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.

What glass is this?

The only stupid question is the one you fail to ask... but let us not mince hairs.

Brandy is usually served in a snifter, this familiar stemmed, low-slung, bell-shaped glass thingum. One effect of the design is pointing the aromas directly into one's nose, and should never be filled beyond the widest part—the snifter, not the nose... though a word to the wise should be sufficient.


That's why a little brandy (relatively speaking) is often served in a large snifter (also relatively speaking). Small snifters (aka brandy glasses) are for pubs, cafés, discount shops, farm supply store holiday fêtes, where the focus is necessarily some other kind of beverage and/or aroma—or the avoidance of aroma, in the case of the farm supply store. Of course, an overly large snifter is also a cause for much embarrassment, unless inhabited by well cared for fish.

The possession of a nice snifter—one which is 5 or so inches at its widest diameter—will hopefully induce one to occasionally languish with a jigger of decent Cognac or Armagnac, without audience, pretext or pretense. In these solitary moments, one's senses open to something very old, very complex, yet unmediated by the maws, the haws and guffaws of our noisy world.

Easy, as they say, does it.

Pope Finds The Holy Grail!

No, the Knights who say “Ni!” didn’t go to Rome. But, when meeting the Pope it is customary to offer the Holy Father a nice gift. The story begins:

Archbishop delivers 'Holy Grail' to Pope - It could have been the moment the world was waiting for - the Holy Grail being hand-delivered to the Pope.

But that is exactly what the Archbishop of York did when he made his historic visit to Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican.

Dr John Sentamu took the Pontiff some quintessentially Yorkshire gifts - including a bottle of Holy Grail beer and Black Sheep Ale from the Black Sheep Brewery.

Original story continues.

Michigan AG: No beer at barber shop.

By offering gratis brewsky, or a quaff avec le coif, a Grand Rapids chop-shop scraped the state Attorney General le wrong way. (Shoot! Guess we'll have to just let it grow until we reach Westchester.)

No beer at barbershop, attorney general says
GRAND RAPIDS -- The owner of Jude's Barbershops, which had offered a free beer with a cut, is disappointed in a state Attorney General ruling that says he needs a liquor license if he wants to hand out beer.

Read full article.