i don't understand.

it's good it's not for
me to forgive anyone,
because i couldn't.



today, in the newspaper, beneath the article about the eight-year-old girl who was dug out from under a pile of rocks where she had been buried alive after having been sexually assaulted and beaten, there was another article about the recent sentencing of a local policeman. he had confessed to sexually abusing his stepdaughter (adopted daughter? she was not biologically his child, but she was his daughter, once she's there in your house counting on you you'd better know that she's your daughter) almost every day for about a year, beginning when she was seven years old. seven. he had confessed.

he had confessed.

he was sentenced to parole and a minimum of community service. maybe the jury looked kindly upon the fact that he had only raped her almost every day. maybe they thought the nights off counted as good behavior. maybe they were proud of him for not burying her alive in a dumpster, since we've seen how easy it can be to get carried away and do that sort of thing.

i wanted to reference this story with a bit more detail and accuracy. i tried to find some in-depth information about it, but all i came up with was hundreds of articles about sex crimes committed by the clergy. this story appears to be news, um, not so much.

what are we doing? why are we doing it so wrong?

is vicks keeping dirty secrets?

i *heart* absinthe
Originally uploaded by juniper pearl.

damned prohibition,
keeping me and my true love
an ocean apart.


so, i recently had an opportunity to sample the distiller's proof of jade absinthe's latest formula, absinthe edouard. it's lovely, simply lovely. this is the beverage i was born to imbibe. it's fresh and clean and crisp, it's stunning. and...

it's nyquil. i mean, it's daintier, breezier nyquil, but it's unquestionably the same flavor. and i'm certain that downing a couple of ounces of it would take your stuffy nose right off your mind, so my theory is that nyquil was initially just absinthe disguised as medicine, straight snake oil. i went all around the internet trying to find a market release date for vicks' original formula, and either no one knows or no one is willing to say. but it's too on the mark for it to be a coincidence: it was modeled after the liquor, or it was the liquor.

so, for all of you who can't afford to spend the $150 to have a black market bottle shipped from europe to your happy home here in the deeply repressed states, you can always add six ounces of water to your next dose of your favorite nighttime-sniffling-sneezing-so-you-can-rest medicine and fall asleep thinking you're edgar allan poe (or colette, my own favorite alter ego). who knows, maybe the stuff even displays a passable louche.

bottoms up, my lovelies, and sweet delirious dreams.