Hedgehogs, ducks, and a green planet

Looking back at some of the memorable remarks of 2009 provides an interesting picture of the year. We start with nature: Dan Antopolski's 'Hedgehogs - why can't they just share the hedge?' was voted the funniest joke at the Edinburgh Festival, while another creature which featured widely in the British media was the duck. The British Conservative politician Peter Viggers' expenses claim for a duck house was not allowed by the Commons Fees Office: 'I paid for it myself and in fact it was never liked by the ducks'.

American President Barack Obama made a serious point in his inaugural speech 'A man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath', while British Labour politician Hazel Blears made a much- repeated joke about Gordon Brown 'YouTube if you want to'. Belgian statesman Herman Van Rompuy, the first president of the European Council, attracted attention with his literary contribution: 'Hair blows in the wind. After years there is still wind. Sadly no more hair.' Another comment on aging came from the English explorer Ranulph Fiennes, conquering Everest at his third attempt at the age of sixty-five: 'It is amazing where you can get with a bus pass these days'.

There were some more negative remarks. The English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee explained that he could have designed web addresses not to include the / /: ‘'There you go, it seemed like a good idea at the time'. The Costa book award was won by the novel The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, but British journalist Matthew Parris, chair of the judges, summed it up thus: 'The feeling among the judges was that there was a lot wrong with it. It was flawed in many ways; almost no-one liked its ending'. When Hillary Clinton was asked what her husband thought about an issue, her response was firm: 'My husband is not the Secretary of State, I am. So you ask my opinion. I will tell my opinion. I'm not going to be channelling my husband'.

But perhaps one of the most surprising quotations of the year came from Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of the Japanese Prime Minister, on her trip to Venus in a triangular UFO: 'It was an extremely beautiful place and was very green'.

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