Quote of the Week

"We arrived at the arena late. By chance, we had guests that weekend, and some of them were reluctant to rush through dinner, even though I kept telling them that, for all we knew about taureaux piscine, the best part might be right at the beginning. The arena looked liked the bullfight arena of a Spanish provincial town except, of course, that in the middle of the ring there was a swimming pool -- a rather small swimming pool, with only a couple of feet of water in it, but still a swimming pool. From the stands it looked like on of those plastic swimming pools that people in the suburbs buy at the discount store and stick out in the back yard for the smaller kids to splash around in. There were a few dozen teenage boys in the ring. There was also a bull -- a small bull, with blunts on the points of his horns, but still a bull. In other words, the bull in taureaux piscine was a bull, and the swimming pool was a swimming pool. Upon my oath.

Within a few minutes it was clear that taureaux piscine has an extraordinary aspect that I had not anticipated during the week I'd spent simply amazed at its existence and enamored of its name. It is the only sport I have ever encountered that has only one rule: If you and the bull are in the pool at the same time, you win. If you do it again, you win again: a limitation of the rule would require a second rule."
- Calvin Trillin, Travels With Alice, pp.44-45