message 2 of 9
by John » Thu Feb 12, 2026 08:33 am
LMAO And he might be missing part of an ear, like my Van Gogh!
Coincidentally, I was talking to a friend today who was talking about bullfighting, and it reminded me of Van Gogh. Oddly, bullfighting was popular in southern France when Van Gogh lived there, and one of the barbaric traditions was that the matador cut off the bull's ear and give it to whatever girl he liked in the crowd. Weirdly inspired by this grisly custom and not having a bull handy, Van Gogh cut off his own ear and presented it to a lady he liked. She was suitably revolted and would have nothing more to do with him.
For years his friends insisted he only cut off his earlobe, but a review of the medical records showed that nope, it was the whole ear. My own Van Gogh has about half of one ear missing and we'll never know why. She was born in warm weather so it wasn't frozen. Whether she was injured or just born that way we just don't know, but it doesn't seem to bother her in the least. John