E-Mail This Article to a Friend QUOTES + NUMBERS The good, the bad and the absurd

"That’s a good paper."

— Steven Spielberg describing the Boston Phoenix to Tom Cruise at the War of the Worlds junket in New York last week. Cruise had been asked a pointed question about the movie’s plot and Scientology by Phoenix film critic Gary Susman. See story and movie review in Arts.

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"Because of the album’s strong imagery and because our East Coast tour ends in Washington, DC, we felt it was a perfect fit. This was a poor judgment call."

— Nike letter of apology to "Minor Threat, Dischord Records and fans of both" for the company’s egregious lifting of the cover art for the band’s 1981 self-titled 7-inch and using it for Nike’s "Major Threat" skateboarding tour poster.

"Simply put, Nike stole it and we’re not happy about it."

— Dischord Records Web site.

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"He’s a man with a heart ..."

— PETA’s Mary Beth Sweetland, complimenting Rick Santorum (R-PA) for his Pet Animal Welfare Statute (PAWS), which would require the USDA to regulate breeders who sell seven or more litters of dogs or cats per year.

WITH

"It was a heinous and dishonest thing to do."

— Santorum’s friend and colleague, Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-TN), apologizing in 2002 for adopting cats from animal shelters, then experimenting on them and killing them while he was a medical student.

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$500

Fine for having an abortion at Liberty University, the evangelical institution founded by the Reverend Jerry Falwell.