Via Nag on the Lake and Weird Universe, we are referred to a delightful reprint (circa 1941) of an advertisement for a Colonial Williamsburg public house called Chowning’s Tavern whose verso gives a scale of the temperance or intemperance of various potables from the drinks menu from 1789. “A moral and physical 
thermometer small beer, grouped with water and milk, disposes one to “Health, Wealth, Serenity of mind, Reputation, long Life and Happineſs.” Whereas Gin, Anniẛeed and Rum has the attendant vices of Swindling, Perjury and Burglary leading to the Diseases Dropſy, Madneſ and Melancholy and the Punishments of the Poor-houſe, Jail and Whipping. We are all on the spectrum and can have maladies without picking one’s poison—see if you can tag yourself.
synchronoptica
one year ago: middling large numbers
two years ago: World Storytelling Day plus Easter origins
three years ago: Leipzig’s boy choir, the science of pasta, Roman Emperor Thrax, reflections of dadaism plus St John of Neopmuk
four years ago: the Spring Equinox, assorted links to revisit, pandemic payments plus cats and dominos
five years ago: Bed-In for Peace (1969), Apollo press kits, exercises in root system domestication, EU copyright reform, calls to expel the US ambassador to Germany, myth retold through physics plus creating landscapes with AI
