Whitey & The Professor

Whitey's mention of the Taliban in his previous post got me to thinking of acceptable fun and games in the fine country of Afghanistan, namely Bukashi. The rules are simple (although there are apparently two versions: simple and simpler). You have a bunch of guys (I'm sure women are not allowed in this fun) on horseback trying to snag the carcass of a headless goat or calf and either drag the thing free of your fellow competitors (simpler) or haul the carcass around a flag or marker at one end of the "field" (or dirt, if you are not colorblind) and then toss it into a scoring circle (much more complex). I like that the 'scoring circle' is called the "Circle of Justice," although I'm not quite sure how justice is served in this game. My source and at least some of the rules are here.

One would think this game would have worldwide appeal, but you would be wrong. I was unable to track down how many men are involved, but it seems to be more than 2 and less than 1,000. In case the NBA finals is putting you to sleep check out some very fine Bukashi here. I particularly like the soundtrack.