Something you can not do today, but could if it were 1844, according to The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s (this is a better bathroom book than I could ever have imagined when I got it as a joke gift):

A grand exhibition of the effects produced by inhaling Nitrous Oxide, EXHILARATING, or Laughing Gas! will be given by Union Hall this evening, December 10, 1844. Forty gallons of gas will be prepared and administered to all in the audience who desire to inhale it. Twelve Young Men have volunteered to inhale the gas to commence the entertainment. Eight strong men are engaged to occupy the front seats to protect those under the influence of the gas from injuring themselves or others. This course is adopted that no apprehension of danger may be entertained. Probably no one will attempt to fight …. The gas will be administered only to gentlemen of the first respectability. The object is to make the entertainment in every respect a genteel affair. (From Advertisements for a Laughing Gas Entertainment, Hartford Courant.)

And now for something you can—nay, should, must, shall—do today:

Diplo (DJ YOU LOVE TO HATE) Some DJs play more hits than Google gets in a day; others dig in bottomless crates for obscure cuts that sell for fortunes on eBay. Diplo is the rare selector who can flex both approaches—and keep clubbers moving until they stop. Dirty South rap plays tonsil hockey with ’80s new wave; electro and dancehall add themselves to their MySpaces; crunk and baile funk bump uglies with gusto. Dude’s a font of lovely surprises behind the decks. (Neumo’s, 925 E Pike St, 709-9442. 8 pm, $12 adv, all ages.) DAVE SEGAL

Opera fanatics: NYTer Jim Oestreich likes Thomas Ades’s brand-new The Tempest opens in Santa Fe. (Unfortunately, the photo in the print version of the paper is not reproduced in full online. This is unfortunate because the print photo makes it look suspiciously like Will Ferrell is in the opera.)