Declarations

Smoking Danger

“The best analogy is like it was trying to hold a bottle rocket in your mouth when it went off. The battery flew out of the tube and set the closet on fire.”

—Joseph Parker, North Bay (Fla.) Fire Department, describing how a faulty battery caused an electronic cigarette to explode in the mouth of a man trying to quit the habit. The explosion took out some teeth and a chunk of his tongue and severely burned his face.

Bar Safety

“Everything is fine; nothing needs to be fixed. Why let one bad apple ruin it for everyone else?”

—Ben Shemper, owner of Benny’s Boom Boom Room in downtown Hattiesburg, Miss., objecting to an ordinance triggered by one club where there have been several shootings. The proposal would require every bar to have on-site parking lots and at least three guards.

Gecko Power

“Our lizard has another endearing quality: Unlike human spokesmen or spokeswomen who expensively represent other insurance companies, our little fellow has no agent.”

—Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns the gecko-endorsed GEICO.

Crisis Ahead

“We are cruising for another financial crisis and so we as an industry need to be prepared for that; 2008 was a dress rehearsal for the big one.”

—Peter Hancock, CEO of Chartis.