Top 10 quotes of the year

Whenever there is tragedy or triumph or just plain curiosity, we can

always rely on someone to come through and put it into perspective. And

1999 was no different. So, we’ve put together those one, and sometimes

two, liners that left an impression with us. Hope you enjoy hearing the

words all over again.

“It is insanity.”

-- Gary Monahan, mayor of Costa Mesa on learning the news that a man had

just driven into Southcoast Childhood Learning Center, killing two

children and injuring several others.

“Oh great, now we have to find 51 friends.”

-- Ron Downey, on learning that his wife, Mary, had won a contest giving

them a free lunch for 51 of their closest friends.

“The lights are always off up here.”

-- Dennis O’Neil, then Newport Beach’s mayor, after being asked if the

lights on the dais could be dimmed during a slide presentation.

“Alo reaches out and grabs an A-1 Steak Sauce bottle and hits Wood and

cuts his head, and then they start rolling around on the floor. The

officers come in, join in on the fight with Wood and finally subdue

Wood.”

-- Ron Smith, of the Costa Mesa Police Department, on a fight at Norm’s

Restaurant.

“We’re teenagers, and we love getting presents for Christmas. We were

thinking how sad it was that other kids weren’t as fortunate.”

-- Lauren McMeikean, who set up a Christmas toy drive with her friend

Kara DeMille. The two 13-year-olds volunteer at the Someone Cares Soup

Kitchen.

“I think the name turned a lot of people off.”

-- Helen Wick, a Balboa Island resident, after Bad Ass Coffee Co. closed

its island store.

“What amazed me was that someone decided, ‘Let’s take these things and

grind them up and stick them up our nose.’ ”

-- Robert Cunard, Corona del Mar High School assistant principal, on high

school girls’ use of the prescription drug Ritalin as a weight-loss aid.

“We were just thinking, ‘What if this was on C-SPAN?”’

-- Christopher Cox, Newport Beach’s congressman, on meetings of his

committee on Chinese espionage of U.S. military technology.

“Will this stop kids from smoking? I don’t think it will. Will the

ordinance send a message to your kids? Yeah, it will. It’ll say, ‘You

kids can’t be trusted and your parents don’t know what they’re doing.”’

-- Doug Scribner, a Costa Mesa resident who works with youths, on a city

ordinance to regulate tobacco sales.

“About 10 years ago, I looked at my blood donor’s card and saw I had 50.

So I thought, what the hell, I’ll go for 100.”

-- Ralph Clark, after reaching his goal of donating 100 pints of blood.