“I like to do things in Babe’s name. I just don’t want his name mixed up in steroids.”

— Linda Tosetti, granddaughter of Babe Ruth, explaining why she didn’t intend to be present when San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds hit his 714th career home run, tying him with Ruth for second place on the all-time list.

“I believe we’re on our way to a major constitutional confrontation on Fourth Amendment guarantees of unreasonable search and seizure.”

— U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., suggesting that the National Security Agency’s collections of millions of Americans’ phone records could pose problems for the upcoming confirmation hearings for Gen. Michael V. Hayden, President Bush’s nominee to take over the Central Intelligence Agency.

“The appointment of General Hayden is the latest example of President Bush giving promotions to those who have led the greatest attacks on our Constitution and fundamental freedoms.”

— Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“I thought that was kind of strange since we own it – we, the state of Idaho own it. They certainly can’t convey the rights that we have.”

— Idaho’s acting Gov. Jim Risch after hearing, as a member of the state Land Board, that a marina owner wants to sell moorage rights on Lake Pend Oreille for $100,000 and up.

“One hundred million gallons a year? My God! Are you sure you heard that 100 million correctly?”

— Bioengineering coordinator Greg Wright of the Washington state Department of Agriculture, after hearing about the scale of operation anticipated at a biodiesel refinery being planned for Grays Harbor County.

“This would have been a landgrab for pornographers, and ICANN did absolutely the right thing.”

— Charmaine Yoest, a vice president of the Family Research Council, after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers rejected a proposal for the creation of a “.xxx” domain suffix to be used by pornography Web sites.

“(He)’s yelling at me to get out of my pickup. Since he has a gun as well as a camera in hand, I’m not anxious to get out and don’t.”

— Wolf advocate Lynn Stone, talking about a confrontation with an anti-wolf coalition member when both responded to a report of a wolf that had killed and was eating a yearling elk near Ketchum, Idaho.

“Part of the people will see this and say, ‘Gee, these kids are really our future parents and workers, and we need to take care of them.’ The other would say, ‘It is time to send them all home.’ “

— William O’Hare, a senior fellow at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, speculating as to how the country will respond to the growing percentage of U.S. children comprised of racial and ethnic minorities.

“We do no favor to hand students a diploma.”

— California Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, speaking about 47,000 high school seniors who will graduate despite having failed the state’s high school exit exam since a judge ruled it discriminated against low-income students.