Cowboy fantasy.

(From South China Morning Post)

Call me un-Canadian, but I have never worn a cowboy hat, never roped a calf and I have never been to the Calgary Stampede. And I don't plan to. The convergence of angry beef, wild horses and men in pointy boots who chew tobacco has never struck me as entertainment.

The stampede is billed as one of the world's great outdoor sporting events, if you think falling off a horse is a sport. Last year it drew 1.2 million visitors, and many of them were surprised to see that Calgary is not a cow town at all, but a modern metropolis with office towers, white-collar workers and a booming economy. The economy used to run on grain and …