"Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

The American Film Institute's "top 100 quotes" has inspired a column in the Ottawa Citizen by John Robson.

I particularly like his take on the Godfather's famous line:

[...]

Lines from films usually enter popular culture because they capture an important truth about that moment or life generally. For instance, No. 2 on the AFI's list: "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse." Our understanding of the world would be poorer without that line (and spinoffs like: What do you get when you cross a mafioso with a deconstructionist? Someone who makes you an offer you can't understand).

[...] [my bold]

which, next time, I'll vote for Number One!

'Course, No. 99 is pretty awesome ... "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!", No. 96 ... "Snap out of it!", and one of the all time best ... No. 63 "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?".

Mr. Robson concludes ...

"Thus my vote for best line ever goes to the justly famous "Round up the usual suspects." It looks cynical, but is really a perfect expression of gritty, hard-boiled idealism. As Raymond Chandler explained of the detective hero, "down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." Which is exactly what, at the film's critical juncture, first Rick and then Captain Renaud shed their cynical shells and do. It is a moral lesson of supreme importance."

Mr. Robson also writes a weekly countdown, and his #1 pick this week is the story about Brit protests of poor abused "Taber Tots":

1: What's taters?
British farmers rally outside parliament demanding the term "couch potato" be removed from the Oxford English Dictionary because it harms the image (or possibly self-esteem) of that splendid tuber. I guess calling them turnip heads is right out.