>> ^buzz:
what happened to crispin glover Zor??


He descended into an absinthe induced haze of artistic unemployment. Perhaps he was over extended to begin with. The job that he had was pretty amazing, though.

>> ^EDD:
So from my experience, spirituality in the more developed world nowadays is just as bad as religion, if not worse (talking in general here, not specific cases). Nutshell: spirituality-just as bad as religious dogma
By the way, I have, in fact, never tried any narcotic substances apart from the ones in Absinthe. Anyway, the experiences this path provides aren't ones I'd ever suggest to anyone, however mesmerizing they might be.


I'm no New Age fan, either. That's a full-blown religion in its own right, with dogmatic aspects to it. My mom is into New Age stuff, and my dad was somethings of a Dawkins-ish atheist.

I feel like I split the difference. I guess agnostic is probably the right term for me. I don't generally subscribe to any given religion, but I try to be respectful of those who do. I tend to think that if I wasn't such a cynical person, I might easily wind up being religious.

As for my mention of drugs, I definitely want to clarify that I'm not recommending people do drugs, and not trying to conflate drugs and religion as being somehow equivalent. They're dangerous, and watching some of the spacier videos on the 'sift can evoke the same sort of feeling. And the 'sift is still legal in all 50 states!

I noticed my comment before got downvoted -- I'm a bit surprised at that, but I guess this is a touchy subject, and I did just kinda rattle that out while I was sleep-addled. If I offended anyone with what I said, I apologize.

i think there's a videosift vid that explains that absinthe doesn't really affect you any differently to other equally strong alcoholic drinks

I'd like to paint the rosy picture with you, NetRunner, it's just that from all the utter shit I've experienced dealing with (helping, actually) mostly young females obsessed with New age crap, I can't in good conscience agree with you. Really, the stuff I've seen/heard/fought with could fill volumes of blogs. It usually starts with leaving the traditional religion, maybe moving towards an eastern one and then all the nonsense about "demons" and "angels", and "chakras", and "reiki" (<-complete, utter bollocks if you ask me) comes in.
So from my experience, spirituality in the more developed world nowadays is just as bad as religion, if not worse (talking in general here, not specific cases). Nutshell: spirituality-just as bad as religious dogma

By the way, I have, in fact, never tried any narcotic substances apart from the ones in Absinthe. Anyway, the experiences this path provides aren't ones I'd ever suggest to anyone, however mesmerizing they might be.

Ah, "pure ethanol", which I associate with "spiritus", the Polish epic pure-booze that absinthe and all the other 'exotic' alcohols have NOTHING on.

>> ^Waermund:
I need to find a new drink, absinthe is going to be the poser fad of 2008.


I hear ya, Waermund. This was better when it was verboten.

I need to find a new drink, absinthe is going to be the poser fad of 2008.

Currently, the only 2 absinthe brands sold in the US are Kubler and Lucid. From what I understand, they must contain less that 10ppm thujone, which would make being able to hallucinate on it very difficult. As stated above, you'd get off on common sage faster than you would absinthe.

The whole myth of it being hallucinatory was created by the French Wine Industry after they recovered from the insect infestation that wiped out the wine crop. In lieu of drinking wine, the French turned to absinthe, heralding it as the new drink of France. In order to get their market share back, the wine makers began a smear campaign, demonizing absinthe; even going so far as to blame a murder spree on it.

With that said, I have a bottle of Kubler at home and my slotted spoons are in the mail as we speak. I've only tried 1 cup so far, which was not "properly" prepared. I probably used too much sugar and not enough water. Regardless, the stuff does have a bit of a kick and tastes very similar to Pernod. (black licorice) I find absinthe has almost a licorice/menthol/herby taste and completely agree that this would be the perfect aperitif while sitting outside at a table in a cafe with friends. I hear the Lucid isn't as complex as the Kubler, but is just as tasty. Am waiting for our local liquor chain to get in some Lucid.

so the one's that are becoming legal in the U.S don't have the wormwood effect then?
i live in th U.K anyway.

hm, just looked it up, seems it's effects are exaggerated:
'Thujone (wormwood's active ingredient) is a naturally occurring
substance, also found in the bark of the thuja, or white cedar, tree, and in other
herbs besides wormwood - including tansy and the comon sage used in
cooking. Aside from absinthe, other popular liquors, including vermouth,
Chartreuse, and Benedictine, also contain small amounts of thujone.'
http://www.oxygenee.com/absinthe-effects.html

it's always had such low amounts of thujone in it that it most likely has no effect. the ingredient that will really be affecting people is the higher than normal alcohol content.
saying that i've had some really mad nights on absinthe.

from Wiki:
'The deleterious effects of absinthe as well as its hallucinogenic properties are a persistent myth often repeated without support in modern books and scientific journals.'

'Today it is known that absinthe does not cause hallucinations, especially those described in the old studies. Thujone, the supposed active chemical in absinthe, is a GABA antagonist and while it can produce muscle spasms in large doses, there is no evidence it causes hallucinations.'

'A study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol[60] concluded that a high concentration of thujone in alcohol has negative effects on attention performance. It slowed down reaction time, and subjects concentrated their attention in the central field of vision. Medium doses did not produce an effect noticeably different from plain alcohol. The high dose of thujone in this study was larger than what one can get from current beyond-EU-regulation 'high thujone' absinthe before becoming too drunk to notice, and while the effects of even this high dose were statistically significant in a double blind test, the test subjects themselves could still not reliably identify which samples were the ones containing thujone. As most people describe the effects of absinthe as a more lucid and aware drunk, this suggests that thujone alone is not the cause of these effects.'

Saw your post on the Absinthe thread. Absinthe, as of March '07, is now legal in the US. When buying it, be sure that you are getting true absinthe, and not absente. There is a difference. Either Lucid or Kubler; I've had Kubler and it is very good. If you can't find any near you, you can always order it online. www.drinkupny.com has a good selection of absinthe, spoons and Pontarlier glasses.

In reply to this comment by kingsblood:
How do you get absinthe in the States? Isn't it banned? I wish I lived in Europe.

LOL... well did you hit on her?

In reply to this comment by rottenseed:
i was just confronted with girl that used to babysit me and I drank a tank load of absinthe. help me.

i was just confronted with girl that used to babysit me and I drank a tank load of absinthe. help me.

Why did I keep on expecting them to switch to singing "We Are The World"? Well, that's enough absinthe for today.

you can buy absinthe with 70% alcohol here in germany... i only drank it once without water (didn't know that you had to pour the water into the absinthe, i thought it would be to extinguish the fire after you drank the absinthe ) and i think it was quite tasty. and it tasted a lot like mint... very cool.

Me and a buddy got ourselves drunk on a bottle of Absinthe at his birthday the other day. It was a relatively weak one (50 % alcohol), but man does it work. First time I tasted it. We used ordinary sugar in a teaspoon, dipped it in the absinthe and lit it. When it was properly melted, we mixed it in the absinthe.

It may not be the correct way to do it, but man does it work. Incidentally, it tastes very much like pure alcohol.