"Some of the speculation in this thread [1], originally flagged as hearsay, seems to be confirmed by this article, namely his use of nitrous oxide."

Sorry to be daft ... in the prior HN discussion, which you linked to, people spoke of "nitrous ... and a candle obsession" ... candles are mentioned several times ...

Is that a euphemism ? Or is there some connection in nitrous usage ?

Or is it, simply, he really liked burning literal candles ?