[Leica] Smoking

[Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie)]

A wise and reasonable approach. I do not begrudge anybody their 
pleasures. Being considerate about it is gentlemanly.
Frank

On 12 Apr 2004, at 04:00, Marc James Small wrote:

> I have been a pipe smoker for 37 years.  I am happy with my vice.  
> Having
> grown up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the High Days of the steel
> industry, I have absorbed enough soot and smog to kill me already:
> anything I inhale from tobacco fumes has to argue with some REALLY
> cargenogenic stuff to make an impression.
>
> My family is relatively immune from cancer.  My folks generally die in
> their 80's from terminal nastiness:  my own mother passed five months 
> back
> at age 82, loyal to her box of wine and carton of cigarettes a week up 
> to
> the end  She had a peaceful heart attack and death over a three hour
> time-span.  I can only hope that we all pass on as peacefully as she 
> did.
> (My non-drinking and non-smoking father, by comparison, had a stroke 
> and
> lingered on for 11 months in a comatose state, something his worst 
> enemies
> would probably not have wished on him, though Dad was capable of making
> some REAL enemies.)
>
> In the end, genetics does more that anything else in determining 
> longevity
> and, even then, lifespan is a crapshoot.  (I am enough of a Christian 
> not
> to fear death but, then, I am enough of a Christian to understand the
> virtues of having that finest advocate of all time on my side in 
> explaining
> my sins in the hereafter!)  Scions of even the longest-lived of 
> families
> can die young for no explicable reason -- my own sister died of cancer 
> at
> age 31 some 29 years back.  Those whose family members die young can 
> live
> long.  Still, genetics seem to count for more than anything else.
>
> Secondary smoke has been shown to not be a real issue save for extreme
> conditions:  it can be shown, for instance, that twenty working years 
> of
> exposure to a co-worker smoking constantly and sitting within ten feet 
> may
> add to the risk of lung cancer but, other than this, the issue is of no
> merit and the Federal Courts readily disposed of the rather dubious EPA
> study of the early 1990's.
>
> At its heart, objections to smoking by the majority who are 
> non-smokers are
> simply a matter of style.  Non-smokers do not want to inhale tobacco 
> while
> in public places nor do they wish to do so while in restaurants.  So 
> be it,
> and this is a reasonable request.  But the merchant is torn in two:  
> the
> majority of those who populate bars are smokers, while the majority of
> diners are not.  In the end, the owners have sought an absolute ban by 
> the
> government so that they are not forced to make decisions which might 
> prove
> unpopular.
>
> Obviously, accomodations have to be made.  When I am around 
> non-smokers, I
> do not smoke -- in truth, the couple with whom my wife and I are most
> likely to go out with are non-smokers and I accede to the majority 
> rules
> without a problem.  When I have a visitor who is a non-smoker, I work 
> with
> them for mutual comfort.  Common courtesy, we call it in these 
> hustings.
>
> And do not forget the salutary effect of nicotine:  those of you who 
> are
> former smokers will recall the effect you first felt when you lit up 
> that
> first smoke in the morning.  Inhaling nicotine provides a burst of
> approximately ten IQ points to the average citizen.  Smokers can handle
> complex problems more readily than non-smokers as a result.
>
> In my office, there are two rules of decorum:
>
> First, do not throw your cigarette or cigar butts on the floor.  The
> ashtrays are there for a reason.
>
> Second, please remove your hat on entering this office.
>
> I have far more trouble enforcing the second than I do the first.  I 
> have
> lost one (1) client over twenty-five years because I allowed smoking 
> in my
> office, and so be it.  I offer my legal abilities for sale, not my
> lifestyle choices.  (The small and medium-sized law firms in this area 
> of
> western Virginia are generally non-smoking:  the large firms all allow
> smoking as their clients, the executives of companies, generally smoke.
> Again, go figure.)
>
> I will die of something, someday.  I am not going to greet death 
> willingly
> but there is a time and place when I shall pack it in and go on to the
> hereafter.  If the current pleasure of smoking brings me to a briefer 
> end
> than a more unhappy existence here would bring, then, so be it:  I am 
> going
> to die someday and whether it be today or tomorrow or in fifty years, 
> there
> will come a point at whcih I am to die.  I am 54 at the present and can
> accept death today, though there are many things I have yet to do -- 
> those
> books on Voigtl?nder, Kilfitt, and Novoflex remain unwritten! -- but 
> others
> can fill in the gaps if my time comes soon.  If not, I intend to remain
> productive until that point.
>
> And, yes, as a smoker of Latakia blends, I, too, find most cigarette 
> odors
> blandly offensive.  The stuff I smoke clears out entire city blocks and
> engenders EPA Red Alerts.
>
> Marc
>
> msmall@infionline.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
> Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
>
>
>
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