"Tonia Perez, the girl who loved the Cisco Kid, was half Carmen, half Madonna, and the rest--oh, yes, a woman who is half Carmen and half Madonna can always be something more--the rest, let us say, was humming-bird. She lived in a grass-roofed jacal near a little Mexican settlement at the Lone Wolf Crossing of the Frio. With her lived a father or grandfather, a lineal Aztec, somewhat less than a thousand years old, who herded a hundred goats and lived in a continuous drunken dream from drinking mescal."

MESCAL
Pronunciation: me'skal


Matching Terms: mescal bean, mescal button, mescaline


WordNet Dictionary

Definition: [n] a colorless Mexican liquor distilled from fermented juices of certain desert plants of the genus Agavaceae (especially the century plant)
[n] a small spineless globe-shaped cactus; source of mescal buttons


Synonyms: Lophophora williamsii, mezcal, peyote

See Also: Agave atrovirens, booze, cactus, genus Lophophora, hard drink, hard liquor, John Barleycorn, liquor, Lophophora, maguey, mescal button, sacred mushroom, spirits, strong drink

I wonder what the drunken state of mescal shares in common with the drunken state of, say, fermented potatoes, of which I am currently imbibing?

There are many ways to obtain CH3CH2OH. But the byproducts can vary a great deal. In some batches of hard cider there were aldehydes (relatives of embalming fluid) that were very unkind to cerebral cortical neurones.

And what would those a'd'hydes do to the cerebral cortical neurones in the great unkindness?

How would you like to drink embalming fluid?
Guaranteed to exterminate your brain cells.

And what really happens when your brain cells are pickled? Don't you just go about creating new ones when you're sober again?

I had a relative who was a horrible alcoholic. A very nice, very kind man, but completely addicted to alcohol. As he slowly pickled his brains, he finally could do very little other than add more pickling to what had been pickled. He was dear almost to the end, bringing roses to the house when he visited. He was full of love for those he knew--but he seemed not to be able to do very much at the end other than drink. I believe he lived almost 72 years, most of them drinking quite a bit.

I wonder how his pickled experience compared to that of those who drink or eat or smoke or whatever they do with drugs like mescal? Is that state similar? Dreamlike? Anxiety-free?

creating new ones
my understanding is, no, you don't.
but then, I don't even play a doctor on TV...

The problem with replacing nerve cell,I think, is that their crucially important very numerous connections cannot
be replaced.

now that makes sense. thanks, Dr. Bill!