Prohibition is over!

IN praise of the opaque green liqueur beloved by his creative contemporaries, Oscar Wilde once posed the rhetorical question, “What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset?”

The prosaic answer, at least for Americans, has long been one of legality: sunsets can be freely enjoyed, but absinthe was forbidden because it contained thujone, a potentially toxic compound.

For those of us who've been sweating smuggling Absinthe from Prague back to the States, I have some wonderful news. The tasty, near-toxic treat may soon be appearing in a liquor store near you. That's right, the New York Times is reporting that Viridian Spirits has hired "Ted Breaux, a chemist known for his detailed analyses of vintage absinthes" to "produce an absinthe that would pass regulatory muster with American authorities." The end result is Lucid (124 proof), "the first legal, genuine American absinthe in nearly a century," which will be available starting next month. Please lose your mind responsibly.