bull's wool

[leivev]

Fortunately, while thin on stand-taking public thinkers, Spain is well-served by cartoonists. One of the most direct is El Roto, who works for the paper where Gómez Pin and Wolff wrote such bull's wool. Before the debates started, El Roto drew a bull with banderillas hanging from its bleeding back. His caption says in fewer than a dozen words more than certain philosophers, Hemingway or the probullfight lobby manage in hundreds of thousands: "Nobody is obliged to go to the bullfights ... except the bulls!".


Hi folks:

what is the meaning of this bull's wool? By the way the last sentence : Nobody is obliged to go to the bullfights ... except the bulls!

Is author trying to say nobody will be grateful to the bullfight, except the bulls given the opportunity to slaughter and revenge matadors?

 

[JudeMama]

"Bull's wool" is an oxymoron (bulls don't have wool).

This seems to be a colorful way to say "nonsense".

"Obliged to go" means that no one really MUST go to a bullfight -- except, of course, the bulls.

 

[mplsray]

"Bull's wool" is an oxymoron (bulls don't have wool).

This seems to be a colorful way to say "nonsense".

That is confirmed by the following, from the Oxford English Dictionary entry "bull, n.1"

11. Special comb.: bull's wool, bullswool, (a) Army slang, coarse woollen cloth or yarn; (b) Austral. and N.Z. colloq. = BULL n.4 3

From the entry "bull, n.3":

3. Trivial, insincere, or untruthful talk or writing; nonsense. slang (orig. U.S.).
Popularly associated with BULLSHIT 1.