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