Quotables

"To be honest, yes."

Liberal Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, when asked whether he thought his loss on Nov. 7 was good for the country because it gave Democrats control of the Senate.

"He is just sitting there in the catbird seat, and it must be delicious for him."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on her friend Sen. Joe Lieberman and the fact that Democrats, many of whom endorsed Lieberman's opponent this year, now depend on his support to control the Senate by a 51-49 margin. Lieberman, elected as an "Independent Democrat" after losing in the Democratic primary, has refused to rule out becoming a Republican.

"Where do you keep the bomb?"

Riccardo Paulin, a 65-year-old Australian retiree, to a SilkAir flight attendant as a joke when he was trying to find space in overhead lockers during a flight to Indonesia. Paulin was fined over $6,400 for the remark under UN anti-terrorism regulations.

"No man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place."

James Naismith, who invented basketball in 1891 as a Springfield, Mass., YMCA instructor. Naismith, who died in 1939, was scheduled to be part of the first class inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame on Nov. 19.