veronica

[jj]

A few days after learning what one was, here, I come across the expression in a book.
Funny ole world, innit?

[DavidS]

It is a funny old world, jj. You are lucky to get out of it alive.

Incidentally if you want to learn more about the veronica and related matters, I recommend Ernest Hemingway's 'Death in the Afternoon'. Despite being over 70 years old, it remains the best book about the Spanish Corrida written in English.

[jj]

I'll pass, if that's OK.
Went to one once, and am not eager to repeat the experience.
I love Spanish culture, but I don't see la corrida as in any way 'cultural'. Very un-PC, but there it is: I don't see why torturing animals should be viewed with approbation merely because it's a part of a nation's tradition.

[DavidS]

I do actually agree with you jj. However Hemingway's book is useful because it describes the bull fight as it actually is. There is no one who has read Death in the Afternoon who could doubt the cruelty of the corrida, not only to bull but horses too. Many people who argue against bullfighting rely on information supplied by some of the more extreme animal welfare organisations such as PETA. Unfortunately much of this information is bogus and is easily disproved by supporters of the corrida. A typical example is the wholly false allegation that vaseline is put in the eyes of the bull so he sees less well. The whole idea of the bullfight is that the animal must follow the cape or muleta exactly. No matador in his right mind would attempt to fight a bull whose eyes had been interfered with. Indeed there is evidence that top matadors have been killed because the bull they were fighting had defective eyesight. Nevertheless it is a cruel and bloody business.

[jj]

Do TRY and keep up, dear boy........
I don't know....these Colonial Johnnies...........too busy homesteading, and forming their wagons into circular Prarire Oysters and suchlike, I expect.......

[Deuce Bigolo]

Too right

Its Mrs Zemanova and not Miss so I've read

cheers
B....OZ