Making sure that our city is educated about Islam.

Clarence Wood, Chicago's human-relations commissioner, on the city's first-ever inclusion in Daley Plaza, alongside a Menorah and a Nativity scene, a reproduction of a minaret, the tower used to sound calls to prayer to followers of Islam. Mr. Wood said the aftermath of the 9/11 attack "raises the importance" of the city government's duty to educate its citizens about Islam.

Neither parent can bargain away those rights.

Majority opinion of the Florida 4th District Court of Appeals, ruling that Frederick Silverman had to pay child support for his teenage son despite an agreement the mother of the child, Dr. Silverman's former girlfriend, made 14 years ago never to seek financial assistance. "The rights of support and meaningful relationship belong to the child, not the parent," the court ruled.

It's an unusual situation.

Gerald Corcoran, a lawyer representing Atlantic City, N.J., in a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed against the city by Lorenzo Langford, a casino dealer and former employee of the city's Board of Education. Mr. Langford was elected mayor of Atlantic City last month, making him both the plaintiff in the case against the city and the city's top official.

For the past five years I've been sitting at home, doing nothing.

Mariam Shekeba, appearing on state-run television in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban government. She had been an announcer for children's programs prior to the Islamic government's rise to power, which banished women from public view. "Making sure that our city is educated about Islam."

It was like Ticketmaster at playoff time.

Lt. Cmdr. John Wallach, spokesman for the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, on the response this year to the Adopt-a-Sailor program, in which families play host to Navy recruits for Thanksgiving dinner. So many families volunteered that the Navy ran out of recruits. Volunteers continued calling and sending e-mails even after the Navy stopped taking applications.