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Smoking is back and it’s still cool (and deadly)
The Guardian ^ | July 2, 2023 | Eva Weisman

Posted on 07/24/2023 8:01:34 PM PDT by DoodleBob

Today I became nostalgic for a smell. You wake up on top of the covers in your underwear, and through the gloaming of your bedroom, through the smug pint of water, through the angst and exhaustion and joy and regret that comes from five hours in a nightclub and two hours on the wrong bus home, there is some bitter relief in the smell of smoke on your hair. That smell! Like barbecued teenagers and pepper and beer, almost lovely, pleasantly vile, a kind of lovebite memory, bruised on the throat in passion. That smell. It all seems quite mad now, the idea that people smoked, not just inside, but underground, in windowless rooms. Though I suppose so much seems mad to me about young fun still: come out, drink until you’re sick, it’ll be a laugh! …

When I read the news that smoking was coming back, I thought: that smell. Then I thought: of course. The wellness era is truly at its end, celery water pooling under the door, hot yoga cooled down to a single tepid pilate. In a recent exchange with another artist, David Hockney wrote, “I too am BORED with WELLNESS. The concept seems ridiculous and too bossy for me, I’m still smoking, and ENJOYING it ENORMOUSLY.” His cigarette set off a fire alarm at the launch of his latest exhibition…

But the problem with our major shift away from smoking was, while they could persuasively prove that it killed people, they were unable to convince anyone that cigarettes were not cool. This fact, I’m afraid, has come back to bite us.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: smoking
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To: ClearCase_guy

same here- quit years ago, but quit too late- can’t walk up stairs without feeling like im gonna keel over not able to breathe- but yeah, the world was a much better place where people that wanted to smoke could, and those that didn’t could sit in designated no smoking areas- now the no smoking laws are so freakin rediulous you can’t even have a smoke on hospital grounds outside anywhere- where people are feeling the most stress and in need of a smoke-


21 posted on 07/24/2023 8:25:01 PM PDT by Bob434
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To: DoodleBob

You have to light up 50’ away from your workplace. It’s stupid enough to make me want to take it up. I’m in my 60’s so it won’t matter as much as I’ll die from something else.

We had a young babe who would just wrap her lips around that cigarette as if it were a live shaft. Very sexy.


22 posted on 07/24/2023 8:25:43 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (e allowed )
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To: Carriage Hill

At 72, I still like a few nightly beers and have been smoking since I entered the Army in 1969, a similar brand like Marlboros but made and sold on a local Indian reservation for $33/carton.


23 posted on 07/24/2023 8:25:52 PM PDT by PROCON (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: Fai Mao

>> A restaurant should have the right to allow smokers or not as the owner sees fit.

Absolutely agree! If a customer doesn’t prefer to ruin his meal by being forced to breathe smoke while eating it, said customer doesn’t need to patronize the place!

And I wouldn’t.

Same concept applies to “no guns” restaurants.


24 posted on 07/24/2023 8:27:57 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Jesus is LORD and Savior! And Donald Trump is President of the United States of America.)
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To: DoodleBob

Steve Martin - Smoking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkj3V-FW6Yw


25 posted on 07/24/2023 8:28:45 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DoodleBob

I swear I smell more marijuana smoke now on the streets and in public (open) spaces than I ever smelled tobacco smoke as a kid


26 posted on 07/24/2023 8:29:00 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: DoodleBob
I occasionally smoke a fine cigar. I was never bothered by people smoking, unless it was a very hot woman trying to kiss me. I don’t like kissing ashtrays. I don’t think second hand smoke does any harm. Anti-smoking campaigns were just another hideous exercise in control. And I mean hideous, and sometimes just plain irrational.

I recall once when I was on a business trip to Bedford, MA. Back when I was traveling a lot I would frequently eat dinner at the hotel bar and chat with other businessmen. The time in Bedford was interesting because they would not serve food to me at the bar, because…now get this…smoking was allowed at the bar. However, I could eat 15 feet away at a table.

27 posted on 07/24/2023 8:30:17 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA (The Delay Trump’s trial, delay. Elect Trump President. Trump pardons himself. )
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To: Repeal The 17th

She recalled the smell of barbecued teenagers?


28 posted on 07/24/2023 8:30:41 PM PDT by xp38
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To: Carriage Hill

I smoked for 35 years, I now am using e-cigs they saved my life, no more smell, no more yellow film everywhere, it is just steam with nicotine!! I have redone my entire house I can’t believe this invention got me off of smoking!! No more tar and chemicals, I NEVER thought I could get off of cigarettes BUT IT WORKED!! OMG the person that invented this product has SAVED thousands of lives, AND saved money to all that have switched over!! Cigarettes in Ca. are damn near $10.00 a pack the pod put into the device last me about 3 days, two pods come in each box and they are $10.00! I am SO THANKFUL for this product!!


29 posted on 07/24/2023 8:30:59 PM PDT by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: Nervous Tick

I should add that I don’t smoke.


30 posted on 07/24/2023 8:31:17 PM PDT by Fai Mao (Starve the beast and steal its food!)
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To: DoodleBob

Any group of people who don’t police themselves will be policed ... and they won’t like it.

Smokers arrogantly REFUSED to police themselves. They inevitably got policed, and didn’t like it.

Tough poop, smokers. No sympathy whatsoever for them.


31 posted on 07/24/2023 8:34:40 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: PGR88

It seems like pot odor spreads a lot more than just cigarettes. I can smell someone smoking pot a few houses away but I usually have to be right near a person to smell them smoking tobacco.


32 posted on 07/24/2023 8:34:43 PM PDT by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
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To: DoodleBob

Smoking is about as cool as picking your nose in public. While it is true that second hand smoke is not a health hazard, it is also true the second hand smoke is rude and inconsiderate so don’t be a a—hole and make any.


33 posted on 07/24/2023 8:34:47 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: BipolarBob
a bourbon in one hand and your rifle stock cradled in your other arm

Beware of strong drink ... it can cause you to shoot at tax-collectors ... and MISS.

34 posted on 07/24/2023 8:35:54 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: hinckley buzzard

>> Smoking is about as cool as picking your nose in public.

Equally addictive, too. (Or so I hear.)


35 posted on 07/24/2023 8:37:00 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Jesus is LORD and Savior! And Donald Trump is President of the United States of America.)
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To: broken_clock

Several years ago, I bought some name brand packaged veg seeds for the garden at Home Depot. Not that I partake, but I swear those plants were a weed of a special variety. I asked on the FR garden thread and pulled them up pronto.


36 posted on 07/24/2023 8:39:28 PM PDT by bgill
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To: Bob434

There are places where smoking is banned at beaches and parks.


37 posted on 07/24/2023 8:39:55 PM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: DoodleBob

38 posted on 07/24/2023 8:39:57 PM PDT by TigersEye (Woke is a cancer of the mind and humanity)
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To: DoodleBob

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Just not around me.


39 posted on 07/24/2023 8:41:14 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (Tagline for sale.)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

The It Crowd - Smoker’s Odyssey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0QgBavxCjQ


40 posted on 07/24/2023 8:42:10 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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