In cartoons bulls are always depicted with rings through their noses. Being a city kid whose idea of farm life mostly comes from watching Green Acres, I have never had the opportunity to inspect a bull up close. Do they really have nose rings? If so, why? I have a hard time believing it’s all due to teenage rebellion. –Phil Gemperl, Elk Grove Village
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Well, I guess I’d better not try that line of humorous development then. How about this: The ring represents, not rebellion, but…discipline! It does, too. You’ve heard the expression “led around by the nose”? You were thinking maybe this was just a figure of speech? Uh-uh. Even if you’re a mighty hunk of rock ’em, sock ’em bull flesh, if some little slip of a farm girl comes along and hooks a rope to your nose ring, you’re going to go where she wants you to go. Male humans understand this concept too, even if what they’re led around by is not necessarily the nose.
KIDNEY PUNCHING
Even if these accusations turn out to be true, there are big differences between organ theft in India and the stories circulating in North America, in which guys get picked up by beautiful strangers only to awaken kidneyless in a tub of ice. In parts of India it’s still legal to sell a kidney, and clinics openly remove organs from the poor and transplant them into the rich. (Maybe not for long, though. In 1995 the Indian parliament forbade organ sales except to close relatives, but this has not been ratified by all states.) In the U.S. and Canada organ sales are illegal, and the delicate business of matching donors and recipients and doing the transplants would have to be conducted entirely underground. That’s highly improbable and hasn’t occurred here as far as we know. Then again, you read about Jack Kevorkian removing kidneys from people he helped commit suicide, and you think: Just wait till tomorrow’s mail.
