Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Dear smokers -

We need to talk

Listen, I get the whole addiction thing - really, I do - come on, I'm a girl who can barely drive by an In-N-Out without stopping for a Double Double - don't believe me? Look at my ass (you can probably see it from there.)

And I've had many many cool smoker friends - hell, I even tried to start smoking several times, but I just couldn't keep it up.

But I've got a couple of issues with your habit;

First of all - the whole tossing-a-lit-cigarette-out-of-your-car-window thing while driving in traffic isn't working for me - it's called littering. Are you aware that we don't live in the Jetson's future and have a robot maid to clean everything up? And let's not even get into the fact that we live in FUCKING PHOENIX - do the words brush fire mean anything to anyone?

Secondly, I believe that since your addiction is legal (mostly) you should get to smoke - but is it absolutely necessary to force your addiction onto me and every other non-smoker on the planet? Do you have to puff away RIGHT FUCKING OUTSIDE THE DOOR of a non-smoking establishment? I, for one, happen to enjoy not having a side of secondhand smoke with my dinner, but then my lungs and I have to pass through your wall-o-Marlboro on the way to my car - I don't throw french fries in your hair as you walk past me, do I?

So, in closing, if spending your money on something that guarantees you a litany of future health issues makes you happy, by all means, keep it up - really- but if you could also accept that the world doesn't fucking revolve around you and there are other people on the planet who maybe don't love the smell of nicotene and the asthma induced coughing that it inspires, that would be great, mmmmkay?

Thanks,

Cate and my lungs and my asthma

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posted by Veruca Salt at 6:51 AM |

8 comment(s):

  • i don't smoke, but i would really love to chew nicotine gum, if it weren't so expensive.

    By Blogger Phillip, at 8:13 AM  

  • and smokers only compile about 20% of the population. why then, are so many establishments still smoking-permitted?

    By Blogger Jootastic, at 8:14 AM  

  • heard a story on the radio yesterday about a guy that flicked his cigarette out his car and it flew back into the back seat and burned his car to ashes. HA!

    By Blogger Tim, at 9:34 AM  

  • i am a smoker, but am constantly trying to be considerate of those who don't.
    believe it or not, it is rediculously hard to quit and unless you've ever been a regular smoker, it's hard to understand that.
    and hardly any establishments allow smoking these days. trust me, i notice...not that i smoke in restaurants, anyway.
    and while, yes, shamefully i admit that i throw my butts out my car window, it's honestly not any different that you throwing your double-double wrapper in the trash, is it? they both end up polluting the earth, right?
    just playing devil's advocate. we all have our vices or ways we annoy others.

    By Blogger ambs77, at 10:31 AM  

  • I fully believe that it's hard to stop smoking and I support your decision to be a smoker, but you need to support my decision to not be a smoker - and your support includes not throwing your butts out the window in traffic - aside from the fire danger it presents, especially in Phoenix, it's littering and it's kind of gross - or should I just start carrying my household garbage in the car with me and tossing it out of the window randomly? - so, I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you that littering your butts all over the city is the same as me placing trash in a trash receptable - unless, of course, you consider the city your own personal trash receptacle

    By Blogger Veruca Salt, at 11:52 AM  

  • I think Mitch Hedberg illustrated the difficulty in trying to quit smoking best when he said, "people always tell me, 'you don't know how hard it is to quit smoking.' I tell them yes I do, it's as hard to quit smoking as it is to start flossing."

    By Blogger Michael, at 6:14 PM  

  • My right to breathe clean air outweighs any smoker's right to smoke. It's like saying, I have the right to punch you in the face, because I can punch the air, and if you stand in the air I'm punching, then it's your problem. Plus, smoking is a sign of weakness, it shouldn't be encouraged at all. I also don't care how hard it is to stop - they should have thought about that before they started. Smoking = dumb, end of story.

    Also, if we lived in the Jetson's future, we'd all be driving those cool space cars, and there'd be no road to toss lit cigarettes on.

    By Blogger Paul, at 7:30 PM  

  • Amen.

    I work in oncology. We have two sisters and their nephew that we are treating for lung cancer right now. The sisters are in their early 60's and the nephew in his 40's. All three are smokers...and so are their spouses. Who come in with them for chemo...smelling like a 'fresh' cigarette.

    What does it take to make you stop smoking, people??

    By Blogger angela marie, at 8:01 AM  

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