Steamed and Soaked in Butter

Artichokes are vegetarian lobster.

Coffee Suicide

After ingesting a fair amount of caffeine today, I became curious as to how much coffee I would have to drink to risk death from overdose.

Almost every substance has toxicity data obtained from dosing a group of rats until half of them die. That amount divided by the weight of the rat is called the "LD50". According to wikipedia, the LD50 for caffeine is 192 mg/kg. We'll assume that is enough to kill me, or at least make me wish I were dead. To answer my question, I simply need to convert this figure to cups of coffee per me.

1 kg = 2.2 lbs
Chris = 180 lbs (of solid muscle!)
cup of coffee = 100mg

Now apply these ratios using skills leftover from my chemistry classes:

192 mg * 1 kg * 1 cup of coffee * 180 lbs
---------------------------------------------------
1 kg * 2.2 lbs * 100 mg * Chris

This reduces to:

157 cups of coffee / Chris

That is just under 10 gallons of coffee. Math is fun!

Horror Movie Drinking Games

If you celebrate Halloween the way I do, you will be looking for ways to combine watching scary movies with getting intoxicated. Here are two effective combinations:

While watching Poltergeist (a lovely family film from the people who brought you E. T. and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) you should drink every time somebody says "Carol Anne".

In the gothic horror classic Dracula, drink every time Bela Lugosi stares broodingly into the camera.