Not Manassas, Pamplona. Every year I cheer for the bulls.

Fresh off the Reuters feed:

"I’ve never been seriously injured. I lost my kidney one year," said Bomber, a 56-year-old Californian, after one early morning run.

Define "seriously"... ???

Fellow American R.J. Smith ran with the bulls in Pamplona for the 31st time this year, despite a long white scar from a bull’s goring on his buttock and a false hip beneath it which bear witness to his bull-running addiction.

What we have here is a failure of the higher brain functions to communicate with the motor skills. :o

"I’ve done bungee jumping, parachuting, parascending, diving ... always finding the next stupid thing to do ... This is the best so far. I’m not sure what follows," said Mark Kinder, a 31-year-old information technology manager from England.

No comment. :-X

Red Cross staff perch on the gates at regular intervals ready to scoop up the injured.

And you thought your job was bad!

I am again enchanted by PETA’s counter-spectacle. The Agorans generally seem ready to champion causes, but perhaps this one is too extreme—unless Katy can trick PW into being our representative? ::) Perhaps we will have to settle for a running of the bull-oney in our Plaza de Palabras?

gailr

I’m with ya’, gailr!
However, what about bullfighting, cockfighting and dogfighting? - all nauseatingly legal in Mexico. :’(

[quote author=KatyBr link=board=omni;num=1089355011;start=0#2 date=07/09/04 at 10:53:36]
cock fighting is merely arranging a massive viewing of what happens anyway.

I didn’t think that roosters put on razor sharp metal spurs and used drugs to enhance their performance, KT.
I don’t care what the people do to themselves. People are supposed to have reason and have a choice.
I do care what people do to animals because the animals have no choice.
You know what they do in bear baiting, bull fighting and any other animal aggressive "sports".

define seriously

Brought to mind the definition (on Monday Night Football) of a "mild concussion" as "somebody else’s".

Ed

Good definition, Edman!

And the score so far: Bulls:28, Loonies:0

A 44-year-old Spaniard was butted in the rear on the fourth day of the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. He was one of two Spaniards gored by one of the bulls Saturday, according to a Navarra regional government spokesman.

Why does a machismo crowd annually risk de-machismoization?

Another American, from Georgia was gored in the scrotum, in the bullring, in what the government spokesman said was a "slight injury."

Like I said…
[edit: an injury severe enough to displace his commas?]

Pamplona official pamphlets on how to run with the bulls advise runners who fall down to stay on the ground, curl into a small position, and remain still, because the bulls will instinctively try to step over them.

State television’s veteran play-by-play announcer for the running of the bulls, Javier Solano, criticized one of the Spanish runners who was injured Friday, saying he had made a mistake by trying to get up.

Color commentary!

About a dozen bulls tried to avoid hitting the runners and appeared to concentrate on staying upright as their hooves clattered along the uneven, slippery cobblestone.

Perhaps the people who get injured in this activity are reincarnated as Pamplona bulls, in a karmic opportunity to participate in this fun sport from the other side of the horns. :(