Quotables

"Our national assassin."

Nukhet Ipekci of Turkey on Mehmet Ali Agca and his negative effect on Turkey's reputation. Mr. Agca-convicted of shooting Pope John Paul II in 1981 and of murdering Ms. Ipekci's father, newspaper columnist Abdi Ipekci, in 1979-was released from prison last week.

"Perhaps we should give out cell phone numbers for members of Congress so that our patients can call them for help."

Bismarck, N.D., pharmacist Tony P. Welder on the red tape involved in the new Medicare prescription drug program.

"This is probably happening on quite a large scale, and we just have inadequate mechanisms for sorting this out."

Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal, on the publishing of fraudulent research by scientific journals. Editors are looking for ways to screen out hoaxes after Science published the fabricated studies of stem-cell researcher Hwang Woo Suk.

"Maybe he has an exceptionally hard head."

Ron Shurley of Michigan City, Ind., after his 11-year-old grandson, Cameron Schuette, suffered only a slight hairline skull fracture when Mr. Shurley accidentally drove over his head with a pickup truck. Cameron, riding on the tailgate, had fallen off the truck. "He didn't look too worse for wear," Mr. Shurley said. "He was just saying he had a headache."