Speaking of ether,

[shereads]

I just read a story with a character who was addicted to drinking ether. Apparently you could buy it at the corner pharmacy at the turn of the century. That would have been lovely, if not for the unstable nature of liquid ether: KABOOM!

Am I alone in knowing nothing about ether culture? I thought opium was the drug of choice in Europe during the late 1800s. Seriously, when Hunter S. Thompson described what was in the trunk of the Great Red Shark, I thought he was joking about the ether.

It seems as if society was more civilized when addicts could purchase a fix from their friendly pharmacist and Coca-Cola contained cocaine. Now that drug users have gone underground, there are fewer ether explosions but more shootings.

Edited to add: And what about absinthe? Did it make the heart grow fonder, or was that just marketing?

 

[logophile]

I just read a story with a character who was addicted to drinking ether. Apparently you could buy it at the corner pharmacy at the turn of the century. That would have been lovely, if not for the unstable nature of liquid ether: KABOOM!

Am I alone in knowing nothing about ether culture? I thought opium was the drug of choice in Europe during the late 1800s. Seriously, when Hunter S. Thompson described what was in the trunk of the Great Red Shark, I thought he was joking about the ether.

It seems as if society was more civilized when addicts could purchase a fix from their friendly pharmacist and Coca-Cola contained cocaine. Now that drug users have gone underground, there are fewer ether explosions but more shootings.

Edited to add: And what about absinthe? Did it make the heart grow fonder, or was that just marketing?

I was offered the opportunity to try absinthe recently. I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing. I had to turn it down and I'm not sure if I'm relieved or disappointed about it.

 

[shereads]

I was offered the opportunity to try absinthe recently. I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing. I had to turn it down and I'm not sure if I'm relieved or disappointed about it.

We should start a support group for people who are tempted to pass up opportunities like that.

 

[shereads]

Ether and the One Great Truth

'I once inhaled a pretty full dose of ether, with the determination to put on record, at the earliest moment of regaining consciousness, the thought I should find uppermost in my mind. The mighty music of the triumphal march into nothingness reverberated through my brain, and filled me with a sense of infinite possibilities, which made me an archangel for a moment. The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great truth which underlies all human experience and is the key to all the mysteries that philosophy has sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me in a sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear: a few words had lifted my intelligence to the level of the knowledge of a cherubim. As my natural condition returned, I remembered my resolution; and, staggering to my desk, I wrote, in ill-shaped, straggling characters, the all-embracing truth still glimmering in my consciousness. The words were these (children may smile; the wise ponder): 'A strong smell of turpentine prevails throughout.'"

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mechanism in Thought and Morals, Phi Beta Kappa address, Harvard Univeristy, June 29, 1870

 

[Boxlicker101]

Sniffing ether used to be a way to get a high. Still is, I suppose but there are many better (or worse, depending on your viewpoint) ways to get high. It could probably still be done but the stuff isn't that easy to get hold of.

 

[Guest]

Do you suppose men gave ether to their dates to improve their chances of getting laid?

(If it worked, we're certain to see a revival.)

 

[BlackShanglan]

I'd always heard that the experience of being put under with ether was quite unpleasant. I seem to remember watching a television show, as a young child, in which they were showing someone being etherized, and he was struggling. I recall my mother saying that it was supposed to be a nasty experience.

Or is that a very old memory playing tricks with me?

Shanglan

 

[LadyJeanne]

I'd always heard that the experience of being put under with ether was quite unpleasant. I seem to remember watching a television show, as a young child, in which they were showing someone being etherized, and he was struggling. I recall my mother saying that it was supposed to be a nasty experience.

Or is that a very old memory playing tricks with me?

Shanglan

Maybe he didn't want to be put under? Bad guys in movies always used liquid ether to quickly overpower their victims and knock them unconscious. They struggled but briefly and usually because they were surprised or trying to get away.

I believe t the orphanage/abortion doc in Cider House Rules had an ether addiction. I'm guessing he enjoyed it; or maybe it numbed him enough to do what he was doing.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Maybe he didn't want to be put under? Bad guys in movies always used liquid ether to quickly overpower their victims and knock them unconscious. They struggled but briefly and usually because they were surprised or trying to get away.

I believe t the orphanage/abortion doc in Cider House Rules had an ether addiction. I'm guessing he enjoyed it; or maybe it numbed him enough to do what he was doing.

*nods* Actually, I recall the movie beng about the US presidents - I recall Taft - and the person being put under needed surgery. But who knows.

And thank you for bringing up that movie. Ugh. Watching it was like being beaten over the head with a brick for two hours.

Shanglan

 

[LadyJeanne]

*nods* Actually, I recall the movie beng about the US presidents - I recall Taft - and the person being put under needed surgery. But who knows.

And thank you for bringing up that movie. Ugh. Watching it was like being beaten over the head with a brick for two hours.

Shanglan

I'd read the book first, so knew what I was in for with the movie. And I was crushing on Toby McGuire at the time, so, well, the movie was ok.

 

[minsue]

I'd always heard that the experience of being put under with ether was quite unpleasant. I seem to remember watching a television show, as a young child, in which they were showing someone being etherized, and he was struggling. I recall my mother saying that it was supposed to be a nasty experience.

Or is that a very old memory playing tricks with me?

Shanglan

Unpleasant and addictive are not mutually exclusive. Especially when one involves removal from reality.

 

[Subo97]

a few brain cells left

just a distant memory from my well spent/misspent youth. I remember the night my brother came over to my apartment with a vial of laudanum and a bag of weed. We poured the laudanum over the weed and put it in a pan over the stove to dry out, placing some aluminum foil ofer hte top. A pinhole in the aluminum foil allowed the opiated steam to escape in a threadlike jet which we took turns snorting. I don't remember a lot, but I do rmember the back of my head floating away and not minding very much. The pot was quite enhanced as well. Wisdom, old age and urinalysis have put all that in my past but, obviously, not out of my memory.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Unpleasant and addictive are not mutually exclusive. Especially when one involves removal from reality.

Oh, absolutely agreed. In fact, I very nearly said that in my last post.

I can remember being young and talking with my mother about what heroin was. She told me about a singer who'd been popular in her youth who had a bad problem with it - bad enough that he just left the needle in the vein and topped up the syringe now and then over the course of some hours. That pretty much told me everything I needed to know about addiction to intravenous drugs.

Brrr.

Shanglan

 

[Boxlicker101]

I'd always heard that the experience of being put under with ether was quite unpleasant. I seem to remember watching a television show, as a young child, in which they were showing someone being etherized, and he was struggling. I recall my mother saying that it was supposed to be a nasty experience.

Or is that a very old memory playing tricks with me?

Shanglan

When I was a teenager I had a tonsilectomy and ether was used. Being put under wasn't all that bad, at least I don't remember that it was. I was really groggy for a long time after I came out of it, though. The struggling may have been some kind of neuro-muscular reaction. As I recall, I was restrained on the operating table.

When they show somebody being knocked out in the movies, I believe it is with chloroform, not ether. I don't know the difference between the two.

 

[BlackShanglan]

When I was a teenager I had a tonsilectomy and ether was used. Being put under wasn't all that bad, at least I don't remember that it was. I was really groggy for a long time after I came out of it, though. The struggling may have been some kind of neuro-muscular reaction. As I recall, I was restrained on the operating table.

When they show somebody being knocked out in the movies, I believe it is with chloroform, not ether. I don't know the difference between the two.

Thanks, Boxlicker! Good to hear about the stuff right from the human's mouth, so to speak.

 

[shereads]

just a distant memory from my well spent/misspent youth. I remember the night my brother came over to my apartment with a vial of laudanum and a bag of weed. We poured the laudanum over the weed and put it in a pan over the stove to dry out, placing some aluminum foil ofer hte top. A pinhole in the aluminum foil allowed the opiated steam to escape in a threadlike jet which we took turns snorting. I don't remember a lot, but I do rmember the back of my head floating away and not minding very much. The pot was quite enhanced as well. Wisdom, old age and urinalysis have put all that in my past but, obviously, not out of my memory.

Where did your brother get some laudenum, if I might ask?

Just curious.



And what does wisdom have to do with it? Is it wise to look reality in the face 24/7?

 

[shereads]

Oh, absolutely agreed. In fact, I very nearly said that in my last post.

I can remember being young and talking with my mother about what heroin was. She told me about a singer who'd been popular in her youth who had a bad problem with it - bad enough that he just left the needle in the vein and topped up the syringe now and then over the course of some hours. That pretty much told me everything I needed to know about addiction to intravenous drugs.

Brrr.

Shanglan

I always had an aversion to needles, which is probably for the best. "Comfortably Numb" makes it sound almost irresistable.

Hey, Shanglan? Is that you, or a distant shipsmoke on the horizon?

 

[shereads]

Subo, this part sounds better than chocolate:

"We poured the laudanum over the weed and put it in a pan over the stove to dry out, placing some aluminum foil ofer hte top. A pinhole in the aluminum foil allowed the opiated steam to escape in a threadlike jet"

<sigh>

I'm addicted to the idea of opiates. I need to get out more.

 

[shereads]

Beware of the Flaming Czech Fire Ritual!

"Please be wary of elixirs, tinctures, the flaming Czech fire ritual and absinthe sold on ebay. DO NOT BUY ABSINTHE "RECIPES" OFF OF EBAY. They are extremely dangerous (blow yourself up dangerous) and do not even come close to approximating even a very bad absinthe."

http://www.feeverte.net/

 

[BlackShanglan]

I always had an aversion to needles, which is probably for the best. "Comfortably Numb" makes it sound almost irresistable.

Hey, Shanglan? Is that you, or a distant shipsmoke on the horizon?

Always loved that song. I usually listen to it when depressive chemicals have already altered my mental state. And you're right, the opiates do have a certain decadent allure. That "green fairy" business about absinthe always made me want to try it.

Shanglan

 

[The_old_man]

Inhaling aether effectively deprives one of oxygen, otherwise it has only one other effect, it washes any fat from tissue it encounters. In simpler terms it suffocates you and gives your lungs and wind pipe a chemical burn. The flammability of aether and mixtures containing it are legendary. The most prevalent use today is in making Meth.

Drinking it would be a slow and very painful way of committing suicide.

I used to use it in model aircraft engine fuel.

 

[shereads]

That "green fairy" business about absinthe always made me want to try it.

Shanglan

Oscar Wilde:

"After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world."

and


"If he didn't drink [absinthe], he would be somebody else. Personality must be accepted for what it is. You mustn't mind that a poet is a drunk, rather that drunks are not always poets."

 

[LadyJeanne]

"We are the sole UK suppliers of premium French and Swiss absinthes made to original 19th century protocols. Our absinthes are made from the distillation of plants not from oils and are coloured naturally. If you haven't tasted our absinthes then you haven't tasted authentic absinthe!

We ship WORLDWIDE by international courier and have one of the fastest delivery times for absinthe, typically under one week to the US from acceptance of your order - and all shipments are insured against breakage and loss in transit, so order online with confidence. "


French and Swiss Absinthe


Cheers!

 

[shereads]

"We are the sole UK suppliers of premium French and Swiss absinthes made to original 19th century protocols. Our absinthes are made from the distillation of plants not from oils and are coloured naturally. If you haven't tasted our absinthes then you haven't tasted authentic absinthe!

We ship WORLDWIDE by international courier and have one of the fastest delivery times for absinthe, typically under one week to the US from acceptance of your order - and all shipments are insured against breakage and loss in transit, so order online with confidence. "


French and Swiss Absinthe


Cheers!

Me too. I was about to whip out the credit card but the $150 price tag made me re-read the FAQs at The Virtual Absinthe Museum. Apparently, there's nothing to the absinthe hype except for its exceptionally high alcohol content.

"In conclusion, there is no evidence that absinthe ever contained the high concentrations of thujone that would have led to detrimental effects or that it has hallucinogenic or mind altering properties."

Sigh. Another escape from reality plummets to earth. Poor green fairy...

 

[LadyJeanne]

Me too. I was about to whip out the credit card but the $150 price tag made me re-read the FAQs at The Virtual Absinthe Museum. Apparently, there's nothing to the absinthe hype except for its exceptionally high alcohol content.

"In conclusion, there is no evidence that absinthe ever contained the high concentrations of thujone that would have led to detrimental effects or that it has hallucinogenic or mind altering properties."

Sigh. Another escape from reality plummets to earth. Poor green fairy...

Rats. It seemed to do wonders for Susan Sarandon and Jude Law in Alfie. I was actually hoping Jude would personally deliver my bottle, after which I would naturally offer to share it with him since he'd come such a long way...

Rats.