Posted on 02/09/2007 6:33:28 AM PST by rellimpank
Some years ago, when I was freelancing at a mutual fund company, I took a break to go downstairs and smoke my pipe. On my way back upstairs, I found myself sharing the elevator with one of my co-workers in the corporate communications department.
"Ewww, smoke!" she exclaimed. "Let me out of here! I don't want you to give me cancer!"
Let's absorb this slowly. My fellow worker thought that: 1) Cancer was contagious. 2) She could "catch" cancer from the smell of tobacco smoke clinging to my clothes -- not from the smoke itself, which was long gone outdoors, but from the smell alone.
She was a dish, too. Pity.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are in the wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are in the right.
On smoking, diet, and health at age seventy: I have achieved my seventy years in the usual way: by sticking strictly to a scheme of life which would kill anybody else. . . . I have made it a rule never to smoke more than one cigar at a time. I have no other restriction as regards smoking. Advice to youth: Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run; because if you don't, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do; and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment. On everyday etiquette: The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of graceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying.
Not with Laz...
Cleaning hard water deposits.
I saved one from a cryptoquote, published 1/30/07:
A am an old man and have known many great troubles, but most of them never happened. Mark Twain
Seems appropriate for today's age, as well.
I use oxalic acid. And steel wool. And time.
But not as much as a cat does.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
That makes perfect sense - the youngest quartile has the highest percentage of smokers - it makes sense they would have a higher incidence of heart attacks.
The link between smoking and lung cancer is by far the greatest and most robust, so it would be a mistake to think that a smoke-free society would eliminate heart attacks.
Of course it wouldn't eliminate heart attacks - but it would certainly cut down the number. Smoking is one of the major risk factors for heart attacks - genetics, blood pressure, cholesterol & smoking are the 4 main causes of heart attacks.
The warning label on the side of a cigarette pack says emphysema, lung cancer and heart disease. As a smoker, I never paid any attention to the heart disease part.
I had a rude awakening. I had no other risk factors when I had my heart attack - blood pressure - excellent, cholesterol -excellent, in perfect health, no family history of heart disease, not overweight. Two packs of Kools a day was my only risk factor. That was obviously enough.
I could always understand the link between smoking and lung problems - that's pretty obvious. I could not understand the link between smoking and heart problems until one of the intensive care nurses explained it to me.
The nicotine molecule is a perfect cube, with straight sides and sharp edges. (so it doesn't matter if you smoke, chew, snuff or whatever - nicotine in your bloodstream doesn't care how it got there).
The walls of your arteries should be smooth and slick, but when a nicotine molecule goes through the artery, it will score and scar the smooth walls leaving roughness.
Everyone has blood clots flowing through their arteries - but smokers have twice the number of nonsmokers.
When a blood clot comes sliding through an artery - it can get caught on the roughness caused by the nicotine molecule.
The third factor is that smoking causes your blood vessels to contract.
The triple whammy that causes the heart attack is a blood clot getting caught on the roughness caused by nicotine coupled with the contraction of the blood vessel.
Zap - there's the heart attack.
Once the mechanics of it were explained to me - it made perfect sense.
Again - far more smokers get heart attacks from smoking than they do lung disease.
As a smoker I never tried to quit, never wanted to quit, had no intentions of ever quitting. I really enjoyed smoking.
I had a rude awakening and was damn lucky to survive my "widow-maker" heart attack.
"Once bitten, twice shy."
LOL! So true. We are all conquerors of one universe or another, even if our weapon of choice is Ajax.
My father wasted about the same number of years I did by smoking when he was 20-25. He never let up on me when I was smoking and he had a nose for everything that he didn't like. He died 4 years ago at 83. He was my hero, sounding board for ideas and my best friend.
The opposite of opinionated is clueless. I never let anyone get away with calling me clueless and you shouldn't either.
I don't like horses all that much. Too smelly.
I licked a lightbulb once.
Point is, in my tiny mind, that the government could save my life in an instant by banning production and sale of tobacco products - but the taxes are too good to pass up.
Sub text is that everything smells and every smell bugs someone. I only wonder what carcinogens lurk in Este Lauder or the degreasers that drive Nortette up the walls.
I throw a little whiskey and garlic into the mix too. Always holding an unlit cigarette widens your personal space even more. Inducing hysteria in people "in need" is a worthwhile and fun calling.
Its fun for a bit. Gets old really fast.
I once dated this hot girl who was just the dimmest bulb ever.
It was cute for a while but after a bit, it got embarasing.
Why? Finds no answer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.