Hearsay.

"They hadn't torn the bills up. They were still whole."

Sheriff's Major MICHAEL MARTIN of East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, explaining how beavers built a dam out of sticks, leaves, and cash that casino robbers had ditched in a creek.

"I am that desperate."

A line from a letter that attorney GLENN GAZIN of Stamford, Connecticut, wrote to Saddam Hussein, inquiring whether the deposed Iraqi dictator would supervise his divorcing client's visits with her children. Gazin had complained that his client's husband rejected so many suggestions for a supervisor that the only remaining choice was Hussein. Judge Kevin Tierney, cautioning Gazin that he should always mean what he says, ordered him to write the letter.

"Her male friends, while not particularly handsome, did have nice personalities. Life was good."

Judge JOSEPH HUDOCK of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, summarizing the life of Nutkin the Squirrel in an opinion overturning the conviction of Nutkin's owner for violating a state law against keeping wild animals as pets. Barbara Gosselin nursed Nutkin to health and adopted her after the squirrel fell from a tree. Hudock wrote that Nutkin is "too old and too tame to be released to the wild. (A situation akin to that of an old appellate judge, like the undersigned, attempting to return to the boiling cauldron of the trial court after being tamed by years of peace and quiet above the fray. Chances of survival of both species are poor.)"

"Viva Las Vegas!"

An unidentified man dressed as Elvis Presley yelled this and then sang show tunes to police who responded to a call at a Crystal, Minnesota, veterans hall. Moments earlier, the man's drinking buddy (dressed as John Belushi's character in the movie The Blues Brothers) had stolen a car and led officers on a chase around an airport.

--From newspaper and wire reports