Whiskey Bottle's Lyrics

My bipolar illness was really out of control in the summer of 2001, and abruptly stopping taking baclofen, a muscle relaxant that causes physical dependency, threw me into a full-blown manic episode.

The first of many bizarre delusions I suffered happened when I was doing shots of Maker's Mark bourbon while working on my PC. For a split second, I saw the eye of God in the circle S IV logo on the label. I immediately started work on this image, which is based on that logo:



Everything in the image had quasi-religious symbolism. The circle represented the walls around the Garden of Eden. The S was the serpent, the I was Adam and the V was Eve. The four three-leafed clovers were about the animist worship of nature. The five pyramids (from a dollar bill) symbolize man's dominion over nature. The five lightning bots (taken from Schutzstaffel runes) was for natural forces' dominance over mankind. If you connect the lines between the small pyramids inside the circle in a certain way, you can make a six-pointed Star of David. The seven pointed figure on the inside of the circle looked like a police badge to me, so it represented Mosaic and Talmudic Law. The nine leafed pot image embedded in the circle represented a method by which mankind could return to Eden. Either I skipped eight when I made the image, or I don't remember how it was incorporated there.

Apparently these types of delusions are common among bipolars. In the film "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" Daniel is shown ranting to a nightclub audience saying "Man is five, the Devil is six, God is seven, number nine, number nine, number nine..."

Cooking Dates

I posted this ad on craigslist and in my synagogue's bulletin:


I enjoy cooking Middle Eastern, Greek, Chinese, Thai, Ethiopian, Indian, Mexican, French, Italian, Indian, and Southern style comfort food, but due to physical limitations, I need help doing the work in the kitchen. I accommodate all dietary restrictions. For a fun and educational evening, answer this ad!

I have a few friends who come over intermittently, resulting in 1 or 2 cooking dates a month. They pick the culinary theme, I look up 4-5 recipes, which we narrow down to 2-3 via e-mail.

Last time our theme was fall vegetables. We chose 2 recipes, both calling for tomatoes. My guest grows tomatoes, but her dog likes them too, and ate all the tomatoes we were going to cook! Still, the stuffed zucchini with ground lamb and fresh mint, and the grilled eggplant with parsley ricotta and tomato relish were a smashing success and a delight for all the senses. The most fun we had was grilling the eggplant with the George Foreman grill I just bought. I can't decide if I like my grill or my lemon zester more.

I know that there will be a time, hopefully a long way off, when I won't be able to swallow anymore, so in addition to good meals, I always have Altoids peppermints, and Altoids apple, mango, raspberry, citrus and tangerine sours, plus Godiva truffles on my desk.