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French-Fry Fridays are a chance to lighten the mood and enjoy ourselves a bit after a week of serious, sometimes deep discussions. Or in the case of this week, it’s a chance to blog again after dedicating most of the week to press deadlines for The Christian Chronicle and playing Mr. Mom during my wife’s flu misery.

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I covered Dave Ramsey’s nationwide “Town Hall for Hope” meeting at an Oklahoma City area megachurch Thursday night and wrote a profile of Ramsey for Religion News Service.

Erik Tryggestad of Trygg Thursday fame came along and snapped some excellent photos of the run-through. (Organizers would not allow pictures to be taken during the actual event.)

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Ramsey is known for his witticisms. Here are a few from his Oklahoma appearance:

• “Even a turkey can fly in a tornado, y’all.” (On how any idiot could make money when the economy was really booming.)

• “I legislated the credit-card companies that were in my life with a pair of scissors.” (On President Barack Obama’s call for a new credit-card law better protecting consumers.)

• “When you play with snakes, you get bit. Stay away from snakes.” (On why he cut up his credit cards.)

• “I’ve got a friend who says, ‘When the tide goes out, you can tell who was skinny dipping.’” (On how financial underbellies were exposed by the recession.)

• “You can be sincere and still be stupid.” (On his opposition to federal bailouts of big business.)

• “I almost lost my marriage and my sanity, and I did lose my hair.” (On going bankrupt in his 20s and turning to the Bible for financial principles.)

• “When I went broke, I spent about six months whining. … I thought it was a form of prayer.”

• “No, you’re 16, you can’t have a new Corvette. With your income, you get a ’94 Chevette.” (On learning to make better financial decisions and say “no.”)

• “No, you can’t buy a house, you’re freaking broke.” (On not investing in real estate until you have money in the bank and an emergency fund.)

• Sometimes, Christians’ prayer is code for, ‘I don’t want to face reality.’ Sometimes, Christians’ prayer is code for, ‘I’m just going to sit back and watch Oprah reruns and have life fix itself.’ You can pray while you’re working.”

• “A lot of people are worried about their 401(k) plans because if you look at them, a lot of them look like 201(k) plans.”

• “You’re at Kmart, honey, and the blue light’s on.” (On his view that low home prices will rise again.)

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• “It’s the best time in 30 years to buy a house, but don’t buy a house if you’re broke. … Otherwise, Murphy will move in with you with his friends: Broke, Desperate and Stupid.”

• “I think gold is the Snuggie of investments. What I mean is, if it’s sold on midnight cable and you buy it, it’ll make you look stupid.”

• “I’m not complaining. It’s just humorous. Somebody always starts off with a Scripture right before they tear my head off.” (On “Christian hate mail” from folks who don’t agree with his approach to debt and finances.)

• “There’s probably some government employee out there with his hand on the plug.” (On his microphones losing power midway through the event, after he had spent considerable time criticizing government intervention in the recession.)

• “Failure is a possibility. Yes, it’s a long way down there. That’s why I’d be flapping.” (Moving his arms like a bird as he called for a capitalistic approach where people are allowed to succeed or fail based on their hard work and ingenuity.)

• “The average millionaire can’t tell you who got thrown off the island.”

Are you a Ramsey fan? If so, what wittisms did I miss that you like? Are you a Ramsey critic? If so, please do share your perspective and let the, um, dialogue flow. (If you’re a heretic who didn’t like “Fireproof,” please know that any anti-Ramsey statements are likely to engender the same level of weeping and gnashing of teeth. )

Have a terrific weekend!

— Bobby

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