For non science fiction readers, I would recommend Connie Willis' "Bellwether". It is science fiction, but social science fiction at that (it speculates on how trends are created and dispersed, and the book was written long before Malcolm Gladwell wrote "The tipping point"). Most of her books are excellent choices.
Actually, one little girl (it's not only boys that climb to the top, and some are as young as five years old), belonging to the Capgrossos of Mataró, died a couple of years ago, but it's been about the only recorded casualty in over 300 years of castells.
The "El gordo" lottery is HUGE here in Spain. It's traditional in offices to split the costs of a number, and of people to give out "décimos" as gifts to loved ones in the days leading to Christmas. A lot of business, sports clubs, and associations of all kinds and sorts (from political parties to choirs to soccer teams to church groups to gay bars) sell or give out "participaciones", which are smaller fractions of a "décimo". All the Spanish tv stations follow the drawing of the numbers on the morning of the 22nd and then move on to the lottery shops where the biggest prizes have been won to record the people celebrating there. The drawing is a very popular event, and people queue at the door of the building where it's held all night long to get a good seat (arguably, you have to be a bit obsessive to that). The numbers are drawn by the children at the School of San Ildefonso, a charity school for orphans, and they sing the chosen number in a very particular sing song, repeating the number and the prize (it lost a little of its musicality when we switched to euros).
And if after all you don't get a prize at El Gordo, you have a new chance at El Niño, which is nearly as popular, and it's held on January 6th.
Overlooking Barcelona, there's still some ruins of what was one of the most impressive resorts of the XXth century. The casino of La Rabassada had an amusement park and even a room where people could commit suicide discreetly after losing fortunes. It closed in 1930, but some of the structures -including a couple of tunnels of the old rollercoaster- still remain. However, most people around here haven't even heard about it. You can read more about the place(in Spanish) and see some pictures (old and new) here:
As some other readers have mentioned, Don Limpio used to be called Mr. Proper in Spain. What they fail to mention is that sometimes bald men are still humurously still called Mr. Proper over here...
I just showed this to a friend, and she said that maybe more teenagers could answer a question on why some American kids need help finding their country or why Spanish ones don't know the first thing about Russia if they didn't waste their time trying to become beauty princesses...
...that's exactly the point, SenorMysterioso. She's only a rambling 17 year old. She may be beautiful and have some dancing or acting talent. And if beauty pageants didn't pretend they have some sort of social agenda or that brains are really necessary to win, they'd be a lot more honest. What really angers me about them is a) how they try to disguise the fact they are but a cattle market and b) how they would like to portray contestants as a model (in beauty and wisdom) to all women.
Hahaha. This reminds me of the Miss Spain 2001 pageant. The Russian ambassador was a member of the jury and he asked Miss Melilla, one of the contestants, what she knew about his country. She paused, asked him to repeat the question and then answered: "I know it's a country full of wonderful people, there have been a lot of political changes, and not much else."
If you speak Spanish and care to watch the video, it's at (cut and paste in your browser): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luNYK_WUDao
Definitely, they don't pick these girls on the basis of their IQ! I think asking them any questions at all only highlights the hipocrisy of beauty pageants.
And if after all you don't get a prize at El Gordo, you have a new chance at El Niño, which is nearly as popular, and it's held on January 6th.
http://www.achus.net/achus/noticias/2007/parque-atracciones-casino-arrabasada.htm
If you speak Spanish and care to watch the video, it's at (cut and paste in your browser):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luNYK_WUDao
Definitely, they don't pick these girls on the basis of their IQ! I think asking them any questions at all only highlights the hipocrisy of beauty pageants.