Nutmeg? Not my cup of tea! (A Spicy Tale - US 39)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

In the last panel of "A Spicy Tale" (US 39), as in the CBL, Scrooge says:
"I hope I can get this collar and chain cut off before somebody discovers
what a fibber I am!"

The lettering of "fibber I am!" looks slightly different from the rest of
the balloon's dialogue. Is this coincidence or could there originally have
been something else? Does the lettering look like being done by somebody
else than Carl or Gare Barks?

The story is about Scrooge being addicted to nutmeg tea. If the dialogue
has been changed, could it originally have contained a reference to his
addiction (instead of a reference to his fibbing in the previous panel)?

To me, the chain and the collar looks like a visualization of Scrooge's
addiction: he's happy having his nutmeg tea again, but by pulling the
chain he hints that he rather would get rid of being dependent of it.
(At least before somebody discovers he's an addict.) What do you think
of that?

On internet, I found a page on nutmeg being a drug:
"http://www.erowid.org/plants/nutmeg/nutmeg_faq.shtml"

Browsing through its contents, I'm surprised that this story got past the
censors (concerning their standards).

Reading the adverse effects mentioned on the page, I don't think I'll ever
have the desire to become a nutmeg addict myself. :-)

Information taken from an email by Mattias Hallin, sent to this list on
Wed, 22 Nov 1995 10:27:44 +0100:

- - - - -
Nutmeg is a drug and really can have addicting effects. Ross Russell, in
his jazz musician Charlie Parker biography "Bird Lives" tells about how the
adolescent (early teens) Parker and a friend got high on coffee spiked with
nutmeg -- so much so, according to Russell, that they freaked out and
stayed away from home and school for several days. I *think* Russell also
mentions this coffee'n'nutmegs thing as a common poor man's/kids' drug of
the period (early/mid-thirties).
- - - - -

Note the information about nutmeg being a poor man's drug. Apparently, 
Scrooge being a drug addict isn't so out-of-character as I would have
thought. :-)


Best wishes,

--- Daniel