Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!hocda!spanky!burl!duke!unc!bch
From: bch@unc.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Smoking . . . (Slow Motion Suicide)
Message-ID: <5328@unc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Jun-83 00:25:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: unc.5328
Posted: Tue Jun  7 00:25:54 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jun-83 04:31:14 EDT
Lines: 37

I am a smoker (yes, I'll admit to it with the consequence of the number of
flames I will get) who agrees with most of the public smoking bans.  I try,
as best I can, to avoid polluting the environments of non-smokers at home,
in the office and in public places cued by signs, preferences and the lack
of ashtrays.  It is not a habit I particularly defend nor is it a habit I
particularly enjoy.

Why do you do it? (they ask)  Well, I started smoking long before the Surgeon
General's report and now have a firmly entrenched habit.  Those who have felt
the claws of brother nicotine scratching at the inside of their lungs will
know what that means.  True, with time I could break it.  Unfortunately I
am expected to (1) function at the office (2) be civil to people (3) maintain
some kind of relationship with my wife.  When your entire being is fixed on
the piping voices of cylindrical entities calling out to you from the depths
of your cravings it is a tad difficult to go about your life normally.

Were it only the nicotine, then the problem wouldn't be too bad.  In itself,
that can be licked.  I have gone 24 hours without a cigarette during times
of intensive work without noticing it.  But, ah, that first idle moment when
the hands notice they have nothing to do and reach for something familiar --
when the old mouth notices there isnt the firm filter hung in the corner --
good ol' oral and tactile gratification ... there's the real enemy!

So, if all you militant anti-smokers out there will pitch in and send me
cash for a month's vacation at the beach where I can "air out" (I guess
that's the smoker's equivalent to "dry out.") and get a start on breaking
this habit...and if some qualified IBM systms programmer will volunteer to
come down here and stand in for me for that month without pay...

Until then I guess I'll just have to puff along on my own.

Oh yeah...about those scare tactic ads and commercials.  They make me so
nervous I have to light up a cigarette (seriously, they serve only to
remind me of my habit when often I've forgotten it.)

				Byron Howes
				UNC - Chapel Hill