I know I said I wouldn't do this for an Open Thread, but I haven't done one for a while, and I just wanted to.

Something/Someone Old

In honor of Burt Reynold's passing, this week I'd like to share a clip from Smokey and the Bandit. My favorite line from this clip: "Dammit! I saw 'em do it in movies!"

The seventies absolutely did the best and most awesome car chases ever. I had entirely forgotten that Sally Field was in this movie. In fact, I'm going to include another clip just because I love hearing her say "I've got the medal to the pedal and the...thing to the floor!"

Something New

This next is hilarious. It's called "Salsa Tequila."

"When did you learn to speak Spanish?" the guy says in the intro...

Listen carefully to the words...

"Salsa Tequila" makes Shane MacGowan's command of Spanish look worthy of a diplomatic corps.

Something Borrowed

If you are between the ages of 35 and 55, you may not believe that the following song could be good. It's a little like saying a cover of MacArthur Park is good. But, miracle of miracles, it is.

Yes, I just rickrolled my entire readership.

Something Blue

Blue agave, or agave tequilana, comes from Jalisco, Mexico, and is a key ingredient in tequila. In the spirit of both "Salsa Tequila" and "Fiesta," today's "something blue" is this lovely plant that has brought joy and unsteadiness to so many.

Ah, college.

Looks more green-gray than blue to me, but who am I to argue with the people who live where the thing originally comes from?

The tequila agave is native to the states of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Aguascalientes in Mexico. The plant favors altitudes of more than 1,500 metres (5,000 ft) and grows in rich and sandy soils. Blue agave plants grow into large succulents, with spiky fleshy leaves, that can reach over 2 metres (7 ft) in height. Blue agaves sprout a stalk (quiote) when about five years old that can grow an additional 5 metres (16 ft); they are topped with yellow flowers.The stalk is cut off from commercial plants so the plant will put more energy into the heart.

This agave started as a houseplant 50 years ago; in 2006, it created a 30-ft flower stalk, which required its owner to make a hole in the greenhouse roof to accomodate it!

The flowers are pollinated by a native bat (Leptonycteris nivalis) and produce several thousand seeds per plant. The plant then dies. The shoots on commercial plants are removed when about a year old to allow the heart to grow larger. The plants are then reproduced by planting these shoots; this has led to a considerable loss of genetic diversity in cultivated blue agave.

This is the long-nosed bat of Mexico, which is agave tequilano's primary pollinator:

Irritatingly, the long-nosed bat is endangered, threatened by loss of habitat. I'm getting to where this sort of thing makes me want to punch something.

Oh, actually only one sub-species is considered the blue agave; only one kind of agave tequilana is called "blue:"

OK, that one looks a lot more blue to me.

Tequila is made only from a specific cultivar of Agave tequilana called 'Weber Azul'. This cultivar is larger and blue-gray in color compared to the smaller and green normal A. tequilana. It is a rapid grower and prolific offsetter in keeping with its agricultural advantages. Tequila is produced by removing the heart (piña) of the plant in its eighth to fourteenth year (depending on growth rate and whims of harvester). Harvested piñas normally weigh 80–200 pounds (40–90 kg).[4] This heart is stripped of its leaves and heated to convert the starches to sugars. Then the roasted core is pressed or crushed to release the sugary clear liquid called aguamiel, which is, in turn, fermented and distilled into alcohol.

Spanish is wonderful; the name, collectively, for all the pests and diseases that have begun killing Weber Azul since commercialization, is referred to as TMA: Tristeza y Muerta de Agave
. Strictly literally, this means: sadness and death of agave, although the word "sadness" is actually being used to mean "wilting." But I love Spanish. You would never, in English, find the idea of plant sadness.

How are you all today?