"We're talking about words here."

Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean to Tim Russert, defending home state Senate wannabe and current congressman Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist. "Bernie can call himself anything he wants," Mr. Dean said. "He is basically a liberal Democrat."

"124 pounds."

The record-setting weight of a blue catfish caught by Tim Pruitt of Godfrey, Ill., while fishing in the Mississippi River. The fish died last week in transport to a Kansas City store where it was to be displayed in a tank.

"They hate George W. Bush more than they love freedom."

Writer Keith Thompson, a former 1960s "progressive," explaining in the San Francisco Chronicle why he walked away from the American left. "I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives-people who once championed solidarity with oppressed populations everywhere-reciting all the ways Iraq's democratic experiment might yet implode."

"The Arab League is melting at the edges. It is a time of change, in many dimensions."

Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, addressing the need for change ahead of major elections in the Middle East.