Little city garden

Repotted, everything seems happy and healthy, waiting for a nice corner planter. With a windbreak on the balcony, I wonder what I could put out there that would do well in the cold.

2x wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
Hyssop "Tutti Frutti" (???, Agasache cana?)
English Wedgewood thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)
Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) (not doing well),
Sage (Salvia officinalis)

"Absinthism" debunked

From an Italian addiction blog comes news of a study finding no detremental health effects from absinthe drinking other than those encountered in common alcoholism. The study will be published in Bio Med Central and was led by Stephan A Padosch (Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg), Dirk W Lachenmeier (Chemisches und Veterinäruntersuchungsamt CVUA Karlsruhe) and Lars U Kroener (Institut für Rechtsmedizin der Universität zu Köln). Say that ten times fast.

From the blog (not the report):

Based on the current available evidence, thujone concentrations of both pre-ban and modern absinthes may not have been able to cause detrimental health effects other than those encountered in common alcoholism.

Today, a questionable tendency of absinthe manufacturers can be ascertained that use the ancient theories of absinthism as a targeted marketing strategy to bring absinthe into the spheres of a legal drug-of-abuse. Misleading advertisements of aphrodisiac or psychotropic effects of absinthe try to re-establish absinthes former reputation.

Suckers....

In New Orleans recently, I wandered into a bar next to the cathedral, attracted by the large "WE HAVE ABSINTHE!" sign. When I asked what they had, I was poured a glass of Absente (ouch) in which a spoon was dipped and lit (double ouch) as I wheezed "wait". No point making a stink, and it was a delicious enough pastis, but I couldn't leave without explaing to the (very uninterested) bartender that it wasn't, in fact, absinthe.

Seems like folks get suckered a lot by "people in the know" who stand to gain from either deception or ignorance. It was interesting to read an article this morning about a bar in Orlando which appears as well to serve Absente as "absinthe," sans qualifiers or shame.

Appropriate (and timely) to see the new Absinthe Suckers tribe started by Alan.

Things called "absinthe"...

L'absinthe restaurant in New York,

Absinthe Brasserie & Bar in San Francisco,

Absinthe Bar in Amsterdam,

Absinthe Cafe Resto Bar in Ottowa, Canada,

Absinthe Films "Full Spectrum Snowboarding"

Absinthe show at the Spiegeltent

Absinthe Motor Yacht

Marilyn Manson Absinthe

It was only a matter of time-- Manson revealed in a Rolling Stone interview (covered here) that "We hope to have it out in time for parents to give it to their children for Christmas."

(RS 9/22/04 interview)