Top 9 Quotes of the Week 2009

1) "I'm pleased to say that there were more smiles in the House chamber for this opening day swearing-in than I've seen in recent years."

– Austin Rep. Elliott Naishtat on new House speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio (Jan. 16 issue)

2) "[T]he safest place for a woman to live is married to a man."

– Texas Freedom Network's "Just Say Don't Know" report quoting one of various abstinence-only sex-ed programs taught in Texas public schools (Feb. 27)

3) "They can't take our dollars for granted the whole year, then treat our people with such disrespect that one weekend. ... We're going to encourage folks to make our dollars talk."

– Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder on Highland Mall's closure during Texas Relays weekend (April 10)

4) "To paraphrase W.C. Fields, all in all, I'd rather be in St. Louis."

– Brewster McCracken, in his concession to Lee Leffingwell after taking a beating in the polls (and a verbal beating from St. Louis residents offended by his campaign ad slighting the Midwestern city) (May 15)

5) "We did not go into a box of Cracker Jacks and pick the first thing that came out."

– AISD board member Cheryl Bradley (r), accusing the Texas Education Agency of "micromanaging" the hiring of a new Pearce Middle School principal (Aug. 14)

6) "As one of his shareholders and regular customers, I think John should stick to Whole Foods, because he certainly offers no formula for Whole Health Care Access."

– U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, on Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's Wall Street Journal op-ed decrying "socialist" health care reform and instead proposing "free market"-based reforms (Aug. 21)

7) "I regret we ever established a schedule."

– (Now former) Capital Metro CEO Fred Gilliam, in reference to the scheduled, then delayed, start date of MetroRail (Oct. 2)

8) "Make no mistake, this is a difficult decision and one I would rather not have to make."

– Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, on moving to dismiss murder indictments against the two last defendants in the 1991 yogurt shop murders (Oct. 30)

9) "Guezz I am so smart I scare myself."

– From an internal Austin Police Depart­ment e-mail sent by Detective Chris Dunn, trying to gather evidence to justify a police officer's fatal shooting of Nathaniel Sanders II. Dunn has since been fired. (Nov. 13)