1997: A Year in Quotes

“They act like Westside KU Klux Klansmen.” Councilman Nate Holden, charging that calls for council members Laura Chick and Mike Feuer were racist and politically motivated.

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“I have no comment on my comment.” Councilman Nate Holden. See above comment.

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“They can keep us from being Braves on our shirts and on our merchandise, but they can’t keep us from being Braves in our hearts.” Birmingham High track champion and cross-country runner Tiffany Burgess on the LAUSD ban on the Van Nuys high school’s Indian mascots.

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“If I was still gangbanging, my mission would be to kill. . .” Christopher Rios of Van Nuys, referring to the Valley Unity Peace Treaty, which began its fifth year in October.

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“It seemed so relaxed in there with everyone doing their work and then suddenly--baby! There was a baby in the room!” Aran Paik, 17, who watched a doctor deliver a baby by caesarean section at Glendale Adventist Medical Center as part of Take Our Daughters to Work Day.

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Someone has to go first.” Dr. Charles Farthing, a North Hollywood practitioner, who volunteered to inject himself with a live, weakened strain of HIV to test a proposed AIDS vaccine.

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“Some came the first day, and the next day they didn’t come back. I think the kids scared them.” Marcella Quezada of West Hills on her search for baby sitters for her 2-year-old quintuplets.

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“Nothing is more traumatic for us than to see someone giving their life ... especially someone who dies at the hands of a violent criminal.” LAPD Capt. Richard Wemmer on the ambush shooting of Glendale Police Department investigator Charles Lazzaretto in a Chatsworth warehouse.

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“This not going to be an easy fight. Power is never easily relinquished.” Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) on the issue of San Fernando Valley seceding from the city of Los Angeles.

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“I just fly the airplane and it does the work.” Legendary pilot Chuck Yeager on the Oct. 19 reenactment at Edwards Air force Base of his historic flight to break the sound barrier 50 years ago.

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“Little League is supposed to be a game. It is not supposed to be a legal struggle. I see no irrevocable injury ... except to the egos of the parents.” Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne, denying a request by lawyers for the Woodland Hills Sunrise all-stars for a court order reinstating two disqualified players. The players’ uniforms hang on the dugout fence, above.

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“Then they brought Ellen out of the closet and I thought:’That’s it. Everybody out of the pool.’ They have really taken a dive in the last few years.” The Rev. Wiley S. Drake, on the Southern Baptist Convention’s boycott of the Walt Disney Co., in protest of the company’s “gay-friendly policies.

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“I realized this could be the last time. This could be the end. I yelled, ‘We’ve got to fall back. We’re in the kill zone.” LAPD Det. William “John” Krulac, one of four officers wounded in the Feb. 28 shootout with two heavily armed--and armored--bank robbers in North Hollywood. At left, a local resident peers through the bullet-damaged window of a vehicle the day after the shootout.

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“When you have a certain God-given talent and you like something, you obviously enjoy doing it. And that8s all I want to do. ... Why should I live pennilessly is a real scandal.”

X-rated actress Dalny Marga Valdes of Canyon Country, who hs filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations seeking to reverse a decision by the Screen Actors Guild denying her membership.

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“I just wanted to be with the woman I loved. And now all this.” Charles Barnes, 92-year-old retired Glendale businessman, who faces jail and a fine for eloping.

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“Babette went out her little doggy door to go potty. She screamed when the snake bit her.” Jackie Torgerson, who watched helplessly as her pet longhaired Chihuahua was devoured by a 7-foot boa constrictor on the patio of her Chatsworth home.

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“Under California law, there is no compensation for bereavement over a dead dog.” Former New York Mayor Ed Koch as presiding judge on “The People’s Court” in the case of the snake vs. Chihuahua following the death of Babette.

(B1) ‘ When you have a certain God-given talent and you like something, you obviously enjoy doing it. And that’s all I want to do. . . . Why I should live pennilessly is a real scandal. ‘ X-Rated Actress Dalny Marga Valdes, left, who filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board to reverse a decision by the Screen Actors Guild denying her membership

1997: A YEAR IN QUOTES, B2