Alfred Jarry with bicycle leaving his house of Corbeil to go to Paris (Photo Harlingue-Viollet) The French writer, Alfred Jarry would be seen, tearing in and out of Parisian bars and houses astride his bicycle, swilling absinthe and pointing his two pistols at anyone who questioned him. He often alternated between meticulous cleanliness and not washing. He wrote: "Anti-alcoholics are unfortunates in the grip of water, that terrible poison, so solvent and corrosive that out of all substances, it has been chosen for washing and scourings, and a drop of water, added to a clear liquid like absinthe, muddies it". And so he drank his absinthe straight...and when he couldn't afford that, he took ether. http://www.bikereader.com/contributors/mcgurn/jarry.html