Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow ... well, you know.

[Eight-year-old Fads] You know a trend has pretty much run its course when it gets picked up in the dailies. Absinthe is now aboveboard and trendy, according to a story in the Trib. (No mention of the fact that its fin-de-siècle, illicit charms are what gained it a following in the first place during the late 1990s and early 2000s.)

Of course, in those days it had the benefit of having to be smuggled into the country. Now that a neutered version containing the wrong kind of wormwood is legally available in the United States, the Green Fairy doesn't seem quite as edgy somehow. More's the pity.

If you ask me, tastemaker that I am--*koff*--I can tell you that what you should really be drinking is Chartreuse. It's also got a pretty green color and is considered one of the most complex flavors in the world. (A yellow version is also available.) Its mind-altering (and healthful) effects are due to a secret herbal formula known only to one or two French monks, and what the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau doesn't know won't hurt it.

(Brandon Burt)