So here’s the thing: The California Vehicle Code treats bicycles just like any other vehicle. Except for a few specific exceptions, there’s no legal difference between a bike and a small, light, underpowered motorcycle. I may not be a great bike rider, but I like to at least think I’m a safe and legal one. I come to a complete stop at stop signs, I signal my turns and stops, I yield to pedestrians, and I always wear my helmet (which is not a legal requirement, but a really good idea nonetheless.) If I’m biking and need to get somewhere it’s not legal or safe to bike, I get off and walk.

So of course I get annoyed at auto drivers who don’t seem to understand that it’s not only legal for me to bike on the road, but that I’m not legally allowed to bike anywhere else. Like the red sports car who, as he passed me (illegally) earlier today, laid on his horn, apparently to inform me I was in a lane that only cars had a God-given right to drive in. But what actually annoys me more is other bikers, who flout the law with ready abandon. In the fifteen minutes a day I spend biking, I see at least half a dozen people on bicycles (and, of course, without helmets or lights) riding on the sidewalk, on the wrong side of the road, through red lights and stop signs, and generally making a menace of themselves to pedestrians, drivers, and other bicylists (last year, one such biker ran into my car.) With bikers like that on the road, I can hardly blame drivers for thinking ill of the rest of us.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Aaron Sorkin’s screenwriting. It occurred to me today that one of the things he’s good at is memorable speechmaking. Each of his movies has a scene that has, at least for a time, entered the public consciousness and became recognizable on its own. These scenes are all pretty much monologues, spoken with force and drama by one of the movies’ main characters. But my favorite speeches from each of Sorkin’s movies have been other scenes. In each case, they’re scenes of dialogue, with lines spoken by other characters than the ones who speak the more famous lines.

I found this sort of interesting, if somewhat trivial. So without further ado, here’s my guide to scenes in Aaron Sorkin’s three movies, complete with chapter numbers for the DVDs:

A Few Good Men

• Famous scene: Chapter 26 (“You want answers? / I want the truth! / You can’t handle the truth.”)
• My favorite: Chapter 24 (“I’m sorry, I keep forgetting. You were sick the day they taught law at law school.”)

Malice

• Famous scene: Chapter 16 (“You ask me if I have a God complex? Let me tell you something: I am God.”)
• My favorite: Chapter 24 (“What does anybody want? I want the Red Sox to win the World Series.”)

The American President

• Famous scene: Chapter 30 (“My name is Andrew Shepherd and I am the President.”)
• My favorite: Chapter 27 (“They want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.”)

P.S. I realized this afternoon that the first two seasons of The West Wing are available on DVD and I don’t own them. Odd. I couldn’t buy Sports Night or the special edition of A Few Good Men fast enough, but The West Wing DVDs have been out for some time, and I haven’t had desire to buy them. Maybe because the show is still on the air? Or maybe I subconsciously still blame The West Wing for being part of the reason there was never a third season of Sports Night. Now that I’ve thought about it, though, I’m starting to feel a burning sensation in my pocket.