September 18, 2003
Central Valley Temptation Mitigated...
The bullfight Monday night was great. 4 out of 7 of the bulls were really quite good, and the 3 poor bulls were mansos, but not as bad as they could have been. The food, atmosphere and crowd were good, as well. 5,000 or 6,000 people enjoying a pleasant evening of feasting and taurine art and dancing in honor of Our Lady has to score about as close to a perfect evening as possible. As you know from an earlier post, I was tempted to move the family to Gustine that night: a combination of the light and the smells (well, not all the smells), the heat, all conducive to good living.
I did mention the mosquitoes, though. The air was so thick that at times one breathed mosquitoes, as well as supplied them with their meal almost constantly. However, when I wrote on Tuesday, they were not so much a problem. Well, yesterday evening and today the bites have all started to kick in. As I sit here eating my sandwich, I am itching all over, with lots of raised red welts, especially on my arms and neck (although the little suckers even get you through a shirt). I know better than to scratch at them, but, ouch! If West Nile Virus has hit the Central Valley, I will let you know, as there is almost a statistical certainty that if it were in the area, I would have gotten it, I have that many bites.
Fortunately insect bites and stings tend to get me big, but for a short period of time. I imagine that by tomorrow I will not notice much of anything, but I cannot imagine dealing with these things on a daily basis for two or three months a year. To the coast! To the coast! To the coast! Ah, seabreeze, how much I appreciate thee! You send our smog to Stockton and keep our bugs alee.
Posted by erik at September 18, 2003 11:38 AM | TrackBackI came across this web-site and I thought since you are interested in bullfights you may want to check out the Local Cavaleiro's Web-Site.
Posted by: Glenda at April 11, 2005 3:03 PMErik,Love this site,I've been to many of the corridas in the Central Valley,in fact I participated in one in Gustine in the late 60's or early 70's.I've been in a few tientas in Mexico in the 70's.I was a rodeo cowboy at the time and knew a rodeo bullfighter named john Wilson who was a crazy man!! He did some great stunts with bulls,if you want to see the best one watch a movie called J.W.Coop.The ride he makes at the end of the movie will curl your blood...He tied himself to the bull to show what it's like to be hung up.The first time wasn't good enough so,with everyone including Cliff Robertson{the star}protesting he did it again.The results can be seen in the last few seconds of the movie.GEORGE
Posted by: at December 27, 2003 8:21 PMSteven,
There are regular bullfights in California and Texas, with occasional ones in Kansas and even, I think, Arkansas. They used to have them in Massachussetts (in New Bedford, where the greatest linguica in the world is from), but they outlawed them. I guess it was just too much an expression of Latin Catholic culture, which scared both the WASPS and the Irish.
I would really like to see alligator wrestling. I loved looking at all the alligators when I was driving through Florida and Georgia. They really are magnificent creatures. Amália likes to look at them in the Steinhart Aquarium, just like I used to when I was knee-high to a duck.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at September 19, 2003 9:50 AMDear Erik,
No, I'm not at all annoyed. I am more annoyed by misguided PETAns who are saving the whales, but strongly support abortion because there are too many people in the world. Now, this doesn't describe all members of PETA, but I know enough that I'm not painting with too broad a brush.
Bloodless? That sounds extremely interesting. Well, I wasn't trying to impugn the bullfight and hope what I wrote wasn't mistakenly interpreted so--I just didn't realize that there were any places where bullfights were still allowed. However, considering that there is a place not ten miles from my house where I would, should I so desire go and watch calf roping (and one even closer for Alligator wrestling), I should have known better.
Thanks.
shalom,
Steven
Posted by: Steven Riddle at September 19, 2003 4:39 AMErik - for mosquito bites I recommend any of the following remedies:
Witch Hazel slathered liberally externally to the bites
Campo-Phenique as above
Johnson and Johnson anti-itch gel (used to be called Rhuligel)
A mixture of 1/3 rubbing alcohol, 1/3 witch hazel, and 1/3 olive oil, vigorously shaken and applied externally
Internally, I suggest a Cocktail containing gin, lime juice, tomato juice, hot pepper (sriracha rooster, mexi-pep or tabasco)and garlic in appropriate proportions.
Garlic and hot pepper cause secretion of endorphins, natural pain killers. Also, garlic and citrus repel mosquitos.
Steven,
I hope and pray that a handful of misguided animal rights folks don't show up in rural Central Valley California to tell a few thousand Azoran farmers that they cannot have bullfights. You will get annoyed at me for saying this, but my fear is not that the PETAns would get hurt, but that it would draw bad press. Protestants I will cut plenty of slack for, but PETAns, I will not!
But we do have legal, bloodless Portuguese bullfights in California. They must be held in the context of a religious observance, which, given the many feasts on the Roman Calendar, is an easy enough task. They are great festivals of the Portuguese community, and you hear almost all the people, young and old, speaking Portuguese.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at September 18, 2003 4:13 PMDear Erik,
Where do you go for this? I thought you lived in San Francisco, so Tijuana would be a bit of a jaunt. Is there a place in the United States and in [gasp!] California where this is still allowed. The PETA and the ELF reserves have not descended upon it and shut it down to the ground, mangling and mutilating thousands of people, but sparing a couple of bulls in the process?
shalom,
Steven
Posted by: Steven Riddle at September 18, 2003 3:45 PM