“In wine there is Wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria”*…
Alcohol has been a prime mover of human culture from the beginning, fueling the development of arts, language, and religion: “Our 9,000-Year Love Affair With Booze.”
* Mark Twain
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As we meditate on mead, we might send analgesic birthday greetings to Felix Hoffmann; he was born on this date in 1868. A chemist, he is best remembered for re-synthesizing diamorphine (independently from C.R. Alder Wright who synthesized it 23 years earlier), which was popularized under the Bayer trade name of “heroin.” He is also credited with synthesizing aspirin (though whether he did this at his own initiative or under the instruction of Arthur Eichengrün is highly contested).
