Did Washington and Jefferson smoke dope?

[Robin Landseadel]

On Dec 24, 2009, at 4:08 PM, Rob Jackson wrote:

>> 	Thomas Pynchon's novel Mason & Dixon (1997) features a
>> 	scene in which Washington shares a blunt with the eponymous
>> 	surveyors while Martha supplies them with munchies. This
>> 	doesn't prove anything, but it's reassuring to know that
>> 	whenever an opportunity presents itself to combine historical
>> 	revisionism and pot jokes, Pynchon is all over it like a
>> 	wetsuit.
>>
>> http://www.connectsavannah.com/news/article/101528/
>
> It's one of the most memorable scenes in the novel, and testament to  
> the thorough and intensive research that Pynchon undertook in its  
> composition.
>
> Need to go back and read the chapter again, but I suspect that  
> Pynchon extrapolates from the historical record on a couple of  
> counts here. As a hemp-grower and a tobacco-smoker, it seems logical  
> to assume that GW would at least have 'experimented' with the  
> alternative crop as a tobacco substitute in his pipe as well. At the  
> very least, I'd daresay that more than a few of GW's farm slaves  
> would have indulged in a tote or two. And, as the writer of the  
> article suggests, the absence of reference to smoking hemp in GW's  
> and TJ's diaries perhaps says more than if they had written it down  
> for posterity ...
>
> But I think also that in his representation of the friendship  
> between GW and 'Gershom', Pynchon is making a connection between  
> dope-smoking and the mellow insightfulness it brings and the  
> increasingly benevolent attitudes and generosity towards his slaves  
> (not to mention Martha!) that GW showed ...
>
> feliz navidad

Not to mention that it gives him a chance to work up some Jackie Mason  
style-d material.