NASCAR Busch Race~~Telcel MOTOROLA Mexico 200 | Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez~~

Nascar.com ^

[glock rocks]

Buenas nachos, señora.

[NYTexan]

Please welcome a new contender to the league.

Dreamz Team, team owner: Diva Betsy Ross

Accumulated points: 498, will rank 30th!

[tubebender]

That looks good. We got the 3 RR 30 minute meals books today. Life is good...

[glock rocks]

I'm watching all the week's Good Eats from disk...

[tubebender]

What happened to the shows we grew up with???

[WestCoastGal]

Welcome to the group Diva.

Looks like the two Dream Teams will be drafting :)

I've been waiting for Wheels to catch up but he's laying back trying to avoid the wreck I think. So let's go lady and show the boys what we can do.

[glock rocks]

they're on the TVLand channel. I watch Gunsmoke and Bonanza on Saturday morning.

[WestCoastGal]

Mucho gusto con buenos nachos!!

[SouthTexas]

Thanks for the race thread. If not for Busch, you would have had to reinstate the "withdrawal" thread.

[NYTexan]

Don't eat the worm!

[WestCoastGal]

Yes it still lurks out there. :)

I thought I would resurrect it at the end of this season.

Hopefully I will still be around.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Hello and thanks for the welcome! This week I am going to do much better. I just know it!

[glock rocks]

What?

That's the best part.

[SouthTexas]

Looks like they painted it in the rain!LOL

Is pretty though.

[NYTexan]

Here is the story!

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990702b.html

Why is there a worm in bottles of tequila?
02-Jul-1999

---

Dear Cecil:

The other night I was talking with a friend who worked at a bar in Arizona where most of the hicks got shots of tequila. As they got drunker they would ask to have "the worm" (bleagh) along with their shot. My questions are: What kind of worm is that thing? Does drinking/eating the worm make you drunker? And how did the worm end up in the tequila? --Beth L. Grover, via the Internet

Dear Beth:

You probably think this is some ancient Mexican tradition, right? Not unless your idea of ancient is 1950. We even know who invented the practice. Various reasons are given for it, but I say it all boils down to: Let's see if we can get the gringos to eat worms.

First let's get a few things straight. There's no worm in tequila, or at least there isn't supposed to be. Purists (hah!) say the worm belongs only in a related product, mescal. Strictly speaking, mescal is a generic term meaning any distillate of the many species of agave (or maguey) plant, tequila included. Today, however, mescal is popularly understood to mean a product bottled in the region around the city of Oaxaca. For years this stuff was basically home-brewed firewater consumed by the locals, but in 1950, Mexico City entrepreneur Jacobo Lozano Paez hit on the idea of putting a worm in each bottle as a marketing gimmick. Stroke of genius, eh? I don't get it either, but that's what separates us from the visionaries.

The critter in question is the agave worm, which is actually a butterfly larva. The worms bore into the agave plant's pineapplelike heart, and quite a few get cooked up in the brew used to make mescal. Far from being grossed out, Jacobo concluded that the worm was an essential component of the liquor's flavor and color. He may also have figured, Hey, mescal is about as palatable as paint remover, and the only people who are going to drink this stuff are macho lunatics, so why not take it to the max? In fairness, the worms were also said to have aphrodisiac properties, and worms and bugs are sometimes consumed in Mexico as a delicacy. (Supposedly this dates back to the Aztecs.) At any rate, the ploy worked and the worm in the bottle is now a firmly established tradition.

The genuine agave worm is a bright coral color, which fades to pink in the bottle. Some bottlers substitute a species of white worm that lives in the leaves of the agave plant. Connoisseurs complain that the white worm isn't as tasty as the red one, which to me is like complaining that your soup contains the wrong species of fly. To me the whole thing seems pretty silly. I've had a sip or three of mescal in my day, and my feeling is, if you want to get sick, who needs a worm?

--CECIL ADAMS

[SouthTexas]

Davis said the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing hauler suffered a flat tire, but the Goodyear hauler was in the next convoy. While waiting for a new tire, the police stayed with the No. 2 hauler.

No spare????

Started to address each one, but will refrain (with the exception of one more).

drivers had to be careful because most Mexican roads did not have shoulders. Instead, there was a 2- to 3-foot dropoff.

Seems I had the same comment on the mountain roads in North Carolina and it was a whole lot more than three feet to the bottom!!! :)

[glock rocks]

If the proof is too low, the worm disolves.

[NYTexan]

"Seems I had the same comment on the mountain roads in North Carolina and it was a whole lot more than three feet to the bottom!!! :)"

I once drove through ( err....into ) West Virginia, Almost needed 'depends' !

[NYTexan]

Guess that would mean some really contaminated tequila! echhh!

I'm still recovering from a bachelor party that happened over 20 years ago! *L* (Margaritas are still my choice of poison!)

[SouthTexas]

For a "flat-lander" like me, I know exactly what you mean!!

Went almost all the way across NC on the Blue Ridge Parkway one time (someone thought it would be a nice ride). Driving an unfamiliar vehicle, on unfamiliar mountain roads (with no shoulder), with four generations of my family in the vehicle and the whole mountain range socked in with fog, it wasn't.LOL Can laugh now, didn't then!