“We must reach out and embrace the coffins yet to come, the coffins that have already come, and the coffins being wept over and grieved over around the country.”

— Pastor Barry Foster of Valley Point Baptist Church, speaking at the funeral service for Spc. Harley Smith, a Spokane Valley serviceman who died Nov. 27 in a plane crash in Afghanistan.

“I was always looking forward to the time baseball would crown a new home run king. My opinion on that has changed.”

— Baseball broadcaster Joe Buck, contemplating the possibility of announcing a game when slugger Barry Bonds, who has admitted unknowingly using steroids, breaks Hank Aaron’s career home run record.

“You don’t only just pray for your children. You pray for all of them.”

— Laura Kreiger, mother of a student at Lakeside High School where another student had committed suicide.

“They said it was right because it was in the history book. Now they have to change the history books.”

— Nisqually tribal member Andreya Squally, 17, after Washington state Supreme Court Justice Gerry Alexander and other members of an unofficial “historical court of justice” concluded that Nisqually Chief Leschi should never have been charged with the murder for which he was hanged in 1855.

“Sweet. Can I go snowboarding tomorrow?”

— Steven Faber, as quoted by Dr. Mike Jemmette who had informed Faber that the nail he had accidentally shot himself with might have penetrated his heart.

“Apparently our worst fears have happened in the first 120 days of operation.”

— Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin, following reports that an unknown amount of wastewater, which includes diesel fuel and motor oil, has leaked from a broken pipe at the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co.’s controversial refueling facility, located near Hauser, Idaho, over the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer.

“The deal we have had through four years of litigation is now gone.”

Ralph Cromwell, attorney for a law firm still involved in litigation over the bonds issued for River Park Square, commenting on how an agreement reached by the mall developers and the city of Spokane could affect his client’s case.

“I’ll bet they’re licking their chops in Idaho at the thought of Washington taxing its products more.”

— State Senator-elect Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, commenting on departing Democratic Gov. Gary Locke’s final budget proposal, which includes suggestions for more than $500 million in higher taxes on alcoholic beverages and soft drinks.