Cigarettes Or Me?

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I don't smoke. Some of my best friends do. They say it's a pleasure, but in fact it's a compulsion.

I imagine them presented with the following choice:

a) Spending an evening with me in a non-smoking environment. Great conversation guaranteed.

b) Spending the evening with any random person picked off the street, in a place where they can smoke freely.

The fact that I can't automatically assume they'd choose a) saddens me. I blame Phillip Morris.

― Momus, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

We did this one already. It got pretty hairy, & I didn't like it much. Fukc philip morris, BAT etc.

x0x0

― Norman Fay, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Smoking's a pleasurable compulsion.

― scott, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes but the other smoking thread didn't offer the possibility of Momus as an alternative. I smoke because in Spain, you're masculinity is questioned if you do not. I am not in Spain and my masculinity gets questioned anyway, but my point remains.

― Nick, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The problem is that in option a) good conversation would not be guaranteed because the deprived smoker would become ratty, irritable and less able to concentrate.

― Tom, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I cannot smoke when with my mother and this could explain the tense nature of our relationship (from my side at least).

― Emma, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I haven't smoked for a few weeks. THen an anti-tobbacco ad comes on TV, you know the kind. My first thought; "Christ.. I want a cigarrette." I smoke where and when I want and have never found myself so addicted I couldn't stop at will.

ANyway, there are a thousand wonderful smokers. Dietrich, Bill Hicks, Wilde, Cigar Is Just A Cigar Freud, David Bowie...

― matthew james, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, you could offer them something to put in their mouth but it might get a bit crazy if they start trying to light the end of that on fire.

Seriously, though, I've voted 'a' before and kept nipping off for cheeky fags. However, I'd like to quit and believe it is possible provided someone (me) can keep me off smoking for three whole days.

― suzy, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick D: sp: 'your'.

― the pinefox, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gosh, this is becoming a habit. Should I start actually looking at what I've written beofre I post it?

― Nick, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Quite frankly, my dear Momus, I'm afraid I'd actually have a better conversation with a random person picked up off the street than I would with you, because you'd just irritate the hell out of me. Don't take it personal, as I'm sure I'd irritate you. So I'd have to pick (b) myself, even though I wouldn't normally choose smoking- with-random-person. I mean, I like to smoke. I will smoke when I want to. If I have to choose between smoking and talking to a good friend, then bloody hell obviously the smoking loses. I'd ask what kind of people you spend your time with that they'd choose smoking over friends, but really I don't think it's a question that needs to be asked. I knew those type of people too. I called them "unbearable hipster brats".

― Ally, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

momus irritates ally irritates ethan irritates ally irritates momus.

― ethan, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's like La Ronde but with no fucking!

― Nick, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yet.

― Tom, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ally, I couldn't help noticing a parallel between your attitudes to smoking and free speech. On the old smoking thread you ended up saying you'd deliberately blow smoke into a righteous non-smoker's face. In the censorship thread you said you were coming along to spit abuse at the stage at one of my gigs, just to test my tolerance.

These positions are consistent in that they're both nasty, but inconsistent in just about every other way, since smokers usually claim their freedom to smoke is a bit like self-expression, which intolerant anti-smoking bigots are threatening to 'censor'. So you're on different sides of the fence on free self-expression, depending on whether it's a national civic right protected by the US Constitution (in which case you're against it) or sold to you in a little box by BAT or Phillip Morris (in which case you're for it).

― Momus, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All my friends smoke, so there isn't a problem. Hooray!

― DG, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've lost grandparents to smoking and cancer, so I'll never smoke myself. I have no problem with people who do, though -- I'm not them, I have no real right to complain. This said, I do very much enjoy the non-smoking rule in California clubs and bars these days -- you can go to a small show and not come back smelling of ashtray.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd pick Momus, since asthmatic tendencies make b) sound downright painful.

― Lyra, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, but cheering for revaunchist Japanese imperial aspirations makes A) seem fairly painful as well.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

At least it's not what I get around here. People don't like to talk about anything that's important to them. I want an argument!

― Lyra, Monday, 13 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no offence momus, but until i can suck on 15 of you a day, and feel at peace with self and world, i gotta keep smoking

― Geoff, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

15 Momuses a day, Geoff? I was under the impression one's jaw might hurt.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am in the arts , aside from factory workers and models , Artists smoke more then anyone. I inhale smoke from living in an industrial city that depends on cars and buses . I grew up around agicultrual chemcials and burnign straw, hay and garbage. There fore smoke of any kind does not bother me at all.
I would sooner "hang out" with smokers .

― anthony, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

So I need to pick based on whether someone smokes or not? In reality I pick my friends based on the amount of peanuts they eat a day.

― nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ultimatums or me?

― dave q, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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