Quotables

'Guilty as charged.'

Dan Cathy, president of the Chick-fil-A fast-food chain, on the company's support for "the biblical definition of the family unit." The statement generated strong opposition, including a promise from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to make it difficult for the chain to obtain licenses to open restaurants in his city.

'If James Holmes isn't executed, Colorado may as well throw away its death penalty law.'

Former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman on the gunman who killed 12 people and wounded 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., on July 20. Colorado, a state with a death penalty, has executed only one person since 1977. District Attorney Carol Chambers on July 23 said authorities had not decided whether to seek the death penalty for Holmes: "It will be a conversation we have with the victims before we make that decision."

'What kind of idiot makes that kind of statement?'

Jim Holmes, 52, of Aurora, Colo., after Brian Ross of ABC News suggested on Good Morning America that Holmes, as a member of the Colorado Tea Party, may have been the Aurora, Colo., killer. A different James Holmes, age 24, was the real killer. "How do we take a journalist seriously," said the non-murdering Holmes, "when it's pretty clear they really haven't done any sort of check on their facts?"

'$60 million'

Fine imposed by the NCAA on Penn State University for covering up the sexual abuse of children by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The NCAA on July 23 also reduced the number of football scholarships at Penn State, banned the football team from postseason play for four years, and vacated the team's victories from 1998 to 2011. A report by former FBI director Louis Freeh concluded that the late Penn State coach Joe Paterno and other school officials had known about Sandusky's crimes for years.

'It was on the second bite.'

Delta passenger James Tonjes on discovering a needle inside his sandwich on a July 15 flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis. Tonjes underwent treatment after the needle punctured the top of his mouth. Five passengers discovered needles on flights from Amsterdam the same day. The FBI opened an investigation, but Dutch officials said they did not suspect terrorism.