In Eugene O'Neill's one-act play from 1917 The Long Voyage Home one of the characters is slipped a mickey. In fact, that is how most sailors were Shanghaied out of San Francisco.

They'd slip 'em some knock-out drops (I don't know what was common then), and then they'd roll the guy up in a rug, and cart him up the hill from the bars on the Barbary Coast. He'd wake up at sea and have no choice but to work until they made landfall, and even then he'd probably be bound to the ship because he wouldn't have enough money to buy passage to where he wanted to go.

The Mickey Finn entry at wikipedia says chloral hydrate was what people used.

Alexis Denisof on HIMYM,

Just got round to watching this week's HIMYM. The countdown (with big numbers in various fun places) to the ending was interesting. Was it something to do with never knowing how much time you've got left? There were a lot of other references to time and clocks too.

Seska, the creator of HIMYM talks about it here: link . It is somewhat spoilery for future things in the season.

Ooh, thanks for the link.

Oh, I LOVED Drowning By Numbers, and now I love the HIMYM folks for namechecking it.

It sounds neat, but it's not on Netflix! Boo.

Heh. The bit of Cougar Town after the credits last night included the term Crazy Ivan. I'm taking it as a reference.

Big Bang Theory tonight involved a theremin. AWESOME.