The Most Memorable Bites: 2009

Posted on January 3, 2010 | 5 Comments

The votes are in, and we have tallied the results of our unscientific survey for the Most Memorable Soundbites of 2009!

Overall, from looking at the nominees, I am left with one overwhelming impression: bad year = bad bites.

In a year when people became famous for having enormous numbers of children, crashing a State Dinner, and giving a whole new meaning to hiking the Appalachian Trail, there was not a lot of quality talking going on. Perhaps most of us were just too preoccupied with our dwindling house values and depleted 401Ks to muster up some eloquence, or to notice when it came our way. Even President Obama’s Inaugural Address fell short of the “Ask not what your country can do for you. . .” standard set by John Kennedy a generation ago.  Honestly, can you remember anything that our current president said last January 20th? I like the guy, I voted for the guy, and I can’t recall one line of that important speech.

We were also busy absorbing the bizarre, the shocking and, in some cases, the almost miraculous.  Who would have predicted at the beginning of 2009, that Tiger Woods, David Letterman and Mark Sanford would be united as the most prominent members of the Bad Boys Club? Likewise, that Sarah Palin would resign as governor of Alaska, that a plane with no engines and 155 people on board would land safely in the Hudson River, that a 50-1 longshot would win the Kentucky Derby, and that someone would tackle the Pope during Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s?

In spite of all this, and in some cases because of it, there were some memorable soundbites out there and we want to acknowledge those who delivered them. So here, in no particular order, are our Most Memorable Soundbites of 2009:

• One: “You lie. . .” Congressman Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, during President Obama’s health care address to Congress

• Two: “The Cambridge police acted stupidly.” President Obama, after the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• Three: “I wish they caught me six years ago, eight years ago.” Bernie Madoff, in an interview with representatives of the Securities and Exchange Commission

• Four: “I will be able to die knowing that I had met my soul mate.” Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina