Quotables

"It wasn't minutes of terror. It was hours."

Canadian Catharine Morales on being in Majahual, Mexico, when Hurricane Dean (see p. 8) hit. "The walls," she said, "felt like they were going to explode."

"If you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House."

Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, noting the importance of candidates "role modeling what good families should look like."

"A colossally bad idea."

Debra Humphreys, a spokeswoman for the Association of American Colleges and Universities, on the growing trend among high schools of requiring ninth-graders to declare a major.

"A nice job of acting."

Former Pittsburgh Steelers star running back Jerome Bettis, in a new book about his career, on faking a knee injury during training camp in 2000. Bettis said he pretended to injure the knee in order to give his leg some rest without the Steelers cutting him.

"She gave everybody a chance to have strong feelings about her."

Stephen Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, on hotel magnate Leona Helmsley, who died last week at age 87. The colorful Helmsley famously went to jail for tax evasion but also gave away tens of millions to charities.