uncle phil

1 January 2010, South Africa

Let's see, class. Do you or don't you go swimming in the crocodile-infested Limpopo? Do or don't leave your friends on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Olifants River (main tributary of the Limpopo) and swim in its limpid waters not once, not twice, but three times the day you are finally devoured by that old crocodile? Let's just say it was a short New Year for Mariska B., 27, a waitress and former swimmer.

A long-time resident of Phalaborwa said locals know "you don't even put a toe in the river, it's teeming with crocodiles and hippos." This local, on her third refreshing dip of the day, didn't have time to scream or even struggle. All they saw was a ripple on the water where seconds before she had been swimming.

Did I mention that swimming was strictly prohibited? Police searched for Buitendag's body with long poles, and with the chemical detectors known as sniffer dogs, but found nothing. The cycle of life continues...

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"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
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"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
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never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.