tagged w/ Running Of The Bulls
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– Half-tonne fighting bulls trampled, dragged and knocked over runners on a breakneck bull-run in Spain’s San Fermin festival Sunday, injuring at least 10 people, officials said.– Half-tonne fighting bulls trampled, dragged and knocked over runners on a... more
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Hosts Max Lugavere and Jason Silva explore Spanish life in a way usually experienced only by locals and the most adventurous travelers. Part 2 starts with a quick look at Pamplona's famous Running of the Bulls, then onto Buñol for La Tomatina - a food fight of epic proportions!Hosts Max Lugavere and Jason Silva explore Spanish life in a way usually experienced... more
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A charging bull gored a man to death Friday at Pamplona's San Fermin festival, the first such fatality in nearly 15 years. Nine others were injured in a particularly dangerous and chaotic chapter of the running of the bulls.
The San Fermin festival Web site said the unidentified man was gored in the neck and lung during a run in which a rogue bull separated from the pack, which is among the worst things that can happen at Spain's most popular fiesta.
Photographs showed the young man lying on a stretcher moments after the goring, his face and neck stained with blood and his eyes only half-open. An emergency medical worker is leaning over him, applying what appears to be gauze to his neck wound.
Three other people were also gored, and six suffered bumps, bruises and other lesser injuries, said Fernando Boneta, director of Virgen del Camino Hospital.
The last fatal goring at the running of the bulls claimed the life of 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio in 1995. In 2003, a 63-year-old Spanish man, Fermin Etxeberri, was trampled in the head by a bull and died after spending months in a coma.
Friday's death raises to 15 the toll since record-keeping began in 1924.
This run, the fourth of eight held at San Fermin, was by far the most perilous of this year's festival. The last three runs were comparatively placid affairs, with no serious injuries.
The bulls covering the half-mile (850-meter) course with six accompanying steers tend to mind their own business and keep running as long as they stay in a pack. A bull that gets separated is more likely to get spooked and aggressive and that is just what happened Friday.
A brown, 1,130-pound (515-kilogram) bull named Cappuccino fell early in the run and ended up on its own.
When it reached a stretch right outside the bullring that marks the end of the course, it started charging right and left, and even ran back the wrong way several times. Runners scurried for safety to wooden barriers along the route as the bull attacked. Herders waving sticks tried in vain to guide it into the ring, even yanking on the animal's tail to turn it around.
This went on for a minute and a half, which is a long time at San Fermin.
At one point the bull picked one man up with its horns and flipped him into the air, then kept going after him as he lay curled up on the ground, covering his face. But this man got up and ran away, and was apparently not seriously hurt.
It was not clear if Cappuccino was the same bull that gored the young man who died. The festival Web site said the victim was killed at an earlier stretch in the route.
The bulls used in Friday's run, from a ranch called Jandilla, have a reputation for being fierce at San Fermin. They hold the record for the most gorings in a single run — eight, one day in 2004.
*the real question is, "what happened to the bull?"A charging bull gored a man to death Friday at Pamplona's San Fermin festival,... more
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An American tourist was gored in the abdomen on the third day of the centuries-old annual bull-running festival in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona on Wednesday, organizers said.An American tourist was gored in the abdomen on the third day of the centuries-old... more
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There comes a time in the life of every young man when he feels the need to test his meddle and tempt the hands of Fate. This may take the form of signing up with the French Foreign Legion and fighting in far away places, hunting large animals with large guns, jumping out of airplanes, or pitting his wits against the speeding enraged bulls of Pamplona.
Personally, I blame that macho-istic bastard Hemingway for my foolhardy decision to run with the bulls of Pamplona several years ago. Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel, “The Sun Also Rises”, brought world-wide attention to Pamplona’s bizarre age-old festival of allowing bulls to run through the streets as they please running over and goring those mad enough to run with them. Hemingway created an international pilgrimage of machismo to Pamplona’s San Fermin festival. For some of those pilgrims, that journey has led to a gory martyrdom.
But gory martyrdom is what the San Fermin festival is all about. Saint Fermin, Pamplona’s patron saint, was martyred in Roman times by being drug through the streets by bulls somewhere in France. This grisly demise is honored by Pamplona’s residents every year in July with a huge week-long festival. In the morning the bulls and the fools run. In the afternoon bullfights are held in the Plaza de Toros Arena. The rest of the day and on through the night time is spent in merry-making. Various different parades of floats, musicians, and banner-waving drunks periodically sway and weave their way through the crowds. People will party until they drop where they stand from exhaustion but the party just rolls on. Its like Mardi Gras with bulls.
Hemingway’s spirit seems to haunt the festival. I could just imagine old Ernest slouched jauntily in a doorway with a drink in one hand and Sangria stains down his white shirt as he watched the festival with approving eyes. In one of the streets, there is a bust of Hemingway wearing a bull runner’s bandanna.
The night before my run I was dancing and drinking in the company of some young local senoritas. One girl I particularly fancied was a dark-haired girl named Bettina. We chatted as best as we could with my limited Spanish which encompassed only a few swear words and some pick-up lines. Surprisingly, I was doing quite well but she would periodically point to her hand. On her hand she had scrawled her boyfriend’s name. I guess this was so she wouldn’t get carried away and forget about him. The ink wouldn’t wash off either much to my misfortune.
Still I was able through the use of pantomime to get her to promise me that she would cry for me if I were gored by a bull in the upcoming run. I believe Hemingway would have approved of this: dying a glorifyingly gory macho death and having a beautiful girl cry over your body.
Come morning I remembered that I had never actually read any of Hemingway’s works except for “The Old Man and the Sea” when I was in the 5th Grade. This story about a big fish didn’t exactly prepare me for handling big bulls. I was entirely on my own. My only knowledge of the run came from second-hand information and the opening scene of “City Slickers.” In it, Billy Crystal is seen at the festival running in front of a bull that is just jogging along at a reasonable pace. I thought this was the normal speed of bulls. No problem.
There comes a time in the life of every young man when he feels the need to test his... more
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Documentary about why grown me risk their lives to run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain every year.Documentary about why grown me risk their lives to run with the bulls in Pamplona,... more
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The nine-day festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain is the setting for one of the
World's most notorious customs; The Running of the Bulls.The nine-day festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain is the setting for one of the... more
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The annual Running of the Bulls macho fest in Pamplona resulted in 13 injuries (but none impaled) officials said today. Most of the injuries were minor ones like being trampled on, head injuries, and/or broken ribs. This is just the first of eight stages so expect more shishkebabbing in the days to come. Like many things at The Gritty and the Pretty we don't "get" a lot of things and this one isn't an exception. Why would you run in front of a herd of bulls just to prove penis size? Isn't it easier to just drive around in a Camaro?
For the past five years, PETA has been protesting this "outdated tradition" by staging their own "Running of the Nudes" where hundreds of activists clad in little more than a red scarf and plastic horns run through the streets of Pamplona. While I don't understand Running of the Bulls I can't say Running of the Nudes makes much sense to me either. I don't think protesting by running around naked (lot of supermodels are PETA members) will convince the Running of the Bulls Committee to change their ways.... What do you think?
post your comments at thegrittyandthepretty.com or here on Current The annual Running of the Bulls macho fest in Pamplona resulted in 13... more
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Check out these photos from the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
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So maybe it's not as bad as you think, but it's still kind of bad.
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khsing
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added this
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4 years ago
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