1000 cigarettes
If I had the perfect nightI'd have a thousand cigarettesLong skinny and white.Or short and fat, light 'em upA thousand cigarettesWith a big brown butt.Homo Erectus....probably took a puff or twoFrom the fire in the caveAnd....the Cro Magnon tooIf I had the perfect lifeI'd have a thousand cigarettesRolled up tight.
I started stealing my mother's Pall Malls(nonfilters) from the closet when I was 12 years old. Despite the dizziness, I continued to smoke for the next 40+ years. Then one day I looked in the mirror at my not so young oxygen deprived face and made a decision. Not normally prone toward vanity, I found myself wanting to salvage any rosiness of skin I could, plus save what breath I had left for my singing career. So I quit, although I still indulge when partying.
Man has been inhaling smoke since prehistoric times. There is something intensely gratifying for the human creature in swallowing these vapors. It's a great equalizer of the planet. A truly universal and adored activity.
But now it's become the devil's hot stick, and as usual the scare is exaggerated, the public suitably terrified. Cities are outlawing the evil practice, but the long term effect of the crackdown remains to be seen.
Granted, smoking is unhealthy. I'm happy to be free of bondage to the pleasure packed sticks. Ending the habit can be done when a person is ready and the decision firmly made. But for those of you who still inhale, knowing the difficulty of ceasing ....take heart. The Japanese are among the longest living in the world and half of them smoke. And Jeanne Calmett(a Pisces) lived to be 120 years old. She quit smoking at 118. Her face was rather wrinkled, however.
By the way. Smoking is allowed here at Raging Universe.
posted by jm at 11:59 PM
5 Comments:
That's interesting about the Japanese and cigarettes! So now they've identified a Japanese Paradox, in addition to the French Paradox?
As you might know, the dietary establishment here in the US is amazed that while the French eat loads of fatty foods and drink lots of wine, nevertheless they aren't fat like Americans tend to be. This is known as the French Paradox, but there's no mystery to it. If you eat artificial crap, your body doesn't know what to do with it and stores the artificial stuff as fat.
ah, jm - so you must understand what I was saying about still wanting to smoke the darn things . . . nicotine still holds the strongest pull for me. The combination of relaxing & stimulating the brain is VERY seductive + the whole ritual of coffee/glass of wine & a cigarette. I can easily see the two of us sitting in a coffee house, talking a mile a minute, drinking coffee & smoking. . . :-)
Yes, it is an entirely different culture in France where so much of those fatty foods are 'slow' foods; cheese, dairy and meat from small farms, no additives because everything is made like they made it 500 years ago. Also a huge part of european food culture is the use of herbal liquors, bitters, and apertifs, once again, that 'food is medicine' approach..and in Japan their overall diet is so different than ours, a minimum of meat, lots of seafood and veggies (I admit, I am a seaweed-eating, miso-loving freak...)and the asian approach to food and spice which is very holistic and often purposeful...Makes sense really and ties in with the statin stuff you sent us Joe (thank you, some sites I hadn't seen yet...)most of what we blame on diet, cigs, etc is heart disease, which seems to be linked statistically (and chronologically) with the use of vegetable fats, hydrogenated fats in particular and also the rampant use of ingredients (adulterants) like corn syrup. Diet probably has a whole lot more to do with it than smoking (although multiple packs a day just can't be good). The farm generation of my dad's family have had their problems with cosmetic skin cancers, but have otherwise lived into their 80's and 90's, the ones who went off to college and joined the mainstream, have died much earlier in their 60's and 70's, mostly from cardiac problems, diabetes and cancer.
I am so pissed because my favorite brand of ice cream, one of the last to use sugar and not corn syrup has fallen to using not only corn syrup but a bunch of fake stuff. Guess I'd better buy an ice cream maker next time I see one at a thrift store, and start making my own (raw milk, fresh eggs, organic sugar anyone?)when I get the urge. As for cigs, I am far luckier than my addicted mate, I seem to have no genetic predilection towards nicotine addiction, I smoke socially, but can go for months with out one. Especially since the Balkan wars wiped out my favorite brand, Sobranie Blacks... Yeah, I could schlep around a coffee shop and enjoy the chatter with y'all...guess I just gotta settle for a 'cuppa' in front of the computer for now :) Take care, Juno
Love this thread LOVE IT!!
I quit smoking a few years back-took me 10 years-was only able to quit at age 52 because something inside said that I had used up my smoking time.
I often feel like screaming when I come across another warning about the evils of secondhand smoke. Are these idiots completely insane? Right now the biggest danger to our children is seconhand smoke? Really?
I would still smoke occasionally but with that old moon pluto conjunct square mars venus I never get enough of what I like so I just leave it alone.
Really? The French Paradox? You keep enlightening me, Joe.
The French also eat late at night, but smaller portions always. It's the gluttony of Americans that trips them up. And there is so much fear around food. That's the worse part and it's exacerbated by the media. Very interesting about the body not identifying artificial.
I think it's mostly the attitude. A mental thing. Food is our survival and we should love and respect it, not battle it. This influences the whole trip down the tract. Very intersting subject, and I'd like to pursue it with you people in the know.
I can easily see the two of us sitting in a coffee house, talking a mile a minute, drinking coffee & smoking.
Oh My God! What a thought. That would be heaven on earth! Maybe one pack between the two of us, when we're old and gray, in some fabulous city before we die, neith.
I often feel like screaming when I come across another warning about the evils of secondhand smoke.
You and me both, Clymela.
Sobranie Blacks? Leave it to you, Juno to come up with some Sagittarian exotic thing like that!
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