[SOC] Are You Qualified for SOC?

[KD7JYK DM09]

"I am told the real stuff ( very hard to obtain) still has Wormwood in
it but if you like that sot of thing Try Pastis,Ouzo,or some such
aniseed flavoured spirit.I am told the original was somewhat mind
bending I a, sure that I only have had a pale imitation"

Actually, they all have wormwood in them, some more than others.  Mind 
bending?  No, never was, other than the alcohol, the wormwood was a bad 
rumor.  About 120 years ago or so, some twit went on a bender, drank 
everything in sight and went on a murderous rampage.  Investigators 
discovered the clown had drunk everything he could find, including Absinthe. 
Several days, maybe even weeks after the fact, a newspaper ran an article 
explaining that the Absinthe was the cause.  It could have just as well be 
red wine, white wine, whiskey, or nothing at all that caused the guy to go 
overboard, but the newspaper, having little information and not being part 
of the investigation, focused on the Absinthe.  The story grew to the point 
that until 1990 Absinthe was illegal in every country except Czechoslovakia. 
Why not there?  Because they had an entirely different liquor by that name. 
Years ago, several bottles of "original" Absinthe was obtained by several 
liquor producers and analyzed.  Not surprisingly the amount of wormwood 
varied from little to none at all.

There IS something FAR more deadly in Absinthe, DHMO:

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/dhmo.htm

Kurt