Word: rios
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...treat possible rattlesnake, tarantula or scorpion bites, Secret Service men and rangers nearby to fend away any stray panthers or bobcats (Big Bend counts 28 species of snakes and 60 different species of animal), Mrs. Johnson hiked up the Lost Mine Trail for a look across the Rio Grande. She ate dinner beside a campfire at sunset, listened to Western songs from local troupes and genuine tall tales by a folklorist imported from the University of. Texas...
...telephone lines and fast-transmission Telex machines were jammed into ranger headquarters at Panther Junction to handle press copy, and a car stood ready to rush outgoing material to the airstrip 120 miles away. For Lady Bird's five-hour raft journey through the wild gorges of the Rio Grande, rangers had floated box lunches, soft drinks and coffee, and portable toilets to the sand bar where the party was to stop for lunch. The river, which frequently falls so low that rafts cannot negotiate it, was also up to the occasion-a full...
Death & the Elephant. Based on a 19th century lottery to boost attendance at the Rio zoo, the animal game is no ordinary numbers racket. It starts off with 25 animals, each of which is assigned four consecutive numbers (from 01-04 for the ostrich to 97-00 for the cow). Odds for a straight animal bet are 20 to 1, but few bettors stop there. They can get 70 to 1 for guessing the last two figures of the winning number, 700 to 1 for the last three figures, 6,000 to 1 for getting all four figures right. They...
...number of symbolic events. The elephant has come to be associated with death, and whenever there is a fatal traffic accident involving a car with one of the elephant's numbers (45-48) on its license plates, the betting is unusually heavy. A few years ago, when the Rio papers published the picture of a derailed locomotive, so many bet on the last four figures of its registration number that the bicheiros were forced to warn that they could not pay off at the usual odds if it won. To the surprise of practically everybody, it didn...
There is never any question of being cheated. "We have to be honest with our customers," says a veteran Rio animal man. "If a bicheiro tried anything funny, word would get around and he'd be out of business." Bicho men, in fact, are often local heroes. Their odds are reasonable, they set neither maximum nor minimum limits on bets and they invariably come to the aid of needy families unable to pay for hospital bills or buy food. Besides, says Sociologist Renato Carneiro Campos, "playing the bicho is about the only hope the worker has of trying...