Pointsettias Aren't Called That In Mexico

 December 12, 2025

   Just got this report from a friend of mine down on the Nogales border.

Noche Buenas Meet Joel Poinsett

Noche buenas, as they are known in Mexico

   "Here are a couple of Noche Buenas, above, as they’re known South of the Border. Euphorbia pulcherrima, owe their name and fame to Joel Poinsett, (1779-1851) first US Ambassador to the newly independent Mexico. Named by President John Quincy Adams. In addition to being a physician, graduate of University of Edinburgh, he was an excellent horticulturalist-botanist. Once in Mexico he discovered the above named Euphorbia in Taxco, took several cuttings which he sent to his horticultural friends and which he planted at his residence (he had a greenhouse at his home in South Carolina) and encouraged others to do the same. The plants thrived, beautiful green leaves and red flowers, and today are grown by the millions for the December market around the world. Like others of his time and place he and his family owned and traded in slaves. He was eventually asked to leave Mexico by the fledgling government because of his interference in their elections. Still, his name remains attached to one particular flowering plant. With a bit of care you can get more than a year out of your poinsettias if you’re careful. Having a greenhouse, as I do, certainly helps."

—Greg Scott, historian and horticulturist

   As for myself, I am back out on the road in search of an elusive, but prevalent signature of desert highways.

Daily Whip Out: "Heatwave Highway"

Route 66 Public Service Announcement #73

The Beautiful Hitchhiker Legend Meets Reality

   Throughout the last century of travel on Route 66 one myth stands tall and that is of the beautiful hitchhiker who beckons to lonely male drivers for a ride. Never mind that it was dangerous (on both sides!) and often hid a darker motive. There are multiple police accounts of female hitchhikers getting a car to stop and then her ne're-do-well boyfriend—in some cases plural!—jumped out of the bushes or the ditch to cash in on the "free ride." Most of these encounters ended well, but more than a few did not. Still, the myth endures.

Linda Ronstadt assumes the Hitcher pose

in the 1970s​

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."
—Niels Bohr