Congratualtions
 

Nice to have you all the way aboard, Peter.

Did anyone mention chugging it?

JHIII--I have a friend who has lived in Prague off and on for 10 years and he gets it there or in Vienna and always brings back a few bottles (among other things). It is not cheap and comes in a bottle that is almost black. Tourists get ripped off buying bootleg flavored quite often I guess and they sell "kits" on the internet which produce the essence of wormwood. Its not something I would walk up to an alley vendor and try to purchase.

There are also a few clubs in New Orleans where you can get it, but you got to know the secret handshake:wacko:

Imagine that, being able to get it in New Orleans. ;)

From what you and Carleton mentioned, I sure wouldn't try any homemade absinthe. I'll stick to the white lightning, at least I haven't gone blind yet.:D

Two stories on that note: when I was in high school in Augusta, GA one year, we bought some moonshine off a local contractor who was building a house in the neighborhood. Our biology teacher played a news video tape for us the following week about some shiners that had gotten busted. They knew there was a sting operation sch. for the following week somehow, and they went and collected roadkill (dogs, cats, squirrels, you name it) and threw the rotting carcassas into the vat to speed the fermentation process. She warned us never to drink moonshine. Don't know if we got any of that particular batch or not.

In college, my benefactor had a large rice plantation. We used to buy gallon jugs of rice moonshine off one of the gullah men that worked at the farm and would use it in "hunch punch" for parties. At some point during the year, 60 mins did a story about the area, including the connection between blindness and bootleg rice liquor.

Haven't had the taste for homemade stuff since (unless I know the distiller).

Thanks for sharing, the story about throwing roadkill into the vat really opened my eyes. That's probably not the first or last time that has happened.

I guess you really don't know what's in that stuff unless you know the distiller first hand. I think I'll stick to the store bought stuff from now on.

One treat I got to enjoy in college that was almost suspect, was at a friend of mine's home on the Cape in Osterville, MA. They had a wine cellar that had two crates of 'medicinal whiskey' that had been there since prohibition. The stuff was really in small medicine bottles (1/2 pt, i'd say). It was very smooth, like bourbon.

I will never forget that teacher. She had two college aged sons and we were in the 9th grade, as I recall. There was a group of us in the AP fast track, that were, well, trouble. We were literally going over aerobic and anearobic fermentation, ect....and she knew something was up due to the intense notes we were all taking on the subject and questions we were asking. Of course there was, we were going to make a M.A.S.H. style still!!!!:D Total coincidence that the bootleggers got busted the next week, but she sure knew how to exploit it to us morons. If she would have just relayed a story about serving time for fake id's next.......:D

It's funny how a twist of fate can teach a long lasting lesson. Of course, you have to be able to digest and process the information. Otherwise, you can spend your whole life smacking your head upside a wall. Like the fellow I know who just got his second dui. He got pulled over after passing another car at a high rate of speed on a two lane blacktop. It didn't help that a highway patrol officer was two cars behind him. It also didn't help that he got smart with the officer, who then searched his car and found some wacky tobacky. I guess the first dui that was ten years ago, where he got caught in the same fashion and with pot in the car, didn't faze him. :rolleyes:

Well Mistress will be going to Hefs "Benz Fest 06" to unvail Miss Maxine the Wonder Benz ,1990 420 SEL (her debutante BBQ ball) and I'm excited to meet everyone from the forum.....what to wear, what to wear...

Leather.

that goes without saying...but which leather, hand tooled or glove.

I'm cleaning up me old Ruger Red label .20 ga for a dove shoot tomorrow. Tasty:)

That's easy. Glove leather.

And I'd like to see pics after the party. :D

Happy Friday all. Gonna see the inlaws tomorrow and associated relatives tomorrow. Love my inlaws, her Dad just bought a kevlar canoe. :) I could do without the rest.

This is a great weekend to hang out and watch movies.