In Mr. Drillot's relentlessly harsh lighting, Mr. Lagerfeld's dirndl-waisted skirts (think frumpy gym-class uniforms) and thin tops made both the men's and women's physiques look lumpy.

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The men would give a feast, a thin feast, at the end of the season, a hundred or more going shares to buy a buffalo.

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Men with museum-worthy hair chatted up the willow-thin models sporting beehive hairdos who were paid to stand in the store wearing jewels.

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In fact, given the nature of the operation, coalition casualties have been light. (In a battle for Nasiriya with the Ottomans in 1915, the overconfident British, whose supply lines were also stretched thin, lost 500 men.) Iraq has suffered an unknown but far higher number of combat casualties: several hundred Iraqis were reportedly killed in an engagement at Najaf on March 25th-26th.

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