PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Human beings have invented or discovered an abundance of substances that offer short-term pleasure, often in exchange for long-term grief - substances like alcohol, cocaine, heroin. Few have yielded such a spate of grief as absinthe, the drink favored by bohemians a century ago in Paris and other cosmopolitan locales in Europe and the United States.

Absinthe drove men mad. Degas portrayed its stupefying effect artfully in his painting "L'Absinthe." Picasso and Manet worked the same theme. Some believed this drink, formulated in the 18th century by Henri Louis Pernod, stimulated artistic creativity. Talky Oscar Wilde prattled on about visions. Baudelaire drank it for inspiration. So did Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Van Gogh. Others regard tales of its inspirational qualities as pish posh.

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Absinthe: A curious writer wanders Prague in search of a taste of the forbidden.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Human beings have invented or discovered an abundance of substances that offer short-term pleasure, often in exchange for long-term grief - things like alcohol, cocaine, heroin. Few such products have yielded such a spate of griefs as absinthe, the drink favored by bohemians a century ago in Paris and other cosmopolitan locales in Europe and the United States.

Absinthe was dangerous: It drove men mad. Degas portrayed its stupefying effect artfully in his painting "L'Absinthe." Picasso and Manet worked the same theme. Some believed this drink, formulated in the 18th century by Henri Louis Pernod, stimulated artistic creativity. Talky Oscar Wilde prattled on about visions. Baudelaire drank it for inspiration. So did Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, van Gogh. Others regard tales of its inspirational qualities as pish-posh.

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