It's Not Easy...

Its not easy being green writing this post while it looks like this outside.

Though, it is Saint Patrick's Day, and as John Doyle writes in this weekend's Globe and Mail (and you can find the rest of the article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/) -

"It’s an event now in the hands of beer companies and their clever marketing departments. “Party like the Irish” is the exhortation, which means, as I’ve noted previously on March 17, that marketing turns a day to commemorate a saint into an internationally recognized keg party.  Some people will roam from bar to bar, in “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” hats and various, unknown-to-nature shades of green."

The "unknown-to-nature shades of green" that Doyle is referring to likely look something like this;

And if you're a child of the '80's like I am, you've probably actually sported a shirt or two in this particular 'colour' because your Mom thought it was 'cute.'  I'm not angry about that or anything.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, certain synthetic green pigments contained exceptionally high levels of arsenic, and were eventually prohibited.  While '80's neon green wasn't toxic to my health (though it probably didn't do my social life any favours), overexposure to the popular 'Emerald Green,' which was based on arsenic compounds, was a frequent cause of accidental poisoning among artists during the Impressionist Period.

 

Claude Monet, Green Park, 1871.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.

 

Not only did the artists of this period have to watch out for toxic materials, but they also had to watch out for the Green Fairy.  That's right, absinthe (told you I'd mention it!). 

 

 

Bottle designed by Stranger and Stranger, UK.  Check out their amazing packaging here - http://www.strangerandstranger.com/

  

According to Wikipedia, "The legacy of absinthe as a mysterious, addictive, and mind-altering drink continues to this day.  It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from botanicals, including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium, together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs."  

Artemisia absinthium - also known as Grand Wormwood. 

The plant is found across Canada, particularly in the prairies, and is considered to be a problematic weed in livestock pastures.

"Adding to absinthe's negative reputation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, unscrupulous makers of the drink omitted the traditional colouring phase of production in favour of adding toxic copper salts to artificially induce a green tint. This practice may be responsible for some of the alleged toxicity historically associated with this beverage."

Numerous artists living in France during the late 19th century were noted absinthe drinkers including Vincent Van Gogh and Edouard Manet.

Vincent Van Gogh, Daubigny's Garden, 1890.

The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.



 

 

Edouard Manet, The Monet Family In Their Garden at Argenteuil, 1874.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

 

So, on this fridgid St. Paddy's Day, avoid the weird green beer poured as a novelty and warm up with some beautiful green absinthe.  Heck, you can even wear that weird neon green shirt you have stashed in the back of your closet - I won't judge you.