Did Washington and Jefferson smoke dope?

[Mark Kohut]

misc. learned from a review of a new biography: Louis Armstrong smoked weed almost every day for 40 years....

--- On Thu, 12/24/09, Rob Jackson <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:

> From: Rob Jackson <jbor at bigpond.com>
> Subject: Re: Did Washington and Jefferson smoke dope?
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Thursday, December 24, 2009, 7:08 PM
> >     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
> 
> 
>