Perspectives

"They can fight, but they can't get a tattoo?"
Tattoo artist Jerry Layton, who has U.S. Marines flooding his California parlor to beat a coming ban on large tattoos

"You have permission to call me anything you want—except sir, all right? Lord of lords, your demigodness, that'll do."
U2's Bono, joking about his knighthood

"They have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we've got here."
U.S. President George W. Bush, citing two anonymous Iraqi bloggers who wrote that the situation in Baghdad was improving

"I have no rights in the Romanian state because I died in 2005."
Filoftea Popescu, 55, who was mistakenly declared dead by Romanian authorities struggling to conform to EU bureaucratic standards. Popescu was asked to pay a fine to prove she is still alive.

"You can see the flush on their faces. Taking eight or nine meters of cloth off your head releases a certain amount of pressure."
Indian hairdresser Namrata Saluja, on Sikh men shedding their turbans and getting their first haircuts. Up to half of Sikh men have dropped the turban as India modernizes.

Sources: AP (2), New York Times, Reuters, New York Times

© 2007