Stupidity

You've gotta love the running of the bulls, don't you? A whole bunch of guys all dressed up the same running for their lives from a bunch of angry bulls. Every year when I see the footage, rather than thinking about how stupid those people are, like a sane person would, I wonder when I'll get my chance to run with the bulls.

Of course, Annie would never let me do it. She'd come up with all sorts of reasons about not being able to run fast enough, not living in Spain, needing to support a family and the expectation that I should be able to enjoy sitting down throughout my life.

And of course, she's right. There's no reason why a sane person would want to do that; which is not to say that I wouldn't still enjoy it a little bit.

I noticed this week how the news stations are all talking about the "Days of '47 Rodeo", and I wondered if this was any better than what's going on in Spain.

I mean, really. In Pamplona, people are discouraged from touching the bulls (yes, being gored isn't the expected outcome). At the rodeo, the cowboys actually climb up on top of the bull while people poke it and jab it and get it all excited so it'll put on a good show.

In Pamplona, there are places in the side of the run for the runners to quickly escape. At the rodeo, the only way to escape is to have the bull give you a "boost" up into the stands, or have the clowns come out and distract the bull long enough for them to bring a stretcher out to gather you up.

I'm not making a judgment one way or the other, but it sure seems to me that, for all the criticising we do of the running of the bulls in Spain, we do some pretty stupid bull-related activities here, too.

For the record, though, I'm pretty sure I could run fast enough.