Pat Dashnaw

“Kurt said, “I have always wanted to wipe that self-satisfied smug look from the face of thee Prussian Pickle!”
― Michael G. Kramer, His Forefathers and Mick

“Categories are the fuel and ammunition of all mistaken thought.”
― David Wroblewski, Familiaris

“Chase looked like a drowning man without a life preserver, and by the look in his eyes, he was going under for the third time.

“I knew you would be like the waters of the South Pacific Ocean.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I liken people to different bodies of water,” he quickly explained.

“You what?”

“Each ocean has a different personality,” he said to clarify. “The Pacific Ocean is warmer and inviting, but the color is muddied in places. The Arctic Ocean is cold and very uninviting, one might even say that it is not very appealing, but it’s full of life. Then there is the South Pacific Ocean, warm, inviting, and crystal clear. It has this purity to it. Why, the coloring of the water is some of the brightest blue I’ve ever seen in my entire life. There are even places that you can see thirty meters down.”
― Diane Merrill Wigginton, A Compromising Position

“various Belgian policemen and security officers - nominally under the command of Tshombe but, in reality, following orders from Brussels - had, on the night of 17 January 1961, driven Lumumba from the villa where he had been taken to rendezvous with a firing squad of local Katangan soldiers about forty-five minutes’ drive from the airport. Lumumba, his face battered almost beyond recognition and his clothes spattered with blood, was made to stand against a large anthill illuminated by the headlights of two cars. He was then executed by firing squad and his body buried in a shallow grave. Fearful the grave might be discovered and turned into a shrine, the Belgians and their Katangan stooges later moved to erase all traces of the Congo’s elected leader. The day after the execution, the corpse was exhumed and driven deeper into the Katangan bush, where it was reburied in another shallow grave until arrangements could be made to get rid of it once and for all. Under cover of darkness on 22 January 1961 two Belgian brothers, with connections to the Belgian security forces, returned and exhumed the body for a second time. They used a hacksaw and an axe to dismember the decomposing corpse, before dissolving the remains in a 200-litre petrol drum filled with sulphuric acid taken from a nearby copper-processing plant. One of the brothers later admitted he used pliers to remove two of Lumumba’s teeth as souvenirs.”
― Tim Butcher, Blood River: The Terrifying Journey through the World's Most Dangerous Country