Soundbites

Here is a sampling of quotations from Cornell University faculty, students and staff that have appeared recently in the national and international news media:

"I think states should be out of the business entirely."

--Robert Frank, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, Ethics and Public Policy, commenting on lotteries run by states, in The New York Times, Aug. 6.

"It would be a personal tragedy for Clinton, and one more terrible bump in the blows we've been taking as a political system, but it doesn't have the staying power that Watergate did. People would shrug their shoulders. ... Watching some of these press briefings over the past weeks, you get the idea that nothing is sacred after all. That's the longest-lasting impact of all. Nothing is out of the arena of discussion, and maybe some things should be."

--Joel H. Silbey, professor of history, commenting in The New York Times Aug. 2 about the possible aftereffects of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, including the possibility that President Clinton could be forced from office.

"I just can't imagine, if this had happened to my family, how good it would make me feel to know that my family could see this tremendous amount of national support."

--Cornell Police Investigator Stanley Slovik, commenting about the thousands of police officers from around the country who attended funeral services for Capitol Police Det. John Gibson, who was killed with Officer Jacob Chestnut in the line of duty July 24; Slovik and CUPD Sgt. Michael Blenman represented Cornell, on CNN Headline News, July 31.

"In the grand scheme, I'd call it a lose-lose draw. If I had to say who lost more -- not in the dollar sense, but in the symbolic sense -- G.M. lost more. The U.A.W. did get at least partially what they fought the strike over."

--Harry Katz, professor of collective bargaining in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, discussing the outcome of the recent General Motors strike in The New York Times, July 30.

"We believe that our models provide a quantum leap in understanding how microwaves behave."

-- Ashim Datta, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, discussing his new research on microwaving foods, in the Daily Telegraph (London), June 24.

"Marriage has a beneficial effect for both men and women, but the effect is much stronger for men. Men may resist, they may kick and scream about getting married, but then it does them a world of good."

--Jeffery Sobal, associate professor of nutritional sciences, discussing the benefits of marriage, in a New York Times News Ser-vice article in the Chicago Tribune, July 19.