OLÉ

Tauromachy

Tαυρομαχία

Corrida de Toros

Muleta

Faena

Stocada

Indulto

Recortes

Mozo de Espada

Cuadrilla

I shove that list of bullfighting terms up there because they're short enough to take up space but still allow me to keep the size of that magnificent photo.

Bullfighting, makes me yearn to cock a snoot at all the moaning minnies who come up with unbeatable reasons why I should not thrill to it.

I'd love to be cruising thru Life on a well-upholstered Up-Yours attitude. For one thing, I'd be able to turn an endlessly tolerant and good-natured deaf ear to the torrent of nosy NIMBY-parker ARK bark bleating about bullfighting.

Actually, that docile little fellah up there captures exactly my wimpo readiness to cave in to the Ban the Bull brigade.

There was some kerfuffle a while back over Island magazine referring to this art form in less than hysterical harridan fish-wife tones.

It/we/I had to cave in of course and perform the usual demeaning mea culpa, in the deepest basso profundo faux chastened tones - but this is where an 'Up Yours' attitude comes in so useful and saves so much unruly scuffling among the lower classes.

Come to think of it, there isn't much NIMBY about the fracas is there? I've always attended corridas miles from Acacia Drive but that's exactly where the shrillest protests swell.

Quoth the Observer, "In a clear provocation to its great rival Barcelona, Spain's capital city of Madrid has officially elevated bullfighting to the status of a protected art form [yaayy].

While the parliament of the north-eastern region of Catalonia debates a total ban on bullfighting, Madrid's local government has declared it a protected piece of the region's cultural heritage.

[Muchas yaaays

Esperanza Aguirre, head of the conservative regional government in Madrid, announced that the bullfight was to be included on the list of items of "special cultural value" that were protected by law.

"It is an art-form that deserves to be protected and that has been part of Mediterranean and Spanish culture since time immemorial,"

she said.

The eastern regions of Valencia and Murcia immediately declared the bullfight part of their protected cultural patrimony, thus confirming its new status as a key weapon in the long-running battle of identities waged between Spain's fractious regions.

Here's the bit I like and which sticks it to The Man,

"The move puts the corrida on the same cultural level as Madrid's most important historical buildings and monuments. It gives fight organisers special tax breaks and, critics claim, could see those trying to stop bullfights being taken to court for "damaging" the region's cultural patrimony."

Anyway, it's a super pic and the Grauniad seems to have done its homework - and that's all I care until someone turns me into a bull or the hapless hoss.