December 13, 2010 at 5:37 PM EST
Top Quotes and Twitter Trends of 2010
For most news media, nothing’s easier to cover than a published “best” or “worst” list. Do such lists enlighten us? Not really. But do we love them anyway? Absolutely. They help us look back and think, “If we can get past that, we can get past anything.” In the holiday spirit of bite-size delights, here are two recently-released rankings to chew on.
Top Quotations
When he’s not busy shushing noisy undergraduates, Yale Law School librarian Fred Shapiro compiles a list of the year’s most notable pubic quotations. Atop the 2010 list: Christine O’Donnell, with her now-infamous four words, “I’m not a witch.”
See some of those curious quotations below, including O'Donnell's spirited defense, references to junk-touching, and not one, but TWO calls-to-arms.
- "I'm not a witch." -- Christine O'Donnell
- "I'd like my life back." -- Tony Hayward
- "If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested." -- airline passenger John Tyner
- "Don't retreat. Instead, reload!" -- Sarah Palin
- "If this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies." -- Sharron Angle
- "We have to pass the (health care) bill so you can find out what is in it." -- Nancy Pelosi
Top Trends
And in the 140-characters-or-less category, here’s a list of the year's top Twitter trend topics. Twitter says it represents “things that are most meaningful in our lives”. Given the list includes an octopus famous for predicting World Cup winners, it may be time to find some new meaning in life.
- Gulf Oil Spill
- FIFA World Cup
- Inception
- Haiti Earthquake
- Vuvuzela
- Apple iPad
- Google Android
- Justin Bieber
- Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
- Pulpo Paul