May you confuse a young pharmacist, Lee.

Um, ok, this is funny. I always joke that whenever the rest of tv bores me, PBS serves up a particular documentary on Pompeii, which I watch. I've seen it countless times. I was just thinking of that. I flip to PBS...and it is a NEW (to me) docu on Herculaneum (also buried by Vesuvius' eruption.) It's a variation on my Pompeii-ocity!

Wow. Chicago has been eaten by a fog monster.

Heh. My apt is below the fog layer.

Seems like there's more fog close by the lake.

Huh. It did get rather coolish here but we're not foggy out here. (Well west of Chicago.)

I think I have Robin to blame for the fact that I just ate the whole box of dark chocolate Raisinettes, right?

I humbly accept the blame and would ask for your forgiveness, except do I need to be forgiven for inspiring you to try such DELICIOUSNESS?

I'm stuck in painkiller purgatory. I'm in some fairly minor but not ignorable pain.

I'm not supposed to take aspirin, for clotting reasons. I'm out of Advil. I have Tylenol 3s, but I can't take them because I had a beer. And the meds the dentist gave me are Vicodin, which - hello, overkill? Feh.

I humbly accept the blame and would ask for your forgiveness, except do I need to be forgiven for inspiring you to try such DELICIOUSNESS?

Not at all, my friend. And healthy!

brenda, I know I'm cavalier about these things, but what's the risk of mixing the Tylenol 3 with booze? I mean, if you just took one and went to bed?

Tylenol and alcohol are unmixy things. Mostly, harmless. A significant minority of occasions - liver damage. A smaller minority - significant, even fatal, liver damage.

I'm totally cavalier about that kind of thing mostly. I'll take like five advil or a handful of aspirin without thinking about it. Tylenol is different, especially with alcohol.

My mom got me paranoid about this stuff - she was involved in a lot of research re physiology of women and alcohol. The tylenol thing was something that they uncovered that wasn't conclusive, but was enough that she totally impressed the no-tylenol-with-alcohol thing on me. (It's not just women, just something that came out of her research) Years later - maybe three or five years ago? - it started hitting the mainstream medical community.

It's unlikely - very unlikely - that there would be any damage. But it happens. This isn't like say, saccharin, where the rats that developed issues were given doses no human would likely absorb. The Tylenol thing is more of a crapshoot - a normal dose of Tylenol combined with alcohol will usually be nothing, and will sometimes be life-changing. There's no telling.

Um, lecture over. But seriously, y'all. Whatever the bottle says about recommended dosage - don't play around with that. And NEVER take Tylenol when you've had any alcohol. Never.

And before I sound too sanctimental: I almost took the Vicodin last night during House just because I could.