ATDTDA (17): lettuce opium (470.27) and "pie"

[Tim Strzechowski]

"I sleep fine, Frankie.  Sometimes a little lettuce opium just to get me into it, but don't feel like that you need to give me no happy endings here" (p. 470).


Lactucarium is the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, especially Lactuca virosa, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties. It has been reported to promote a mild sensation of euphoria, but Lactuca virosa is poisonous, and at least one fatality has occurred during an attempt to use it for intoxication. Because it is a latex, Lactucarium physically resembles opium, in that is excreted as a white fluid and can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid.

[...]

"Lettuce Opium" was used by the Ancient Egyptians, and was introduced as a drug in the United States as early as 1799. The drug was prescribed and studied extensively in Poland during the nineteenth century, and was viewed as an alternative to opium, weaker but lacking side-effects, and in some cases preferable. However, early efforts to isolate an active alkaloid were unsuccessful. It is described and standardized in the 1898 United States Pharmacopoeia and 1911 British Pharmaceutical Codex for use in lozenges, tinctures, and syrups as a sedative for irritable cough or as a mild hypnotic (sleeping aid) for insomnia. The standard definition of lactucarium in these codices required its production from Lactuca virosa, but it was recognized that smaller quantities of lactucarium could be produced in a similar way from Lactuca sativa and Lactuca canadensis var. elongata, and even that lettuce-opium obtained from Lactuca scariola or Lactuca altissima was of superior quality. [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactucarium

http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_lettuce_opium.htm
 
 
And here, by the chapter's conclusion, Pynchon loops us back to the whole "insomnia" motif we saw at the Hotel Noctambulo (p. 462).
 
Speaking of looping back, notice how Frank asks Mayva, "I'm having some more of this pie. You?" (p. 470), which resonates with the Joe Hill "Pie in the Sky" reference earlier in the chapter (p. 463). 
 
Does Mayva's response about the "hard work" one puts into raising sons and daughters enhance the "pie in the sky" notion?