'Dotard' and 13 more quotes that defined the week in news
Another busy week in news. Here we highlight human voices — quotes from the past week that moved us, buoyed us — and some that simply stunned us:
From North Korea:
"I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire."
—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Donald Trump
From the Caribbean:
"The wall pulsed, bowed and finally gave, crashing to the floor and sending Hurricane Maria howling into the lobby of the Courtyard Marriott Isla Verde. ... I covered six previous hurricanes and thought I knew tropical cyclones. But Maria was different: meaner, louder, more punishing."
“For the first time in 300 years, there’s not a single living person on the island of Barbuda — a civilization that has existed on that island for over 300 years has now been extinguished.”
—Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the U.S.
From Massachusetts:
"We're told that it was the most severe case they had ever seen for someone of Aaron's age. Aaron Hernandez had an advanced stage 3 of CTE, which is usually found in the median age of a 67-year-old man."
—Lawyer Jose Baez on the Patriots star who died by suicide at age 27 and has been determined to have had chronic traumatic encephalopathy
From Arizona:
"Ain't gonna play with snakes no more."
—Victor Pratt, 48, who survived a rattlesnake bite to the face
From the United Nations:
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”
"It worked. I was talking to a president of an African country yesterday, and he actually cited 'Rocket Man' back to me ... This is a way of getting people to talk about him, but every other international community is now referring to him as 'Rocket Man.'"
From Mexico:
“We managed to get into a collapsed classroom. We saw some chairs and wooden tables. The next thing we saw was a leg, and then we started to move rubble and we found a girl and two adults — a woman and a man.”
—Pedro Serrano, 29, a doctor, after Tuesday's magnitude-7.1 earthquake
From the Emmys:
"And last but certainly not least, my LGBTQIA family. I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different, those are our superpowers. Every day when you walk out the door and put on your imaginary cape, go out there and conquer the world, because the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren’t in it.”
—Lena Waithe, Emmy winner for outstanding writing for a comedy series with Aziz Ansari for Master of None
"These Hollywood phonies kissing up to Sean Spicer are disgusting. I mean, who did this? Who are we talking about here?"
From San Francisco:
"I wasn’t the only woman at the pitch competition. I was the one he hit on because I was Asian."
—Sysamone Phaphon, founder of app FilmHero, illustrating not just the glass ceiling but the "bamboo ceiling" that Asian women in tech must fight
From a famous parent:
“My son wrote a song called ‘I Just Want To Eat Bread Now.’ I knew he’d surpass me but not so SOON.”
And another famous parent:
"Bill Cassidy just lied right to my face."
—Jimmy Kimmel on the Graham-Cassidy health care bill, which was introduced to overhaul Obamacare
And an expert/parent:
“[W]e are not letting our kids develop the capacity to problem solve and cope.”
—Susan Borison, editor-in-chief of Your Teen Magazine, in response to teens and young adults growing up more slowly