The Devil in a Little Green Bottle: A History of Absinthe

Science History Institute ^ | October 5, 2010 | Jesse Hicks

[kawhill]

"Lanfray had drunk his way through the previous day, beginning near dawn with a shot of absinthe diluted in water. A second absinthe shot soon followed."

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I have vivid hallucinations in the middle of the night from it. At first I didn’t tell anybody because I knew they would think I was crazy, and so did I. I finally decided to look up the side-effects of my meds. The first one I checked was Metropolol, and that was it. My cardiologist cut my dosage in half and they aren’t nearly as vivid, but I still have bizarre dreams.

[sockmonkey]

*** I remember reading an article in Scientific American that explained that due to the bitterness it was common to set a slotted spoon over the glass containing a sugar cube. ***
I have one of those spoons, and absinthe from Prague. Must wear my la fei verte earrings as part of the ritual.

[Nachoman]

I wish I could find the absinthe ad I saw in a magazine a few years ago. It showed a young man passed out prone on a split rail fence. It was captioned; “Absinthe. It messes you up.”

[jonrick46]

Any psychedelic effects from absinthe is actually from the high alcohol content. People think it’s from the thujone used to flavor the drink. Actually, the amount of thujone in ANY absinthe is so low that you’d be ingesting more thujone just eating your Thanksgiving stuffing because of how much is in sage.

After drinking my small bottle I bought in Greece, I was falling down drunk.

[Bullish]

Love Absinthe, but only as an occasional thing and never more than one.

[dayglored]

Re: Metropolol

I've been on that stuff for hypertension (high BP) for well over a decade. It slows me down, but for most of my life I was always running full-throttle, so I still get a lot done. Dosage for the past 10+ years has been 50mg/day.

About a year ago my doc recommended increasing to 75mg/day. The result was awful. For a couple weeks I was confused and drowsy, had trouble driving, slowed mental processes and speech, and low-level hallucinations. I told him I couldn't be like that, so I went back to 50mg/day and those symptoms went away.

I'm convinced that had I kept at 75mg/day I would have died in a car accident. While that certainly would lower my BP tremendously, death is not a good look.

[imardmd1]

Metroprolol

metoprolol

It is prescibed to lower one's pulserate.
It has been my daily medication for 15 years.

[wardaddy]

Pricey but potent

Ricard and Pernod similar.

But $$ too

I like a Pimm’s cup Brit style with gin and Pimm’s
Rare gin very dirty olives galore martini as though vodka is a real martini
It’s not

And Stella draft

Rarely drink but I like those

[imardmd1]

Wormwood is referred eight times in the KJV Bible, seven in the OT, and once in the Revelation 8:10-11, as follows:

"And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;  And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter."

 Loojing to the original New Testament Greek Koine text, one sees that the word translated "wormwood" is:

Strong's Number G894

ἄψινθος
apsinthos
ap'-sin-thos 9pronunciation0

Strong's Definition:
Of uncertain derivation; wormwood (as a type of bitterness, that is, [figuratively] calamity): - wormwood./blockquote> zthusingesting fro, some sense of the first century Greek, one infers that the substance causes some form of mental derangement. I be;ieve in the Bible, especially as Revelation refers to some bad things happeningto people. And this would not be an ethanol tincture since distllation of it had not yet been invented. (Even so, ethanol itself is a toxin, eh?)

[Omnivore-Dan]

During my visit to southern France in 1972, I sampled some absinth and it was supposed to be the good stuff made by someone’s grandfather. It gave a nice buzz, and I did not hallucinate. Although I probably did not drink as much as Van Gogh did, I left with both ears intact.

[Snowybear]

I’ll have to try that, thank you!

-SB

[Clutch Martin]

“But, like I said, it has a very unique buzz which I do enjoy.”

I enjoyed the Sokow (Kava) in the FSM. Very pleasant drink. Sort of tasted like the smell of autumn hardwood leaves steeped in puddle water.

[rbg81]

I typically drink it in moderation. It has not given me a hangover yet.

[Sirius Lee]

I have some that has been sitting in my cabinet for years. The lady and I made an event of it and did the whole tulip glasses, sugar cube on a filter, proper carafe of chilled water to pour over the cube into the absinthe routine. Set up a little cafe table on the patio with a Debussy/Satie mix playing in the background. Bleh! (drink, not music)

It was enough to scratch that one off the list. Plain old Bourbon once in a while is just fine.

[trebb]

Real Ouzo has a similar effect...like real Absinthe must be similarly hard to obtain.

[rbg81]

I’ve tried Ouzo. More accutately, it as forced on me during some overseas trips. Not a fan.

[trebb]

I had 2 shots and it felt like my head was tied to a string and floating a few feet above my shoulders - but, contrary to common myths, it does not contain opium.

Absinthe’s “magic ingredient” was thujone, which has some “hallucinogenic” effects, but the trace amounts in absinthe really provided no added “kick”, but evidently has some medicinal values in treating cancer and such - but we know how it goes with all them “anti-cancer” supplements.