Missing the Point
Earlier this week, my job had me driving into the very rural hinterlands. I mean, it was the middle of nowhere, out past where god lost his sandals. Anyway, after about three hours I reached my destination, conducted my business in about twenty minutes, and was ready to be on my way. Since I was hungry and out of cigarettes, I asked for directions to a store and followed them. Said store was a crossroads family-type joint where I got some chips and a cup of coffee. When I asked for a pack of Marlboro eds, I was informed that all they sold were Marlboro Golds/Lights and a couple of menthol varieties of Camel. "We just stock what people around here smoke."
Well, even though I'm willing to put just about anything in my lungs at least once, I refuse to defile them with menthol, so I took the Marlboro Lights. As the clerk pushed them across the counter she said, "These are better for you anyway."
Say what? Do people still buy the notion that "light" cigarettes are significantly less harmful? As far as I'm concerned, people should smoke whatever they want; but to claim that pumping a bunch of crap in your lungs from one kind of cigarette is less harmful than from another makes no sense whatsoever. Two of the three people I have known who have died from emphysema smoked Carlton for God's sake!
Anyway, I made it to another, better stocked, store about an hour later. On my way to my car a guy on a prison work crew cleaning a ditch asked if I had a spare cigarette. I gave him the remainder of the pack of Marlboro Lights/Gold.
Well, even though I'm willing to put just about anything in my lungs at least once, I refuse to defile them with menthol, so I took the Marlboro Lights. As the clerk pushed them across the counter she said, "These are better for you anyway."
Say what? Do people still buy the notion that "light" cigarettes are significantly less harmful? As far as I'm concerned, people should smoke whatever they want; but to claim that pumping a bunch of crap in your lungs from one kind of cigarette is less harmful than from another makes no sense whatsoever. Two of the three people I have known who have died from emphysema smoked Carlton for God's sake!
Anyway, I made it to another, better stocked, store about an hour later. On my way to my car a guy on a prison work crew cleaning a ditch asked if I had a spare cigarette. I gave him the remainder of the pack of Marlboro Lights/Gold.