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a little history lesson...

It was the Belgium who first banned it, in 1905 quietly and with out fanfare and not the French...but the Swiss often take credit because of a very public debate spanned by a murder/suicide attempt in which the perp. (Lanfray) had [consumed five liters of wine, six glasses of cognac, one coffee laced with brandy, two crème de menthes, and two glasses of absinthe after eating a sandwich.]* He then went home had another Coffee and Brandy, then he shot up his wife and kids, then turned the gun upon himself...he was un-sucsessful in his suicide attempt and stood trial...

Due to the "rumors" in Europe and circulating around the world, they blamed the 2 little glasses of Absinthe not the gallon or so of alcohol...this was 1905. As a result of the trial and all its hub-bub the down fall of Absinthe began...



(you didn't finish with this story, Rob....let me help ya out here......)

And, with brilliant maneuvering by Lanfray battery of attorneys for a change of venue(he was apparently somewhat a man of means, and thus could afford the best lawyers money could buy), his trial was moved to a courtroom in LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA, where a jury became hopelessly deadlocked in it's decision, and ultimately Lanfray was never to serve any time in incarceration for the murder of his family, and thus died a free but broken man in 1927. His last words reportedly were a lament about his long "lost" family members when he said on his deathbed in his signature lisp..."Absinthe maketh the heart grow fonder!"

(I wasn't gonna included that last line, as I felt it was way too obvious[read: corny], but then I thought..Oh, what the heck!!!!)

Last edited by Dwight; 09/19/2007 7:02 PM.