spicy peppers

I am reading a book about food called the shameless carnivore. In the book the man is trying 31 different meats in 31 days. He is making rattlesnake and decided as suggested on the package of meat that he make it into a chili. As with many chilies it necessitated cutting up peppers. If you don't wear gloves watch out and wash really well or beware! After cutting the peppers and lightly washing his hands he scratched his nose and also accidentally took a big whiff. Here is an excerpt from the book.

" this is what it felt like: Imagine an ice cream headache. Now imagine that the ice cream flavor is "searing pain." It is not a pleasant experience. Your head is filled with what you assume to be boiling carbolic acid that is moments away from liquefying your gray matter, your nose begins to leak uncontrollably, your eyes redden and swell as though you'd been punched in the face by a gorilla, after which comes wave after wave of coughing and nausea...and there is simply nothing you can do but sit there and endure it. Spiciness has no complete remedy but time. So I sat down in a comfortably chair, took some long, measured breaths (through my mouth- my nose was still dribbling a clear,spicy liquid that, for all I knew, used to be part of my brain), and assured myself that the worst would be over in about thirty or forty-five minutes, which it was. At least I only touched my nose, I thought with great relief when the pain in my face had diminished to a moderate tingle; I couldn't bear to imagine what would have occurred had I instead tried to remove a stray lash from my eyeball or, elsewhere.


Peppers can be dangerous.