"Target is a sexy tenant ... Target is very hot." -- Ward Parkway leasing representative Danielle Short, discussing news that the discount retailer would take over mall space once occupied by Montgomery Ward, March 8
"[I order] the school board to refrain from interfering in any way with the operations of the Kansas City, Missouri, School District." -- U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple, April 19
"It was here or the Kansas City, Missouri, School District. And I do not want to send my kids back to the school district." -- Shawn Gee, a parent who would rather send her kids to asbestos-ridden Benjamin Banneker Charter Academy of Technology than to a Kansas City public school, June 20
"I admit it. I am a tailgater and I do get road rage.... I'll gladly stop tailgating if slow drivers will stay in the slow lanes. Until that time, you'll see me in your rearview mirror -- probably closer than you'd like." -- Rachael Wilkerson of Gladstone, in a letter to The Kansas City Star, July 14
"I was pleased to see KC Wolf salute the beautiful flags at Sunday's football game, with his hand over his heart." -- Evelyn Maxey of Blue Springs, in a letter to the editor of The Kansas City Star discussing the proper way to salute the flag, September 29
"We were told to look for certain things in letters and use our own judgment. For me, I believe in God. If something happens, while I don't want to leave my wife and child, at least I know I'm going to a better place." -- Mission mail carrier Lee Simkins, after two postal workers in Washington, D.C., died of inhalation anthrax, October 24
"[Robert Courtney] would not be able to give his daughter away at her wedding while dressed in a prison jumpsuit and wearing leg chains and handcuffs." -- U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Larson, ruling against the admitted cancer-drug-diluting pharmacist's request for special privileges
"[New University of Kansas football coach Mark Mangino] will sound like a hypocrite if he doesn't make an effort to reach his own full potential by shedding a significant portion of the extra weight he carries." -- Jason Whitlock, obese sports columnist for The Kansas City Star, December 5
"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve." -- Ashcroft, defending hundreds of secret detentions, military tribunals and wiretapping of attorney-client conversations to the Senate Judiciary Committee, December 6
"An enormous amount of leadership time is wasted on people who are complaining, finding everything that is wrong, or simply not participating in solutions. We fondly refer to these as the terrorists." -- UMKC Chancellor Martha Gilliland, in a 1997 article unearthed this year by faculty members unhappy with her leadership, which has resulted in the departure of seven academic deans; in December, Gilliland was appointed by President George Bush to serve on his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a body charged with advising him about research that could help combat terrorism
Air Head
In February, Kansas City Councilwoman Teresa Loar demonstrated her faith in human intelligence by arguing that visitors to Kansas City International Airport, which is undergoing a $183.4 million renovation, might be misled by 7-inch-long bronze arrows inlaid in blue terrazzo in the new floor. The design featured arrows aimed in different directions, in a pattern meant to evoke migration patterns and air currents. But Loar fretted that travelers might take the arrows literally. "In the Midwest, with the Midwestern mentality, if you see an arrow, it's probably taking you somewhere," Loar said. "I am adamant that this will cause confusion." Though the council had signed off on the design a year earlier, it commissioned new art at an estimated cost of $250,000.
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