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.

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.