“Unfortunately, we get these every year.”

– Pullman police Cmdr. Chris Tennant, after a 21-year-old Washington State University student became intoxicated, fell 10 feet off a sorority house’s fire escape and had to be transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment of serious neck injuries.

“We don’t keep an eye on people just because they’re eccentric. If we did, we’d be keeping an eye on half the citizens of Portland.”

– Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Brian Schmautz, explaining that authorities there aren’t keeping track of self-described pedophile Jack McClellan, recently relocated to Portland from California.

“It’s not without precedent, I’m sure, but boy, it doesn’t happen very often.”

– Chief Justice Gerry Alexander of the Washington state Supreme Court, after Spokane lawyer Steve Eugster submitted a handwritten note, withdrawing his challenge to a pending ballot issue in the Puget Sound area, mere hours before the high court was scheduled to hear him argue it.

“They are in panic mode, and they’re approaching desperation mode.”

– Spokane homeless advocate Dave Bilsland, as 86 low-income tenants of the Otis Hotel, many of them hard-to-place registered sex offenders, face impending eviction.

“These people aren’t just like your friends. They’re like your kids. You’re responsible for their safety. And this kid died because he didn’t have the right equipment. You think about these things, and they add up.”

– Former Army Capt. Jon Soltz, who has formed a group of Iraq military veterans to speak out against the war.

“We set out with a crew of three, and we came back with a crew of four. We’re not getting too much new blood in the shrimp industry, so I guess we have to manufacture our own.”

– Shrimp boat Capt. Ed Kiesel, after helping deliver the baby of his cook, who went into labor 30 miles at sea.

“I’ve been hearing it from the wife, coming to Cabo during the hurricane season. I was going to roll the dice, and, well, here we go.”

– San Francisco engineer Derek Dunlap, who was vacationing in Mexico when Pacific Hurricane Henriette hit Baja California with 85-mph winds, far weaker than Hurricane Felix 1,600 miles away, but powerful enough to close airports and beat up on moored catamarans.

“They’ve always gone out of their way to commemorate it. Historically the anniversary of 9/11 has never been drawn to attacks. It’s drawn to video releases.”

Chief executive officer Ben Venzke of Virginia-based IntelCenter, talking about the timing of Osama Bin Laden’s recent videotape, just before Sept. 11, as a propaganda strategy that’s popular with al-Qaida.

“Did anyone ask them how we’re supposed to be nonpolitical about a national political office? It strikes me as one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard.”

– Gubernatorial press secretary Jon Hanian, after certain Idaho Democrats called on Gov. Butch Otter to replace U.S. Sen. Larry Craig with someone who would not subsequently run for the seat, an action Otter later was giving serious consideration.