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