SAY WHAT?

"Unless I get something real good for (Senate Candidate 1), shit, I'll just send myself, you know what I'm saying. ... I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I'm saying. And if I don't get what I want and I'm not satisfied, then I'll just take the Senate seat myself. ... (The Senate seat) is a (expletive) valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing."

FBI transcript of wiretapped phone call in which Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (ABOVE) spoke with an advisor on Nov. 3, by which time it was evident Illinois Sen. Barack Obama would win the presidency and leave a vacant Senate seat. Gov. Blagojevich was arrested last week on charges of attempting to sell the appointment.

"My wife and I were listening to the radio, and when someone said 'hi-fi' the word 'sci-fi' suddenly hit me. If my interest had been soap operas, I guess it would have been 'cry-fi,' or James Bond, 'spy-fi.' "

Forrest J. Ackerman, editor of the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, explaining to the Los Angeles Times in 1982 how he came to coin the populaer term for science fiction. Ackerman died Thursday of heart failure; he was 92.

"We have to provide a blood transfusion to the patient right now to make sure the patient is stabilized."

President-elect Barack Obama, in a pre-taped interview aired on NBC's "Meet the Press" DEC. 7, explaining why he favored a now dead deal that would have loaned $14 billion to the largest American automakers as part of a federal takeover which would have put them under the control of a "car czar."

"If you work for state government, you understand you get this. It is in job announcements."

Dennis Mallory, executive director of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 4041, explaining why state employees will sue if the Legislature attempts to balance the state budget by canceling the 4.5 percent annual "step" raises expected by 57 percent of state employees.