by Baker, Phil
“affinity” W.N.Arnold ‘Vincent Van Gogh and the thujone connection’ Journal of the American Medical Association Vol.260 no.20 Nov.25 1988 p.3042
“I fight this insomnia with a very, very strong dose of camphor …” ibid. p.3043
“… any more than when we are dead we can take the train.” cited Lanier p.89
“… as though they held him in a strong embrace.” U.F.Vanden broucke, cited in Arnold ‘Vincent Van Gogh and the thujone connection’ p.3044
“… three days of drowsiness or sleep.” Adam Gottlieb Legal Highs p.53
“… mainly consisting of thujone.” ibid. p.52
“I’ll keep y’all informed (if I can remember!)” ‘Kurt’ ‘Absinthe: My Dance with the Green Fairy’ at entheogen.com
“agitated, incoherent, and disoriented state” etc. S.D.Weisbord, J.B.Soule, P.L.Kimmel ‘Poison on Line: Acute Renal Failure Caused by Oil of Wormwood Purchased Through the Internet’ New England Journal of Medicine Vol.337 no.12 p.825
“… I am sorry for any pain this has caused you.” letter published on gumbopages.com
“… but getting to that point is quite dangerous.” Lilith, in Frauenfelder ‘Absinthe Devotees’ wired.com
“liquid joint” Frauenfelder op.cit
“… ever invented by the mind of man” Zolotow ‘Absinthe’ p.174
“… a morbid craving.” Eric Newby A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush p.163
“… continued to gorge themselves.”ibid. p.174
Meschler et al. – Meschler J, Marsh C, Land B, Howlett ‘Failure of the active component of absinthe to bind the cannabinoid receptor’ International Cannabinoid Research Society paper (1997), cited in Matthew Baggot Absinthe FAQ [net]
260/350ppm: Strang et al. ‘Absinthe: What’s Your Poison?’
“… based on that personal experience, I’d guess it’s quite high in thujone.” Anon. at Sepulchritude.com ‘Absinthe Guide’
“… alcoholism is the enemy of art and the curse of Western civilisation …” Cyril Connolly cited Dardis p.9
“In France no one expects very much from anyone who drinks …” Glenway Westcott cited Dardis p.11
“… put up with fools, leave your work alone and not think of it after you knock off …” Hemingway, cited Dardis p.202
“… a depressant to check the mental exhilaration produced by extended sobriety” F.Exley, A Fan’s Notes (Penguin, 1990) p.31
“… but does not always depart when he wishes.” Baudelaire, Intimate Journals p.13
“somewhere during that second drink, a switch was flipped … . never have enough.” Caroline Knapp, Drinking p.53
“… the approach to the void must be gradual, it must be attenuated.” Patrick McGrath, The Grotesque (Penguin, 1990) p.133
“On n’est pas pressés” Ralph Rumney Le Consul (Paris, Editions Allia, 1999) p.27
“… On a le temps.” Cited A.Hussey The Game of War: The Life and Death of Guy Debord p.56
“… drunk much more than most people who drink.” Guy Debord Panegyric trans. James Brook (Verso, 1991) p.34
“… the true taste of the passage of time.” ibid. p.35
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(1997)
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Zolotow, Maurice ‘Absinthe’ Playboy (June 1971)
INTERNET
“Absinthe” currently (as of midsummer 2001) brings up 54,400 or so hits on the Internet, using the search engine Google. Much of this is ephemeral or low grade material, like the piece suggesting “Perhaps these artists of the 19th century stumbled upon a key that may, in the future, allow us to genetically alter our children to be artistic prodigies.” However, several absinthe sites stand out, particularly ‘Le Fée Verte’ at the American Gothic site Sepulchritude (Sepulchritude.com), and Matthew Baggott’s excellent ‘Absinthe FAQ’ or “frequently asked questions”, which is currently disseminated on various sites. There are other absinthe sites which are high quality but primarily promotional, commercial, marketing sites of one kind or another. The engaging New Orleans website ‘The Gumbo Pages’ (gumbopages.com) contains only a little about absinthe, but is of interest because it contains the other side of the “internet wormwood overdose” story.
THE ABSINTHE MUSEUM
Marie-Claude Delahaye’s excellent absinthe museum, Le Musée de l’Absinthe, can be found at 44 rue Callé, 95430 Auvers-sur-Oise.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Any modern writer on absinthe is indebted to the work of Marie-Claude Delahaye, who has largely rescued French absinthe drinking from cultural oblivion. Her books on the subject are an indispensable resource. I have also very much enjoyed Barnaby Conrad’s impressively researched and superbly illustrated book on the subject, and learned things too from Doris Lanier’s.
