Just be careful where you grab it.

There’s a lot of strange stuff happening in the world these days, such as:

– Immigrants being accused of eating their neighbors’ pets in Ohio.

– Elon Musk wondering aloud why no one has taken potshots at a Democrat as yet.

– Civilians going walkabout in space.

– Sports teams tossing a dead, decapitated, quadriplegic goat’s carcass into a goal-bowl.

– People doing . . .

Wait! WHAT??!!! Back up a couple of steps, please. Surely they’re not talking about that little cutie in the picture!

Fortunately, no, they’re not. They’re talking about something called the game of Goat-Grabbing, which, I’m disturbed to report, has absolutely nothing to do with grabbing any of the parts of a living goat, but rather tossing the torso of a dead one — from the back of a horse, no less — into the goal, which is some sort of large, elevated bowl.

Shouldn’t it, then, be called Goat-Tossing? Oh, well . . .

This ancient sport is apparently very big in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan — two of the former Soviet Central Asian republics — and has been likened by some of the foreign media to a sort of “goat polo.” And, to be fair, the use of a once-living creature has been done away with; they now use a synthetic likeness weighing about 30 kilos (66 pounds, if I’m not mistaken). That’s about four times the weight of a shot put! [RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, September 15, 2024.]

But the game is not limited to those two countries. Last week saw the conclusion of the biannual World Nomad Games, with more nations participating than ever before. The U.S. was entered this year, as were Turkey, Uzbekistan and Russia.

The major rivalry, however, appears to be between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with each presenting their own version of the game, differing primarily in the details. The specifics are complicated — too much so for this non-sports-oriented onlooker — but to me it seems like something from an orthopedist’s erotic dream.

So if you are into team sports, and you’re bored with football (American and European), basketball, and rugby, check it out. It could turn out to be the new favorite way to spend Thanksgiving.

And if it gets the Russians and the Americans out there on the field, fighting over something besides Ukraine, then it can’t be all bad.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/17/24