From Rex Parker's write-up of today's NYT Crossword puzzle, which he's doing in a "Madison Avenue Starbucks that [his] companion Lena called 'the saddest Starbucks ever.'" "NOHO" was the answer for "Big Apple neighborhood," and "Ingredient in a Brompton cocktail" was the clue for "cocaine."
I was reading that on my iPad but I jumped up to write this on my iMac after I clicked on that link at "it's not something you'd consume for pleasure ... probably. " Oh, my! I did the puzzle last night before conking out and I got "cocaine," which was 2 Down, after seeing some of the Acrosses. It's only just now that I'm learning that a Brompton cocktail is not a recreational drink:
Brompton cocktail... is an elixir... [m]ade from morphine or diacetylmorphine (heroin), cocaine, highly-pure ethyl alcohol (some recipes specify gin), and sometimes with chlorpromazine (Thorazine) to counteract nausea, it was given to terminally-ill individuals (especially cancer patients) to relieve pain and promote sociability near death....To promote sociability near death....
The original idea for an oral mixture of morphine and cocaine helping patients in agony with advanced disease is credited to surgeon Herbert Snow in 1896.
The Brompton cocktail is named after the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, England, where it was invented in the late 1920s for patients with tuberculosis. While its use has been rare in the 21st century, it is not entirely unheard of today.
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12 comments:
never mind..different Lena
The neighborhood North of Houston is Grenwich Village. There is no NOHO, though I'm not surprised some soulless real estate agents managed to convince some vacuous journalists to pretend otherwise.
I used to live in NoHo.
In Washington Square Village.
It was definitely NoHo. It's NoHo if people call it NoHo, and it was called NoHo in 1980, I assure you.
Sociability near death--isn't that a wake?
Here I am next to the iconic orange brick of WSV in 1981.
The original idea for an oral mixture of morphine and cocaine helping patients in agony with advanced disease is credited to surgeon Herbert Snow in 1896.
Jeez--seems pretty obvious to me.
Many terminal patients are given oral pain cocktails although I am not familiar with the "Brompton cocktail" term.
I believe that heroin can still be used in Britain. Before the Harrison Narcotics Act, it was the preferred pain relief for labor and Johns Hopkins used it for years as the Act allowed existing stocks to be used. Of course, epidurals are now used for that purpose.
"To promote sociability near death...."
I believe that means "not troublesome."
I tried to get my (Then) bride to use Hoppe's #9 Gun Oil as it was my private sent. She would not; But I still stayed married to her.
Marijuana works better.
I never heard the term NOHO in the early 70s in NYC. I assume it was a term invented to contrast with SOHO (South of Houston Street) which was used then, it was a "neighborhood" where we young associates spent all nighters at the (financial) printers before bond and stock offerings. Mostly warehouses, some great Italian restaurants (Ponte's is the only name I recall) where the printers would send us (or order out from) while waiting for union guys to reset type on proofs. Some biker/S&M bars were probably rollingon the Hudson dockside, but the printers didn't send us there.
At one time Bayer Aspirin contained a small amount of heroin.
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