Cigarettes don't kill people, people kill people

I was a fairly heavy smoker until about 20 years ago. I'm not going back there again. It took too long to regain my lost lung function.

Okay. I won't try to convert you. I don't want to be like one of those self-righteous non-smokers.

If people who smoke only realized what a hazard to the environment and others' health they are they would still smoke. When I used to paint empty apartments, smokers who moved out left yellow tar from tobacco just rolling down the walls, cabinets, mirrors, doors, fans, the insides of air/heat ducts - every inch of the place. No matter what, the carpets retained their stink until they, along with the pad, had been replaced. Every surface and crevass in there had to be painted or otherwise cleaned and treated. AND - After all that work, many non smokers still smelled tobacco and refused to rent.

as i stated earlier : tried smoking, got sick as a dog, never smoked again, and wish people wouldn't smoke ... interesting how things change. when i grew up, a man smoking a "good cigar" after dinner would receive a certain amount of encouragement to have everyone share inthe smell of the burning cigar. from what i recall, cigars actually did a have a sort of "intoxicating" (?) smell. could anyone see winston churchill without a good cigar in one hand AND A GLASS OF BRANDY in the other ? as a young(very young) teenager i was introduced to chewing tobacco by someone (german chewing tobacco - kautabak - is somewhat different from the american kind. it used to be quite juicy and somewhat sweet tasting, if memory serves me right). a bunch of us schoolboys would sometimes be sitting on the upperdeck of a ferry chewing a plug(we needed about a 45 minute ferry ride to get to school). one day some river pilots were on the ferry returning to the pilotstation, and they were quite disgusted seeing a bunch of schoolboys enjoying a chew. of course, we didn't care what they thought, HA ! a few days later one of my compatriots arrived on the morning-ferry and it looked like he had been smacked in the face - just a slightly swollen lip. here comes the true "punchline" : his father was a mate on a german ship. they were coming up the elbe-river, things were pretty calm, the mate and pilot started talking about their kids, pilot talked about the the young boys he had seen chewing tabacco on the ferry, mate produced a picture of his offspring, pilot sputtered "he was one of those rascals" ... father(mate) meets son ... chewing tabacco stops , end of story ! just last year i met my old friend in hamburg again and we had a good time retelling our stories (they get a little embroidered as time goes on !). neither one of us smokes or chews ! hbg

We do know. We are addicted. If only the self-righteous almost-militant non-smokers (I'm only talking about the obnoxious ones here) would realize that we aren't smoking just because we like to annoy other people, we'd get along a lot better. It's tough to quit, and I don't need random do-gooders to help motivate me.

When somebody comes up to a smoker waving their hand at them or making that scrunched up "I'm a non-smoker" face, it's kind of cruel, actually. I always wonder if they also like to approach people in wheel chairs and go "Hey, want to dance?"

errrrr, maybe not the best analogy, kicky. One of my favourite dance partners of all time is a fella in a chair. He can pop great wheelies, and in our younger days, I could hitch a ride back to his place on the back of his chair.

I don't think there's any denying it's an addiction. And regrettably, it's one of the addictions that can have a direct impact on the people who spend time with the addicted person. Whether it's from the 'ick' factor of the smell, the watering eyes, the sneezing, or the pulmonary problems that can result from spending time in too close contact with smoke - it's not something that only impacts the smoker.

Twenty years after I quit, I still love the high of the smell of a fresh ciggie. The stuff seems to literally be in my blood - musta skipped a generation with hamburger.

Hmmmm - I was so lucky in giving up - I just stopped wanting them.

I so don't want to give smokers a hard time - but it is very hard for me - now, being around smoke at all gives me a sinus infection - I actually get really ill, for days and days - it is a pain. Even getting a lungful in the street is very uncomfortable. I wouldn't preach to anyone, though - well, usually not.

It is a pain when I am with smoking friends - if I have to be inside with them, when they are smoking, I know I will be ill. I try to sit by an open window.

I only have one bunch of smoking friends left - but they are very good friends. It is a little easier - for me, anyway - because often, now, they smoke outside even at folks' places - since lots of people now will not permit it in their homes.

Mind you, all this outside stuff is gonna breed a hardy brand of smoker - those hours spent in the fierce sun, or the driving wind and rain! The forced work breaks! The networking!

One of my friends smokes secretly - or so she believes - to stop her husband hassling her.

You wouldn't BELIEVE the fuss and ritual! The cigarette - outdoors, checking carefully around for people he knows - the face-wipes (you know those wet things, scented, in plastic dispensers?) - the hand-wipes - the breath mints, the breath sprays - the re-applied make-up after all the wiping - I can still easily smell smoker's breath on her after all that - so I cannot imagine she is really fooling her husband.

Perhaps it is all in the elaborate ritual - like a game they play? Sort of a smokers' tea ceremony?


I KNOW you are addicted, guys. And I see how hard it is to give up. There was a survey of mental patients here a while back - many of them would go without food in order to be able to smoke.

People are so critical of folk on benefits and very low incomes who smoke - it must be amazingly difficult to manage to buy cigarettes, unless you are quite well off - they cost a BOMB (taxes) - but I can see that always struggling and never being able to afford much fun must make your addictions and the little bit of pleasure you get in a hard life VERY hard to eschew.

I think I have written about this before on awk, I mean a2k, that the designer in me wants to spiff up alleys and courtyards and rooftops and specially ventilated rooms for smokers, of which I was a long time enthusiastic member.

Well, if good ventilation means could be found - which didn't pull your hair out by the roots, and make your skirts blow up - then I could go to bars again!!!

That would be very nice.

The egoist attitude of the addict never ceases to amaze me

Yes, all the time.

Cigarettes don't kill people, death does.

The self-righteous non-smoker has long ceased to amaze me.

I find that bizarre!!!

And very rude.

Yeah, it's usually from older ex-smokers.

"You know, you really should stop smoking those."

"No, actually I didn't."

I LOVEd the nearly free (27 cents a pack, 2.25 a carton) Chesterfield Kings in the USAF. It was easy for me to go through 3 1/2 or 4 packs a day. They were part of my act, part of who I was, the guy with the laugh and a cig. When I played the joints I did my best imitation of Josh White. I learned to stab one onto the the A- string of my guitar or put a burning butt behind my left ear or do the squint-eyed Rolling Stones lay-back during a hard bluesy riff in the key of E.

Somewhere in the spring of 1968, I decided to quit. I laid four packs of butts out side by side and decided that I would cut down to half that and then cut one cigarette a week until I was free. So forty weeks and forty butts, okay. But then, right after that, Martin was killed and, just as I recovered from that, Bobby was killed and I began to think we were all going down soon, so I said 'screw it.' and smoked right back up to four packs a day and played my broken heart out with my yellow fingers and the hollow mind of the lost.

Wasn't that the Christmas that the astronauts circled the moon? I think so. I think I remember standing in a back yard and gazing up thinking that I should be done with all this addiction and so I quit again. sort of.
I still smoked when I played. I told myself it was part of the comedic timing, you know, do the set-up, take a drag, do the punch line. What's a comic to do?

I set a limit. My April birthday. That passed.
How about the Fourth of July? I met a girl, she smoked like a chimney and made furious faces when we made love. I lit up. then we broke up.

This is going to sound odd but it came to me that I should end the sixties by quitting. After all the grass and acid, after all the heros dying in the hotel and motels and jungles, quitting tobacco was a weak little signal to the future that the past was past and Nixon was President so who knew who, man, who knew who.

Any way, I cut down a cigarette a day starting mid October and on New Year's Eve 1969 I had to borrow my last butt - a Silva Thins 100 menthol- what else would keep you quit?

I did it on stage at Thee Coffe House, San Angelo Texas at quarter to midnight and then did a fifteen minute version of Codine.
People gasped.. So did I.
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So I back slid a couple of times. Once I bet a guy a cigarette that another guy would get a hit in a ball game and I won and I lit up my winnings and on the way home bought a pack. Christ, what power.

Stopped buying for a couple of months but borrowed one or two or three a day for months. Till it sunk in.
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I bought several new addictions. Music.... always good. Love....not much better...... children....... one or two..... the final frontier.....
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I'm a tough son of a bitch. I don't look like it but don't try me, okay? I'll eat your liver wrapped in a roll with butter, but stopping smoking was tough to do for me.

If it's tough for you, I just thought I'd tell you a little about me, so when I say 'I understand." you'll know I understand.

Joe

Many of the really obnoxious non-smokers are the ex-smokers who know very well how hard it is to quit.

That comparison is priceless.

I've noticed that the only people who get REALLY upset about cigarettes are ex-addicts. Born again anything... I agree with the no smoking in public places laws right up until you get to the Bar. This is a place where people go to poison themselves, and I would bet contains just about the highest percentage of smokers anywhere. If there is a market for a non-smoking Bar, it will and did exist before the offending law. Drinking without a cigarette for a smoker (and some non-smokers) just isn't the same.

Interesting observation. I recently attended a drug and alcohol awareness class as required for DUI convictions , and during the break I saw something that stunned me. 21 out of 23 people taking the class were smokers . When I pointed it out; the non-smokers informed me they were both there for drug-charges, not alcohol. Coincidence?

My posts were originally just meant to contribute to the discussion. Then, when Craven came back and said what he did about us self righteous non smokers, I decided to make a joke of it. I didn't aggressively push my case until Kicky came on so militantly. What I said was true enough, but was for his benefit alone.