Ivy - Heads

Post-banana man is turning to the halls of academe for succor. Or more precisely, the walls. A number of students have reported "turning on" by drinking small quantities of water left standing for 24 hours with strips of grape ivy bark.

Grape ivy, (a number of species of the genus Cissus), though not a true ivy, is the type commonly found on Yard buildings. The psychedelic brew is prepared by taking a fistful of the bark strips, cleaning them and then sterilizing them in boiling water for ten minutes. The clean strips are left to soak for a day in about a half-gallon of cold water. After filtering, a teaspoonful of the water is claimed to send the drinker to a heaven of rich colors.

"You close your eyes and everything looks like a Rothko painting," said one Sophomore ivy-head. The American artist Mark Rothko characteristically paints large floating blocks of deep colors.

One faculty expert, who asked not to be identified, said a substance resembling what in large quantities is the "poison" in plants like marijuana and which heating or boiling breaks down to a psycho-active agent might possibly be present in ivy bark. He cautioned, however, that the practice was unknown to him and he was not aware of any research on the plant.

If grape ivy is truly effective it would be the second time rock'n'roll will have contributed to consciousness expansion. Donovan's "electrical banana" prefigured that craze and a group called The Innocents have revived the hit of the 1940's Mairzy Doats, with the chorus: Mairzy doats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy, a kid'll eat ivy, too, wouldn't you? Perhaps this is why lambs look so sweet.