March 08, 2004

• I say let 'em go blind! Either that or let them start a fund to pay dry cleaning bills for non-smokers who have to alter their laundry cycle because of some smoker at a bar/restaurant/meeting/etc. Actually, forget the fund. Let 'em go blind!!!
• You'd feel differently if you knew the pure, visceral pleasure of packing a new pack of fresh cigarettes against the heel of your hand; stripping off the cellophane with a peppy crinkle; peeling off the silver paper to expose the tight, perfect circles of filter; kicking one out against the same hand-heel, then lodging it into the corner of your mouth; the steely aircraft *clank* of a zippo flipping open in answer to the summons of your thumb, followed by the gritty spin of the steel wheel against the reddish slice of flint; the thimblefull of lighter fluid aroma spilling upward as you touch flame to tip and inhale that first mouthfull of silky, diliciously bitter smoke; the *tiniest* whiff of french-inhale, then a full pull, down deep, wrapping itself around your lungs like a warm blanket of grey lambswool sewn with sweet, sweet love; exhale like a plume from a dragon, straight out, the cloud clustering up and rising in a column like a sign from an angry god; second inhale is the *hit* inhale - it starts with every follicle on your scalp coming to life, a flush of slick heat at the chakras, the infinitesimal slowdown of time. Bond, baby; James Bond. And all, wreathed inside and out in the rich, leather-and-scotch insulation of electric-amber nicotine. *sigh*
• Right on, Fes. I gave them up too. *salivates involuntarily, cries a little*
• Aargh!!
• Those years we snatched back from the Reaper better be full of happy-gas and lingerie models, dammit.
• Mine have been full of oxygen. Lingerie model's at work, so I'm pissing around on the interthingy.
• Not only do I get to pick up their dropped butts, I get to pay for their photodynamic therapy on the public tit? Let 'em go blind.
• [PS another ex-smoker here]
• Fes ... that's poetry man ...
• Light, Fes? Mmmmmmmm.
• *sniff* It was the warm lambswool blanket in my lungs bit that nearly brought me to tears. You evil, evil man.
• That aside, lots of old people smoke from ingrained habit and/or a lack of the societal restrictions we have today. Lots of old people get cataracts. Meh, maybe the only real relationship here is age, although I believe the article. My adopted dad has had cataracts since he was about 30, and has always been a heavy smoker and drinker, so I'm easily convinced.
• Thats one hell of a comment, fes. Brilliant.
• Fes: Sucking on a flaming paper phallus doesn't turn you or anyone else into fucking James Bond. Your nostalgia for nicotine wins you no points with me. Should I meet some old dude, blind from smoking, banging his way down the sidewalk with one of those blind-people canes I'd have no trouble yanking that cane from his frail and shaking hands, crackin' him once good over the head, then tossing that cane into traffic while saying "That's what you get for being and asshole, you dumb, blind, bastard!" Pardon my French. (In case anyone hasn't guessed, I really don't like it when people smoke in public.)
• I'm always amazed at the vehemence displayed against smokers. It frightens me, daddy...
• I can only assume you're a smoker, dng, because smokers give just as good as they get. Only they don't know (or care) about it.
• Actually, I'm not, Blaise. Although I don't have a sense of smell, which might explain why smoke doesn't really bother me...
• Maybe I should have said, but some of my best friends are smokers...
• Uh, oops. Sorry.
• No need to apologise, Blaise.
• Your nostalgia for nicotine wins you no points with me. Likewise on your willingness to assault old blind men and chuck their canes in the street.
• Just as a side note - and I'm not pointing fingers or anything, it's just a personal observation - but many smokers do report that cigarettes give them an, ah, calming or psycholgically balanced feeling. I'm just saying.
• i'm just an old-fashioned social pariah still indulging in nictotine nirvana. although having puffed the evil weed for 40 years now, my doctors acknowledge they have no grounds to tell me to stop other than the overall injunction. as far as personal health goes, i've taken such good care of myself that my lungs are still in great shape. and my eyesight is lousy anyway. since my community has outlawed all smoking in public places the issue of second hand smoke is moot anymore except for those people who dare to enter my house...where i think the smells of smoke, dogs, and whatever i'm creating on the stove are in constant competition. so i'm unrepentant about my own habits and agree that bars and such were overwhelming in the amount of smoke in them. but i truly don't understand the passion the subject inspires...i really can't see condemning anybody as beyond the pale simply because of personal lifestyle habits such as this. i know the majority of smokers are now from the marginalised classes and the new policies are serving to only push them further from mainstream society by their being labelled as the undesirables. the psychiatric hospital was recently forced to close their small smoking room...against the advice of professional staff...the withdrawal is going to lead to major mood swings and abandonment of treatment by some patients. common sense always seems to get lost when crusades are started.
• Actual Factual Fact: discarded cigarette butts take 12 years to decompose. something to think about next time you go to flick one!
• now that i know and preach about! and now everyone knows i have lots of dirty and smelly and disgusting ashtrays in my house and my car. i am humbled again...
• I'm a pipe smoker, not a cigarette smoker, so I look from a slightly different perspective whenever I see these articles. I hate just reading the newspaper clippings, because it's impossible to tell how much is a political statement by the newspaper, how much is a political statement by the scientists, and how much is actual science backed up by actual numbers. The team lead claims that 54,000 people in the UK that have Age-related Macular Degeneration have it as a "direct result" of smoking. Causality is very difficult to prove without using experimental methods that would be unethical in this situation. Without actually experimentally attempting to blind people via smoking, what they would need are lots and lots of statistics, and those research methods would have to be duplicated and examined by many groups of scientists before smoking could be considered the primary cause of Age-related Macular Degeneration. From what I understand, this is one group that did a study, and they're attempting to say that they've proven causality based on their research. That has to be one hell of a study. I am very interested in seeing their methodology and data. So, for now, I am suspicious that they are pursuing an anti-smoking political agenda rather than proper science. I will re-evaluate when I can see the data.
• no particular vehemence against smokers. heck, most of my extended family smokes. of course, it was very comforting to be able to answer, with all honesty, "no" when my great aunt asked me if i smoked. she was very happy with my answer. i would really have hated to have said "yes", given the circumstances. the conversation happened in january, in a nursing home, where she was on 24 hour oxygen due to advanced emphysema. she died last weekend. i think that some good may come out of it, though. my aunt was shaken up enough to finally quit smoking. of course, having both parents die of lung cancer (among other complications) apparently wasn't enough for her to quit; both parents plus an aunt finally broke the hold of the evil nicotine. i'm hoping the resolution holds. i'm tired of attending funerals for family members that voluntarily put themselves into an early grave. um... shall i lighten up a bit? try this anecdote: when my grandma was undergoing chemo for her cancer, she asked the doctor for nicotine gum, so she could quit smoking. the doc refused to prescribe it for her (this was before the days of OTC nicorette). when she asked why he wouldn't give her the gum, he replied, with no hint of irony, that the gum contained saccharine, which could cause her to contract cancer. she laughed for weeks about that... given three months to live by the same doctor, she proved him wrong by going three more years, in relatively good health.
• and, um, on topic, damn. blind? not for me, thanks. i like reading too much, and if i can't even learn to use all my fingers when typing how the hell would i master braille?
• besides, other things much more fun also make you go blind.
• Heh. They also prevent prostrate cancer.
• Pardon my French. No Mexican, you're not pardoned. Sorry. I take it you don't drive a car? Cos childhood asthma exacerbated by traffic fumes, global warming, traffic noise, deaths in road accidents etc etc is all OK is it? Does your existence have absolutely no negative impact on society? no pesticides used in the food you eat?, no child labour involved in the clothes and shoes you wear, no arms manufacturers supported by the shares in your pension fund? you sure? if you are - then go right ahead and have a go at smokers - if not then why not try and be a little bit less sanctimonious? Yes smoking is a dirty, stupid habit which has a bad effect on smokers and people around them. But there are a lot of other dirty, stupid habits out there which have bad effects on people ...
• dick: I don't drive a car. I live in Japan. I take the train. Everywhere. Everywhere I can't ride my bike, anyway. No pension fund, either. And the other stuff (including the aforementioned), what??? A negative impact on society and a direct, personal negative impact are two different things. My beef with smokers is folks in restaurants, bars, on the street, my company break room, and so on. Cigarette smoke coming in direct contact with my person. If folks only smoked in their homes I'd have nothing to complain about. But as it is, I've got smoke blowing up in my face from the hands of old salery-men while I'm waiting to cross the street, some OL blowing smoke in my face at a bar, smoke wafting over from the next table as I'm trying to enjoy a meal. It's downright rude. If it was only a temporary nuisance, I would be bothered (like I am by the exhaust from busses and trucks while I'm on my bike) but not to the point of wanting to beat up some old man. What really gets me is that the smell gets in my clothes and my hair. If I've been around people who are smoking I always have to get right in the shower when I get home to get the smell out of my hair and wash a set of clothes that might have otherwise been good for another day. The smoky clothes in the hamper in turn make my house smell like an ash tray, which is about as rude an intrusion as you could ask for; some jerks foul SMELL making it's way in to your house. I think this is the argument that smokers usually like to counter with "shutup, you whiner" or changing the subject. It's also the point where I like draw a correlation between smoking and public urination. Both are gross, stink, and everyone knows you shouldn't do them. But if people started urinating in restaurants or on strangers on a regular basis... I suppose people can take things from here on their own. Urine on clothes and in hair will dry, and the smell will, like the smell from tobacco, disappear after one normal wash cycle. Still, I don't think anyone wants to be peed on (watersports excluded. freaks.). And before you try to vilify me again, I'll come clean and admit that I've urinated un public. But never in an enclosed space, crowded sidewalk, during a meal, or on someone.
• My brother once pissed on me while we were having a bath (to make that all sound a little less sordid, I was only 5 at the time, and he was about 1 and a half).
• Mexican: The word vilify is not an accurate way to describe my posting ... I asked some questions: to which you gave me answers I wasn't actually expecting ... As it is I pretty much understand where you're coming from. I quit a year ago (I only want a smoke all the time at the moment) and with my newly improved sense of smell I realise just how foul the smell of stale smoke is ... BUT, I think you've gone OTT on this posting, threatening violence against smokers, using the word jerks to describe them, the aggression on this posting comes from you. And the point I tried to make which you don't appear to have understood is this: Traffic fumes etc are as bad for our health as smoking (I use either a bicycle or a vespa). The negative impacts created by individuals within society impact on me (and you and everyone else) personally, be it traffic fumes, global warming, terrorism etc etc etc ... so, no, A negative impact on society and a direct, personal negative impact are NOT two different things. If you don't like smoky restaurants, bars etc - is it impossible for you to avoid them? I'm sorry you find tobacco smoke such a problem, but that doesn't give you the right (in my view) to be so offensive and aggressive. Seems to me from your second posting that your beef has more to do with Japanese social and hygiene standards than with smokers per se ...
• dick: I was employing a literary device called hyperbole. I learned about it in high school.
• At risk of prolonging this pointless and stupid argument well into the realms of flinging ... I'm tempted to ask what your marks were in hyperbole homework? c- must do better? Did you go to the lessons on context and non-verbal communication? were you a member of the debating society? ... *exit ... wishes he could light a fag*
• Fight! Fight! Fight!
• Well if you don't love yourself enough to quit, how about your pets? Excerpt taken from the NYT: March 7, 2004 -- Of all the compelling reasons to quit smoking, this one should make pet lovers sit up and take notice: there's ample scientific evidence to suggest that secondhand cigarette smoke causes cancer in pets. And your furry friends don't just inhale smoke; the smoke particles are also trapped in their fur and ingested when they groom themselves with their tongues. A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that dogs in smoking households had a 60 percent greater risk of lung cancer; a different study published in the same journal showed that long-nosed dogs, such as collies or greyhounds, were twice as likely to develop nasal cancer if they lived with smokers. And in yet another study, veterinarians from Tufts University found that cats whose owners smoked were three times as likely to develop lymphoma, the most common feline cancer.
• I took my English courses pass/fail most of the time because I didn't like to do work. No debating society for me. I was in Model UN. I liked picking Muslim countries and pretending to be a radical. I used my time in Model UN sessions practicing getting reactions out of people. I'm actually a little impressed that most of the smokers that have shown up are ex-smokers. I've seen how much work it can be to quit and I'm always a little impressed to meet someone who's done it successfully. Back on topic, I truthfully don't have much sympathy for people who've brought illness upon themselves through smoking. It's easy for them to say it's their body and they can do what they want, but it's their friends and relatives that have to watch them suffer in old age. Who have to support them physically when their lungs, throat, heart, and eyes stop working correctly. The smoker's argument is usually "I did it to myself" but they're really doing it to everyone they come in contact with. As it seems I'm addressing most former or non smokers, I think at this point I'll ask the choir if they have any requests. Anybody?
• Freebird dude!
• i agree with you, mexican, as i am also puzzled by people who hack and spit and then turn to their puffers or oxygen tanks....that state of addiction does not inspire a lot of sympathy in me either. with the new etiquite....and new policy where i live, there is no big issue with second hand smoke here any more. i'm always courteous to my non-smoking friends and they respect my need to pop off for my smoke here and there...no big deal. live and let live....or whatever it is people want to do with their bodies...