Having had a bad cold and having blown through my remaining supply of Real (ie. pseudoephedrine-based) NyQuil, when I stopped by the drugstore to pick up another prescription tonight, I decided to pick up some more of the good stuff.

Two problems arose with this idea.

First, because pseudoephedrine is used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, anything containing it is now banished behind the counter, where you must scan your driver’s license in order to purchase it, allowing Big Brother to track your purchases and ensure you’re just sick and not manufacturing meth.

Because of this ridiculousness, most pharmacies just sell the “reformulated” (ie. completely useless) version over the counter, and keep a limited stock of Real NyQuil.

Secondly, because the cold I have has been going around for some time, said limited stock was depleted to the point where the only bottle left of the good stuff was the Green flavor.

Previously, I’ve always purchased the “Cherry” flavor, which tastes nothing whatsoever like cherries, but is at least bearable in its own foul, familiar manner.

Tonight was the first time I tried the Green flavor, which is only labeled “Original.” Now I understand why Laz refers to it as the GREEEEEEEEEEEEN flavor.

Because it doesn’t taste like anything else you’ve ever tasted. You taste it and you think, “UCH! That tastes….GREEEEEEEEN!”

You can hear and read that description all you want, but you cannot understand it until you take a sweet sip of the disgusting weirdness. Now, I understand.

And now, I must head for bed before I pass out facefirst on the keyboard.

Broadway stagehands: Followers when it comes to calling strikes (having called theirs about a week into the WGA strike), but let’s hope they’re leaders when it comes to settling them.

Now it’s down to the main body of the WGA and the CBS news writers.

It’s at least a somewhat hopeful portent, and for the week we finish filming and 95% of the remainder of the people I work with get laid off, I’m clinging to whatever hope I can.