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A digest of the past year’s prophetic and interpretive thought

“We are determined to do everything in our power to contain this oil spill and resolve the situation as rapidly, safely, and effectively as possible.” —Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP

“The day that we’ve been fearing is upon us.” —Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

“This is probably the biggest environmental disaster we have ever faced in this country.” —Carol Browner, White House energy adviser

“I mean, accidents happen.” —Joe Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut

“You know, when I woke up this morning and I’m shaving, and Malia knocks on my bathroom door and she peeks in her head and she says, ‘Did you plug the hole yet, daddy?’ ” —Barack Obama

“If the ‘top hat’ doesn’t work, we’re going to try the ‘hot tap’? Wait a minute, you’re not coming up with new ideas, you’re just scrambling letters around.” —Jon Stewart

“This is probably the most complicated undersea operation that has ever been conducted.” —Thad Allen, national incident commander for the spill response

“The ocean will take care of this on its own.” —Rush Limbaugh

“I’d like my life back.” —Hayward

“We ought to take him offshore and dunk him 10 feet underwater and pull him up and ask him, ‘What’s that all over your face?’ ” —Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana

“Our job is to keep the boot on the neck of BP to ensure it meets its obligations.” —Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior

“I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown—in this case, a twenty-billion-dollar shakedown.” —Joe Barton, a Republican congressman from Texas

“We care about the small people.” —BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg

“This spill began with a bang, ends with a whimper, and leaves a number of issues still screaming for attention.” —Ed Markey, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts

“No one has ever said, ‘It’s over, we’re going home.’ ” —Coast Guard incident commander Dan Lauer