Conundrum Answered

“Would you rather be killed and eaten by a shark or by a lion?” The “cool guy” answer is “I’d rather be shot while in bed with a gorgeous woman by her jealous husband.” There is no “right” answer.

A more accurate solution to the shark / lion conundrum was in the news this week.

A 54 year old Indonesian grandmother worked in a rubber plantation. Her job was to collect rubber sap from tapped trees in the jungle. When she did not return for two days, a search party found her shoes alongside a 22 foot long python with a greatly-distended stomach. They killed the python and cut it open. The woman’s body was inside.

This was not unheard-of in the Sumatran jungle. Every couple of years, an unlucky human falls prey to a python. Apparently, a mature python can unhinge its jaws providing an opening wide enough to swallow a human adult. Pythons are not poisonous. They kill their prey by tightening their coils every time the prey breathes in. It takes a while to asphyxiate that way.

A better answer to the shark / lion conundrum is “I’ll take either the shark or the lion. Just keep me away from a hungry python.”

By Ed Dufton