Talking Simpsons - Grandpa Vs Sexual Inadequacy
Added 2017-09-27 07:15:55 +0000 UTCHomer and Marge are having trouble in the bedroom and only Abe can save the day. But when Homer and his father take the sex tonic on the road, things all fall apart? All that, plus we reveal how the reverse vampires have been controlling everything! We're through the looking glass here, people...
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Another example of a tonic salesman is in the movie Outlaw Josie Whales. Check it out.
Elliot Long
2017-10-01 20:08:00 +0000 UTCOh boy, another opportunity to ramble on about patent medicine! *in Grandpa’s voice* Henry described the industry as a grift, and while that is true in many ways, it is better to think of it as analogous to the designer drug/research chemical phenomena of our era. Most tonics and potions from the golden age of patent medicine (the 18th, 19th and early 20th century) relied on the fact that the pharmacopeia was not exactly bursting with evidence-based medicine. This was an age where laudanum would be prescribed to soothe a troublesome child, and mercury would be used to “cure” syphilis (Oscar Wilde famously hid his teeth as they had turned green because of mercury poisoning). In this medical environment, patent medicines thrived. Most consisted of tinctures (plant matter soaked in alcohol) of various medicinal plants. While we know today that many traditional remedies have some basis in reality, the truth is that more often than not these remedies relied on either a sedative (alcohol), a stimulant (cocaine), a narcotic (opium), or cannabis to produce any noticeable effect. A tincture of chamomile might result light somnolence, but it can hardly hold a candle to the knockout power of the opium poppy! Given the virtual absence of drug regulation, just about anyone could throw some poppy straw in alcohol, stick it in a fancy bottle and head out on the medicine show circuit. Patent medicines were particularly popular among women. Concoctions emerged to treat a wide variety of “female troubles”, with Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound being a particularly famous example. This particular remedy contained several herbs and roots believed to soothe cramp pain, but it was also 18% alcohol. Essentially, patent medicines provided a more socially acceptable means for women (and men) to get shitfaced. The bum on the pavement drinking laudanum was to be reviled, but an upstanding member of society could freely consume Dr. Browne’s Chlorodyne (which was essentially laudanum in a fancy bottle). By the dawn of the 20th century, the US government passed the Pure Food and Drug act, which mandated that products disclose whether they contain any of the form of the quartet of key patent medicine ingredients (alcohol, cocaine, opium, cannabis). This largely killed off the industry in America, though prohibition gave it a brief reprieve. As Temperance went from a social movement to the law of the land, high proof patent medicines saw sales skyrocket (Jamaica Ginger or “Jake” being a famous example, which was bottled at 70-80% ABV). Once prohibition became federal law, the Treasury Department took steps to put an end to illicit liquor sales. In order to pass as a patent medicine while remaining palatable, Jake was mixed with a bittering agent thought at the time to be non-toxic, a belief which was shattered when drinkers started to loose the use of their arms and legs. Along with the development of genuinely effective pharmacotherapies, government intervention brought an end the era of patent medicine (until Orin Hatch pushed through a law allowing “supplements” to be sold without FDA approval). People could no longer bypass drug and alcohol prohibition through quack medicines. Of course, the desire to escape reality can never be sated. In the place of patent medicines, we now have designer drugs that fill the same need. The medicine show has given way to the darknet. Also, Pizzagate is absolutely real. The giant sweaty red guy told me so!
Vulpes
2017-09-29 20:56:05 +0000 UTC
