Pipe convert

After I gave up cigarette smoking, I smoked cigars for a while. But that was stupidly expensive.

So I've been smoking a pipe. You've got to put up with a fair bit of comment, smoking a pipe. I've been laughed at by some young cunt in the smoking area out the back of the Bristol. But it's good. Very contemplative.

We've got a friend staying with us, and he's been giving up smoking cigarettes, and has adopted the pipe as an alternative.

Good work.

Jinx update: Immediately after posting this last night, I broke my pipe in half. My nice Maltese one.

Quote of the day

It was long known that nicotine acts on the same receptor as the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Changeux recognized that this could explain both nicotine's obvious benefits — greater concentration, relaxation, etc. — as well as the drug's more puzzling long-term effects. For instance, while cigarettes are dangerous to health, some studies show that smokers tend to suffer at significantly lower rates from Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Changeux found that nicotine, by attaching to the same receptors as acetylcholine, reproduces some of the benefits of acetylcholine by reinforcing neuronal connections throughout the brain. Nicotine is not exactly the same chemically as acetylcholine, but can mimic its effects.

- How the mind works: revelations

Ye gods

What is with these people who want to ban things they don't like? Smokers seem to be the one segment of the population that it's socially acceptable to discriminate against. First smoking in pubs and cafes was banned. Then the warnings on the packets got bigger and bigger and more strident, until they got replaced by graphic images of bits of dead people.

Quite apart from the smell of desperation about putting these images on cigarette packets ('oh no, the warnings aren't working, let's make them really repulsive'), there's a real question of balance here. The decision has been made (note use of passive tense) that the interests of everyone who may see what are deliberately disgusting images (who are not just smokers of course, but could be anyone – including children) are outweighed by the so-called benefits of possibly scaring some people into giving up smoking. Is it just me, or is there something very wrong here?

Of course, once the images came in, people simply and quite rightly covered them up or put their tobacco into a different container. I've seen it seriously suggested that selling covers for cigarette packets should be banned. This is the behaviour of monomaniacs and zealots, the kind of people for whom the ends justify any means. It is a very dangerous mindset.

And so now this Poneke person (who of course is anonymous) wants to ban smoking in busy public places. Why? Because the smokers have all the best spots! It's really laughable. Boo hoo! There's nothing stopping non-smokers from sitting outside in smoking areas. My non-smoking friends do it all the time.

To do this, though, you need to tolerate people who are different from you, not try to legislate them out of existence. But not these anti-smoking bigots. They seem to think their intolerant prejudice should be backed up by law.

I don't like the sight or smell of cooked flesh, but do you see me advocating for a ban on eating meat in public? Of course not. If I choose to go out to a restaurant or bar, I know I'll be exposed to it. I accept that. It's part of living in a civil society.

The occupants of flying saucers smoke cigarettes!

Top five times to smoke a cigarette

In no particular order:

1. Lying in bed when you've just woken up and are still in a somewhat hypnagogic state.
2. When you're in the bath.
3. When you've just smoked some marijuana.
4. When you're drinking coffee.
5. When you're drinking a beer.

Needless to say, combining any of the above is even better.

Got any better suggestions?

Smoking

In New Zealand, tobacco smoking causes more illness and early death than using any other drug. Tobacco smoking causes more than seven times the number the deaths caused by car crashes.

- the warning on my tobacco packet

I say, good work!