Jean-Francois Raffaelli’s 1881 painting “The Absinthe Drinkers” was recently aquired at auction by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for just under 3 million dollars (I guess my bid of $10 didn’t quite make it). The pre-auction estimate for this great piece was between $400,000 and $600,000. Except for the clothing this kind of  looks like my place on a Friday night.

I just found out that yesterday was good friend and absinthe entrepeneur Mike Schallehn’s birthday. Mike is the mastermind behind both Absinthe.FM and Alandia. I hope all of you out there will join me in wishing Mike a very Happy Birthday, even if it is a wee bit late . Also, Mike’s second in command, Christian, will be cellebrating his “B” day on Friday. So Happy Birthday to Chris as well!

Well my old absinthemobile finally bit the dust. There’s a picture of it when is was healthy in one of the older entries. Rest in peace my old friend. But now I have a much better absinthemobile and here’s a picture of it. Click on it to get a bigger view :)

Even though absinthe has been legal in the US for a little over 3 years now, I still get asked “Which absinthe will make me trip?”. The answer, quite simply, is none. While absinthe does have a different effect than other alcohols, it  is not a drug and will not, never did, and never will, make you hallucinate. Anyone who claims to have tripped from absinthe either has experienced the placebo effect, wherein because they believe they will hallucinate, they do. Or they’ve had some kind of drug slipped into their drink. Drinking excessive quantities of absinthe will just make you excessively drunk. Believe me, I know from experience