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It's hard to imagine anything more serious than a trial on charges of international terrorism. The suspect faces life in prison and his would-be victims, who prosecutors say closely escaped a fiery death, offered testimony that sealed his fate. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009, pleaded guilty on Wednesday morning after just one day of testimony as federal prosecutors laid out their case against him. Abdulmutallab, you'll remember, tried to detonate a chemical bomb he had hidden in his underwear as the plane flew over Detroit, but after it flared up it failed to explode. Witnesses for the government on Tuesday described a chaotic scene in which passengers rushed to subdue a man bent on killing them over a major city. But for all its gravity, the short-lived Abdulmutallab trial has grabbed imaginations because of its abundance of surreal, and at times even funny, descriptions of his thwarted attack attempt. One thing about Abdulmutallab's guilty plea: It will save him further embarrassment at trial.

"Dude, your pants are on fire": The quote that led the Detroit Free Press's coverage got wide play on Twitter. Los Angeles news anchor Pam Cook declared it the "quote of the week." Scott Cassel, a Twitter user following the story, encapsulated people's feeling about the line: "I know this is serious, but read it and see if u smile." The quote came from Michael Zantow, a passenger from Wisconsin, who sat behind Abdulmutallab and testified on Tuesday. From the Free Press's testimony blog:

Zantow noticed Abdulmuttalab put a blanket over his head, prompting a flight attendant to ask him if he was okay. “I saw movement… as he was pulling an airline blanket over his head and shoulders,” said Zantow. After that, maybe 4-5 minutes later, Zantow heard a loud pop that sounded like a firecracker. He couldn’t tell exactly where it came from. After the pop, “everyone kinda looked around,” Zantow said. About 30 seconds later, a passenger yelled: “Hey dude, your pants are on fire.”

Adult diapers: Reporters seemed to struggle to describe Abdulmutallab's "bulky" underwear in more serious terms. Zantow testified that "they were bulky and they were burning," and reportedly got a laugh from the jury when he compared them to child's pull-up diapers. The comparison made it into The New York Times, where reporter Monica Davey wrote that "his underwear looked peculiar, almost like a child’s pull-up or an adult diaper."