Quotable & Notable

“U.S. forces have been well trained to confront nuclear, biological and chemical threats.”

-- Gen. B.B. Bell, the top U.S. Army general in South Korea, saying his forces could decisively defeat any North Korean attack against South Korea

“I think they’re really being irrational and silly.”

-- Doug Rawlings of Maine Veterans for Peace reacting to news that his group had been disinvited from the state’s largest Veteran’s Day Parade. The group has marched in the event in each of the last 15 years.

“This piece of steel meant more to many people than any piece of steel ever. It goes beyond any religion.”

-- Richard Sheirer, former New York City emergency management commissioner, on the 20-foot-high, cross-shaped steel beam that was moved from the World Trade Center site to nearby St. Peter’s Church

“If God created all that is, then God’s image has to be embedded in it somewhere and it’s our job to find it.”

-- Episcopal Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori

“I can never look at a five-dollar bill the same way.”

-- Janis Cooke Newman, author of Diary of a Mad First Lady, did massive research to ensure the accuracy of the historical novel about Mary Todd Lincoln. “But there was a lot I had to imagine, too. For one thing, I had to imagine their entire sex life,” she said.

National Catholic Reporter, October 20, 2006