“After the first glass of absinthe you see things as you wish they were.  After the second you see them as they are not.  Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.  I mean disassociated.  Take a top hat.  You think you see it as it really is.  But you don’t because you associate it with other things and ideas.  If you had never heard of one before, and suddenly saw it alone, you’d be frightened, or you’d laugh.  That is the effect absinthe has, and that is why it drives men mad.  Three nights I sat up all night drinking absinthe, and thinking that I was singularly clear-headed and sane.  The waiter came in and began watering the sawdust.  The most wonderful flowers, tulips, lilies and roses, sprang up, and made a garden in the cafe.  “Don’t you see them?” I said to him.  “Mais non, monsieur, il n’y a rien.” – Oscar Wilde

Old Quarter – New Orleans