Man's Amputated Toes Find Second Life In A Canadian Cocktail

Hope you're not currently eating. If you are, bookmark this story to read later: An English runner who had three of his toes amputated after they suffered from frostbite has promised those appendages to a Canadian cocktail bar, which will use them in a cocktail. You can take that Tums now.

The CBC reports endurance sport enthusiast Nick Griffiths had three toes removed this week after they were damaged two months ago in the Yukon Arctic Ultra race. Someone at Dawson City's Downtown Hotel—home of the infamous and truly retched sounding Sourtoe Cocktail—caught wind of the amputation and contacted Griffiths.

"They basically said, 'Can we have them if you're not going to need them anymore?'" Bolton told the CBC.

The bar has been serving the Sourtoe Cocktail since 1973, according to Dawson City's tourism website. The origins of the drink date back much further, to the early 20th century, but the modern incarnation involves a dehydrated toe dropped in a shot of whiskey.

The bar has lost a few toes over the years; one was stolen—and later returned—last year, while another was consumed (shudder) in 2013. Griffiths says he plans to ship his three toes to the bar since they can make better use of them than he can. The digits are currently in three jars at his bedside, awaiting what we presume is a lengthy process for setting up the international transfer of desiccated human body parts.