$3 for 3 months. Save 90%.
$3 for 3 months. Save 90%.

Age-old questions and new-age quotes

Tim Sullivan
  • Indiana issues highlight week's more memorable remarks

You Can Say That Again has long been old-school and old-fashioned, with an Old Testament sense of retribution and a wardrobe so aged it is eligible for AARP.

Now, we are just old: 60. The new 59. Though this entitles us to all sorts of swell senior discounts, it also means we're bombarded by advertising for erectile dysfunction drugs, fallen-but-can't-get-up gadgets and prepaid funerals. It means our tastes are out of step, our references are out of date and that Olympic gold is likely out of reach.

"Shall I part my hair behind?" asked T. S. Eliot. "Do I dare to eat a peach?"

No and yes.

Still, like Conrad Birdie – see reference, dated – we've got a lot of livin' to do. Places to go. People to see. Sports quotes to share.

Here's this week's Top 10, timely if not timeless:

10. Doc Rivers, Los Angeles Clippers coach, after a disturbing loss to the Golden State Warriors: "If this was a playoff series, we'd lose in four games. It would be a destruction." (Yahoo! Sports)

9.Joe Maddon, Chicago Cubs manager, on daring to dream: "You have to set your goals high, because if you don't set them high enough you might hit your mark, and that's not a good thing. We're gonna talk World Series this year, and I'm gonna believe it. It's in our future." (Introductory press conference)

8. Denny Hamlin, NASCAR driver, on the polarizing Brad Keselowski: "You're just looking for someone to say, 'Man, I'm sorry I ruined your day. I screwed up. I apologize.' When that doesn't get said, then it immediately lights a fire in your stomach that he doesn't have any remorse. He's just like, 'Oh well, it's your problem.' " (USA Today)

7.Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati Bengals coach, on his team's not-ready-for-prime-time play: ''It does confound me. For whatever reason, the two times (in prime time) this year we didn't play well. Because we were at home, there was an energy and excitement instead of being steely-eyed and focusing on what we have to do.'' (Post-game press conference)

6.Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner, on personnel policy: "We try to build a team that has zero knuckleheads. If there is a player who is immature and not able to follow team rules, we might sign them, but the rule is no more than one knucklehead on the team." (Rolling Stone)

5.Jerry Rice, Hall of Fame receiver, on the Dallas Cowboys: "I feel like the Cowboys are fake pretenders. They show a potential at times, but then they show that, 'Hey, look, you know, we're not really that team.' " (

(You Can Say That Again wonders if "fake pretender" is a redundancy or a double-negative. If you fake pretending, are you actually authentic?)

4.Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys owner, on the perception that he's too involved: "You go in any other discipline, any other occupations, business and if that owner's down there picking the trash up off the floor, if he's down there sorting the produce or if he's sitting there rearranging the stock or if he's down there greeting the customers or he's on the manufacturing floor looking and making sure everybody's doing it, he's on top of things; he's interested in it; he's got pride in what he's doing.

"You do that in sports and all of sudden you're not where you're supposed to be. You're meddling or you're interfering. Of course, I smile about that. We're just not kicking off unless I'm out there. That's all there is to it." (Dallas Morning News)

3.Dan Dakich, former Indiana University basketball player, on the Hoosiers' rash of off-the-court issues: "I'm so tired of hearing boys will be boys. I'm so tired of hearing, 'Well kids make mistakes.' No they don't. Not when they care about their program. Not when they care about being a basketball player more than anything else...Indiana basketball stands for nothing. Absolutely nothing." (WFNI radio)

2.Tom Crean, Indiana University coach, on coming change: "The next stories that might be getting done now might be that he's a dictator and he's no fun to play with and anonymous sources that say he doesn't let us do this, he doesn't let us do that. I'd much rather deal with that than I would have to look at parents like I did the other night." (Press conference)

1. Richard Pitino, University of Minnesota basketball coach, on his famous father: "He is the worst loser on the planet. He's not one of those guys who can shut it down when he gets home. I mean, you basically had to hide from him. The one thing that he does great more than anything is he makes it so bad when you lose that everybody -- top to bottom -- wants to win." (