“I’ve taken the Army’s money for 27 years. This is what I’m supposed to do.”

– Army reservist Terri Fowler, 46, as she prepares to shut down her business and depart from her husband and teenage daughter for an 18-month deployment to Iraq.

“If they don’t do anything upstream, we’re left with the bottom of the bucket.”

– Spokane Indian Tribe water and fish program manager Brian Crossley, describing the tribe’s interest in collaborative efforts to address pollution along the Spokane River.

“They’re killing a game that really means something to people.”

– Gonzaga University basketball player David Pendergraft, after learning that the University of Washington plans to discontinue the annual Husky-Bulldog nonconference game once the two highly ranked Northwest teams have played their scheduled contest next month in Spokane.

“Because he’s the president, he’s the person we can make the scapegoat.”

– North Idaho College faculty assembly Chairman Bill Richards, saying NIC President Michael Burke, a finalist for the presidency of Mercer Community College in New Jersey, gets the blame for some things on the Coeur d’Alene campus that aren’t his fault.

“Chris was only pointing out that the government is not using its resources in a good way to provide real public safety at airports.”

– Stephen Soghoian, whose son Christopher is being investigated by federal authorities after posting to his Web site instructions for making phony airline boarding passes.

“I’m a minister, not a political scientist.”

– The Rev. L. Roy Taylor, chairman of the National Association of Evangelicals, declining to predict the political fallout from news that the Rev. Ted Haggard resigned as president of the association after a male escort alleged Haggard had paid him for sex, a claim Haggard denies.

“When you throw a match, you have to expect a fire.”

– Jerusalem City Council Member Mina Fenton, warning that violence may break out if a gay pride march is allowed to take place in Jerusalem as planned.

“This thing with the witches, it’s for the Americans. They are the only ones who believe in witches.”

– Brazilian Jorge Becher Mezher, explaining that although he doesn’t share some of his countrymen’s concern that Halloween will contaminate Brazilian culture, neither does he think the largely American holiday will become popular in his country.

“It is a terrible thing to have to pump and dump.”

– Genetic counselor and nursing mother Justine Maebius, who had to throw away breast milk while on a trip out of town because the airline would not let her bring it on the return flight if her infant wasn’t with her.