Will drinking absinthe make me kill my family while they sleep?

Chances are against it, but both absinthe and murder are currently illegal in the U.S.

There's quite a lot else to say for absinthe: it is a liquor, made from herbs, not a liqueur (no sugar added to the bottle), it comes originally from Switzerland, and though for more than a century it has been bad-mouthed as a psychosis-inducing drink, somehow unique in evilness compared to other alcoholic beverages, the controversy has long been debunked.... But then again, it's still illegal in the U.S.

Absinthe's popularity returned (or began) in the 1990s. Since regaining legal status throughout most of Europe (awaiting clear details on the New Hebrides), there's an abundance of rather overwrought mystique, as well as outright nonsense surrounding absinthe and its properties.

Purportedly the Bohemian Bad Boys' drink (Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Van Gogh, Crowley, Wilde, among some others, all unconfirmed), its "evils" seem to capture only the imaginations of those with no imagination at all, in cases both for and against. (Tip: Avoid sellers who stress "thujone levels" in absinthe, a purely puerile conceit. Look for French and Swiss brands, read reviews, be a grown-up.)

For unique taste and enjoyment, and a certain ritual in preparation, absinthe solidly provides, if that is one's "thing." For more on its pleasant properties, The Wormwood Society seems to have a less than crack-potted approach to absinthe and its legal situation in the U.S.

The End Must Really Be Nigh: Roughly 50 percent of young people in France never drink wine

How can it be?

What next, no accordions?

And what does "nigh" mean?

Joyless, jackbooted and totalment un-French researchers at the U. of Montpelier, appearing 7 feet (0.00213km) tall and genderless in their starched white lab coats, made headlines in WineSpectator:

Young France Isn't Drinking Wine
The "French Paradox" is becoming a thing of the past

French citizens remain the world's leading consumers of wine, drinking about 55 liters annually, according to a recent study carried out by the University of Montpellier. That's almost six cases a person. But that number has declined more than 50 percent since 1980, when the French drank an average of 120 liters. Why is the nation most associated with wine drinking less of it?

Read the whole sorry tale.