For some of us, Carson's death a grim awakening

Chicago Tribune ^ | Jan. 26, 2004 | John Kass

[Rennes Templar]

There are two kinds of conversations about Johnny Carson. One kind is the one most of you are having. It is light and interesting, about showbiz, TV, popular culture. Then there is the other conversation many of us have been avoiding.

-snip-

A part of it (the conversation)landed on my desk with a little thump. It was a package, about the size of your palm, with a brown camel on it, two pyramids and three palm trees.

"You can have them," said a friend who tossed them, casual in voice, though there was no missing the symbolism of it, his casting away of the Camels.

"I'm done with them," he said. "I quit."

-snip-

Carson's death could have been due to pneumonia, to infection, or it could have been respiratory failure. Either way it was private, and ugly.

I thought of him suffering amidst tubes.

"You can quit," Dr. Gross said. "You can have a life. You can quit."

I've failed before. And I'm afraid of failing. But Johnny Carson convinced me.

If you're interested in doing the same, you can call the American Lung Association at 312-243-2000.

jskass@tribune.com

[Old Professer]

The last water heater I replaced in my house was one I had installed 4 years, 7 months, 11 days and 8 hours earlier; I date every repair or installation I do on this POS I was desperate enough to buy 10 years ago.

(the failed heater had a 5-year warranty from Sears which allowed them to charge $25 more in labor than the replacement one I bought and wouldn't promise me it would be covered until a factory inspection was made)

[Osage Orange]

I say about 75% smoke,

I'd guess you were at least 40% points off....

What you might be seeing is...Freepers supporting smokers right to smoke, and concluding that they must be smokers.

FWIW, I don't smoke...although I did smoke for a few years, off and on when I was in my late teens, early twenties. I also happen to be in the health care business....and I see the results of long term smoking every day I work.

FWIW-

[Osage Orange]

There is no safe dose of nicotine.

Nicotine is one of the most potent vaso-constrictors around....there are some therapeutic uses for it.

So, the answer to your statement is...You are incorrect.

FWIW-

[Osage Orange]

I was watching my mother in law go from CPOD last summer

That would be COPD...( Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease )

Sorry to hear of your MIL....

FRegards,

[BullDog108]

Osage Orange: I think you are correct in "Freepers supporting smokers right to smoke, and concluding that they must be smokers. " And also in the percent figure.

southernnorthcarolina: You are correct in the self-selection methodology in play here.

[Osage Orange]

Osage Orange: I think you are correct

First time this week......

Thanks,

[IamConservative]

I smoked pretty moderately - a pack every couple days. I walked out of the funeral home where I had just attended the funeral for my 32 year old first cousin who died of throat cancer caused by smoking. I tossed my open pack of smokes in the trash, have touched one in over 5 years.

[CFC__VRWC]

It seems logical to me, you never know what is the spark to cause someone to change a habit.

I quit drinking in October 1997 - it took a near fatal bout of pancreatitis to provide the spark. I quit smoking in September 2002, after landing in the hospital with chest pain (notice a pattern here?).

Currently I'm fighting my last vice - getting my weight and diet under control. I had been doing Atkins for a while and walking, and I had lost about 70 lbs. or so (after gaining at least 50 when I stopped smoking), but had slacked off badly and was again eating all the wrong stuff. The spark that has gotten me serious about dropping the last 100 lbs. or so I need to drop - a diagnosis of Type II diabetes and sky-high cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

Some people can smoke 2-3 packs per day, eat four fried eggs and a half pound of bacon every day, have their most strenuous activity of the day be reaching for the remote, and still live to 90. I'm not one of them.

[L,TOWM]

Sorry. (see tag)

[Rennes Templar]

No I didn't mean that. I meant the bell curve that represents longer healthier lives and their relationship to absence of lifestyle risk factors.

[cspackler]

My wife and I quit 6 years ago, when we decided to adopt a child. Doctor put us on Zyban, and I never looked back. I seriously have no desire whatsoever to smoke now, although I know that if I did...

Anyway, Zyban works very well, just be sure you do your research on it. My Doctor did not give me all of the facts; mainly that it is just another name for Welbutrin, an anti-depressant. Coming down off of them made my quite an ahole for a while.

[Rennes Templar]

My error for not being clear. I was pointing out that they are exceptions to the norm. Sheesh.

[metesky]

I meant the bell curve that represents longer healthier lives and their relationship to absence of lifestyle risk factors.

I told you that my smoking father lived to be 95, I neglected to ad that aside from a minor operation in the mid-1940s he was never sick a day in his life, lived independently and drove until the day he died.

Your remarks make no sense in relation to my family history.

lifestyle risk factors...

Do you live in a cacoon or is that some macabre joke that our theraputic society is trying to foist on the gullible?

[Rennes Templar]

Ok, I'll try again. The fact that your father smoked all his life and lived long is not as common a pattern as people who smoke life long and die of smoking-related disease at earlier ages. Thats all I was saying.

[Walkin Man]

Yep, we're all going to die of something. Imagine that.

Right, but we all don't have to commit suicide.

Thats what smokers do every time they light up a cancer stick.

[oyez]

You just couldn't beat the endorsers.

[Osage Orange]

Did you ever hear about the dyslexic Satanists that sold their souls to Santa?

[spunkets]

Thanks, "just eat some bananas."

Coke ought to good enough, with all that phosphoric acid in it.

[AppyPappy]

I quit a year and three months ago after 30 years smoking

Attagirl. Best thing you'll ever do.

now I can even sing along with the oldie-goldie radio station instead of sounding like Clarence "Frogman" Henry

We never noticed. Honest!

[thombo]

Hey Rob.How did you know i smoke?Paranoid in sunny Fla.:)