h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If he drank that lot, I can see why he wanted to trowop.

I remember reading about a murder in France at the turn of the century (1900) where the murderer consumed an inordinate amount and variety of alcohol and then murdered his wife and children. (It was the absinthe and the sandwich which stuck in my mind

I believe that because there was a movement in Europe at the time against absinthe that there was an emphasis placed on the absinthe (I suppose that they could have just as easily blamed the coffee ) and the case was cited when some countries banned the drink.

All this is a little half remembered from reading about absinthe some time ago but hope that it helps

Feisor has it! More or less.

It was a Swiss labourer named Jean Lanfray who in 1905, after imbibing the drinks listed in the OP, indeed shot and killed his pregnant wife and two daughters in a drunken frenzy. The crime exacerbated a moral panic about absinthe that led to a petition and a Swiss constitutional referendum that banned possession and manufacture of absinthe. The case was very famous at the time and played a part in other countries banning of the spirit. Lanfrey hanged himself in prison three days after he was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment.

eye-thang-ewe

Half remembered though it was, it just proves that an interest in booze pays off sometimes

I would also like to thank Baz Luhrman - it was after watching Kylie play the Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge that I was led to investigate absinthe. I must also say that it didn't inspire me to try the stuff though I am still curious

Did someone say absinthe?

Did you know that shock-rocker Marilyn Manson paints watercolours in his spare time, and that one of the better known is 'Harlequin Jack and the Absinthe Bunny' (see link)

http://www.marilynmansonimages.com/art09.html

This painting was bought in 2002 by Jack Osbourne (son of Ozzy)