Loading ...Really depressing thing in the news today about Absinthe. Apparently it was about as exotic as Everclear. Nothing really psychotropic about it at all.
Apparently they found some really old (like a century) bottles that were had been unopened since before the ban. When they opened them and performed a chemical analysis, they discovered that thujone was present only in minute quantities, not enough to cause all the absinthe craziness that supposedly wracked Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
So what made people act so crazy? Apparently ethanol. Absinthe is about 140 proof. So all those people rendered “crazy” by absinthe were really just stinking drunk. That isn’t quite as romantic as being altered via wormwood.
It is incredibly disheartening to discover those absinthe drinkers of yesteryear were no better than frat party attendees of today. Just substitute watermelon soaked in Everclear for sugar cubes and absinthe spoons. It just doesn’t conjure up the same image.
What a letdown.
Buy me a beer!
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i read that, too. fuck it, it still has cache, and i’m still bringing it to the naked-writing-jersey-devil-hunting-getting-steenking-drunk weekend in july.
it’s still the go-to drink for eccentric writers. i still expect you to make good on the sugar cube offer.
besides, maybe they just found a bum bottle. or maybe it went bad. or maybe we could find some wormwood extract someplace and spike it ourselves…
Well Richard, considering how you behave when drinking everclear, we can understand how the absinthe drove all those people mad in them days.
Screaming. Ripping seats off of toilets. Interrupting my beautiful intimate and romantic encounter.(Okay, so it was with a satanist. And in public… but still…
I can’t really say the everclear drove you to heights of creativity, unless you consider “TAKE A KNIFE AND CUT OPEN MY BLADDER!” to be poetic.
Which I do.
*goes off to write a poem*
At that moment in time, I did consider “TAKE A KNIFE AND CUT OPEN MY BLADDER!” to be quite poetic.
It brings a tear to my eye to remember it today.
If only Absinthe had caused that reaction instead of Everclear. Then people would laud that moment in song and verse and nod their heads knowingly, appreciating how I tapped into the Animistic pain that stalks us all.
“Brillaint!” They’d say.
Instead of “Pathetic!”
heh. shit, THIS i gotta see. i’ll even buy spoons.
srsly.
Steff is right… We shouldn’t let a little thing like a stupid research report ruin absinthe’s role in our big party! No way. Bring on the spoons and sugar cubes (also, the Sugar Cubes which were good, wacky fun back in the day).
From sugar cubes to Sugar Cubes. Not a connection I’d make, but my mind is filled to the brim with useless comics trivia.
Wasted life?
Bring on the absinthe and I’ll think about it.