Friday, June 18, 2004

Absinthe News

I found this on Wolfgang's blog: the Swiss have voted to re-legalize Absinthe.

I'm probably going to import a set of glasses and some bottles of it myself in the next couple of weeks, I found an online store that sells it reasonably and have been conversing with the owner at length about different varieties. The stigma still surrounding Absinthe is kind of strange; I mentioned it to one of my co-workers, who informed me that he "would never do anything harder than alcohol," implying that Absinthe was some kind of hard drug. It has less alcohol in it than Everclear, and the hallucinagenic properties have been highly overstated - if they occur at all. But, it goes to show what one hundred years of bad PR and ignorance can do.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try more than 100 years.

http://www.theartgallery.com.au/ArtEducation/greatartists/Degas/Absinthe/

Degas painted this to show the detrimental effects on the mind and quality of life of the drinkers... but do as you will. I'd hesitate to call it 'ignorance' though.

Jason said...

Here's a similar movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028346/

Perhaps "propaganda" was a better word than ignorance.