Quotable & Notable

“Any holiday that prescribes serving fried foods is guaranteed for success.”

-- Food writer Matthew Goodman on the Hanukkah latke. Originally made with cheese, latkes are now made with an assortment of vegetables fried in oil, symbolizing the miraculous oil in a lamp that lasted eight days when Jews recaptured the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 165 B.C.

“This trilogy is actually responsible for helping me stay Catholic.”

-- Donna Freitas, professor of religion at Boston University, defending Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials books. The first, The Golden Compass, is now a film some Christian critics say “will poison kid’s minds with atheism.”

Presidential “candidates are talking so much about faith that one would think they wanted to be in the College of Cardinals rather than the Hall of Presidents.”

-- Jonathan Turley, professor of public interest law at George Washington University, writing in USA Today

“We are not preaching any type of civil disobedience, we’re just simply saying ... we’re not going to take the time to look for a green card, we’re going to minister and show them Christ’s love.”

-- The Rev. Robert Wilson of Ardmore, Okla., explaining a vow to ignore a new state law that makes it illegal to aid or assist undocumented immigrants

National Catholic Reporter, December 7, 2007