Quotables

"There are no needle marks. There's no alcohol on the breath. You just click the mouse and lose your house."

John Kindt, business professor at the University of Illinois, on the internet being "the crack cocaine" of gambling. The House voted last week to ban the use of credit cards or electronic cash transfers to pay for online bets, but the bill exempts state lotteries and bets on horse races.

"Voters have very short memories and politicians know that."

Julian Zelizer, a professor at Boston University, on the decision last week by Massachusetts lawmakers to put off a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage until after the November elections.

"I don't have any problems eating salad. I just have problems getting it out of the bowl."

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Matt Wise, on being sidelined late last month after he cut his finger on a pair of salad tongs.

"$670"

The selling price, at an auction last week, of a cigar half-smoked by Winston Churchill. The former prime minister reportedly had been smoking the cigar when he arrived at a meeting in October 1950 and was asked to put it out for the meeting. He handed it to a nearby policeman, who kept it.