Day 21: Trying absinthe for the first time is BTS

Can anyone tell me why I feel a certain irrational affinity for a liqeur that, after 100 long years of being banned in the US, resumes its quest – hypnotic, subversively rapturous – for sensory domination (aside from the fact that Johnny Depp downs a shot of it in “From Hell”)? The search for a shot of absinthe is not for the weak of heart; my friends and I stopped by five bars before finding one in the East Village right by St. Marks Place that carried it. Now I get the illicit charm of this bohemian potion: Forget about the heart. Absinthe makes the loins grow fonder, as Laszlo will tell you.