all my cards and take my money too"'

ROBERT BARNETT, an expert on Tibet based at New York's Columbia University, blasting the Obama Administration for yielding to pressure to postpone a planned meeting between the President and the Dalai Lama until after Obama's November summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao

'I kind of like being a President.'

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. Secretary of State, presiding over a Sept. 30 U.N. Security Council hearing on sexual violence against women

'I have been waiting and yearning a long time for the day I will be released.'

GILAD SHALIT, an Israeli soldier held captive by Palestinian militants since June 2006, in an Oct. 2 video. The tape, provided in exchange for the release of 20 female Palestinian prisoners, is the first evidence since June 2008 that Shalit is still alive

'I think I'd rather get run over by a train.'

MADONNA, on whether she plans to marry again. The singer recently finalized her divorce from film director Guy Ritchie

'A policeman spit in my face and said, "You will die."'

ROSAMARIA VALERIANO FLORES, a Honduran who was beaten while passing through a demonstration in Tegucigalpa held in support of Manuel Zelaya, the country's ousted President

'The Russian man will always be drinking. Russians don't surrender.'

VASILY PIK, a construction worker in Moscow, on President Dmitri Medvedev's attempts to curb Russia's soaring alcohol-consumption rates

BACK & FORTH

Middle East

'This ... represents a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.'

MUSHIR AL-MASRI, a Hamas legislator, condemning Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for withholding support for a U.N. report that accuses Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza last year

'We have the courage to admit there was a mistake.'

YASSER ABED RABBO, a senior adviser to Abbas, admitting he underestimated the level of anger that the lack of support would incite among Palestinians

Justice

'I hope to hell he stole those airplanes. I would be so proud.'

PAM KOHLER, mother of an 18-year-old Washington State man, Colton Harris-Moore, who has been on the run from police for 18 months after allegedly committing a string of burglaries and joyriding in stolen planes

'I will not have him made into some kind of folk hero.'

MARK BROWN, sheriff in charge of the case, noting the existence of T-shirts and a Facebook fan club that laud Harris-Moore's elusiveness

LEXICON

Fat gap n.--The difference between actual and perceived obesity

USAGE: "Ten million Brits are unaware they are obese because being fat is now seen as the norm, according to new research. They are suffering from a new phenomenon dubbed the fat gap, which has blurred public perception of what is a healthy weight."

--Telegraph, Sept. 23, 2009

Sources: CBS; Washington Post; CNN; BBC; CBS; New York Times; Los Angeles Times

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