The King's Speech; Royal Follies; Crazy Christmas; Failed Follies; and Orphan honesty.

In his Christmas address to the Spanish nation, the (rather tarnished) King contrasted corruption with the hardship of many families here. Which must be a first. I was reminded of this pithy comment from Occupy Wall St. on the last decade of boom and bust - Socialism doesn't mean taking wealth from those who work hard and giving it to those who don't. You're thinking of capitalism. More on the King's Speech here.

Talking of the King . . . It was reported recently that 96% of the populace regard his total inviolability from prosecution as a medieval relic which shames Spain. This may be because the King is said to have pulled as many strings as he could to help the business of his son-in-law (and daughter) now accused of embezzlement of large quantities of public funds. So it's a tad ironic for him to expatiate on corruption in his Xmas address.

I'm obliged to The Local for another of their lists, this time of amazing things you didn't know about Christmas here in Spain. One of these is that - per Pope Ben 16 - the three wise men came from Andalucia. Thus denuding the place of its entire intelligentsia. Just jesting.

With a hat tip to Lenox, here's another list - of those of Spain's boom-years grand follies that didn't get off the ground. A testament to man's ingenuity and his capacity to dream. Not to mention his greed.

Finally . . . If you read the list of amazing things about the Spanish Xmas, you'll know that orphans have chanted the winning numbers of the Xmas lottery since 1771 - "Probably because, as orphans, they were less prone to cheating". Can anyone explain this? Less susceptible to parental pressure, perhaps.

A happy Xmas to all.