Smoking and Cruising

[bvimatelot]

DoJ - Does the Goat Smoke? This may, or may not, have a bearing on the level of support I'm willing to give the kid. If alcohol had only recently been discovered, would it have been put on the Class A Drug list I wonder?

[gbendaly]

cannot understand all the fuss about how hard it is to quit smoking for my part I think it is quite easy
yep this is the 20th time that I quit smoking

cheers
georges

[Fishman_Tx]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

IQ determines intelligence (poorly). Ignorance is the condition of absence of knowledge, or false knowledge. So it is possible to be both intelligent and ignorant.

Wilfully ignorant, on the other hand, is yet another thing. Smoking is harmful, and so is working in a coal mine without a mask. To deny it or even to minimize it ...well, it just makes me want to go cruising.

Let's not bandy semantics here. I am lacking in neither intelligence, knowledge, or common sense. I am not willfully ignorant as I know exactly what I do and why. "Smoking is harmful, and so is working in a coal mine without a mask" Yes, well LIFE is hazardous to your health as is CRUISING; and we all die sooner or later. MY Life, MY Choice!

[anjou]

Calm down and have a smoke !!!

[Fishman_Tx]

Originally Posted by anjou

Calm down and have a smoke !!!

Ok Tao, my bad.

Let me rephrase...

Sorry, Anj, I get all wound up when people tell me what to do. As we have what I call a "self-cleaning gene pool" (at least I thought that til I saw the movie "Idiocracy"), all us smokers and the drinkers will all die off eventually....

[little boat]

The most sanctimonious people on the planet are the adamant nonsmokers..they should be prosecuted for boring people to death.
I quit one year ago halloween cold turkey after 35 years; no prep or drugs needed Gord; the awful part doesn't last but a couple of weeks when its replaced with a perpetual grim feeling.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by gbendaly

...
yep this is the 20th time that I quit smoking

Today ?

Originally Posted by little boat

The most sanctimonious people on the planet are the adamant nonsmokers...

I used to think so too, except some of my fellow-smokers seem to be testing that premise here ...

[Fishman_Tx]

uh, little boat, ... am I allowed to substitute the word "rabid" (Yes, I've had MY shot)for "adamant"? Thankfully, most aren't too bad about it....

[speakeasy]

Originally Posted by GordMay

I smoke, because I am an addict.

I’ve lived long and free enough, to accumulate a number of regrets.
None can match the remorse I feel at having taken up smoking, and becoming physically & psychologically addicted to tobacco (about 12 y/o). It's a curse!!!

Struggling to quit, I remain addicted, and don’t go (or stay long, should I go) where I cannot smoke. I could no more do so, than I could not breathe.

Gord, that's almost identical to my own experience. I quit 18 months ago for 4 months, using a good cigar a day, hitting on it every hour or two. But when my oldest daughter came down with breast cancer, I moved in with her for the last year of her life to help, and took it up again. She lived the cleanest most moral life of anyone I know.

I started when I was 10, and took it up fulltime at 16, even tho' I was playing high school athletics. I do believe that the oral habit is as much a part of the addiction as the nicotine. I haven't figured out how to replace that yet. I intend on buying a sloop this winter and also intend on not taking cigs aboard. Maybe a box of cigars as a stop gap. We shall see.

Starting in WWII, the tobacco companies gave free smokes to all soldiers and thereby addicted a major part of the next generation. As former USMC Commandant Smedley Butler said in many speeches and essays in the 30's, War is a Racket. True in many many ways. Then there was the "cool" factor, Bogie and Bacall, James Dean, et al., that was irresistable to adolescents of my generation.

I'm down from a pack and a quarter a couple of years back, to 1/2 a pack a day. I have to cough the gunk out of my lungs 2 to 3 times a day in order to relieve the aching of my lungs and get enough oxygen to think at all clearly. I will quit and I've made my son promise to never smoke.

Just a word to the crusaders aqui. Ragging on anyone about smoking puts them on the defensive and makes it harder to emotionally work their attitude toward giving them up. Logic ain't in it.

[Fishman_Tx]

Speakeasy,
Chewing gum works best for me, surprisingly, for the psyclogical habit (Now that I've had a couple of teeth fixed). It actually helps keep my mind off the craving when I'm in a non-smoking environment. I could probably kick it if I wanted to.

[Hiracer]

I virtually never smoke, except at anchor when I love a good cigar. Mountain tops and anchoring are the only two times I smoke, and at my age the mountain tops are pretty damn infrequent.

These days I do maybe two cigars a month. Not much, but very sweet when I do. It's one of those dangerous decadent things--living on the edge as I do.

Usually combined with a cold micro beer. Followed by a simple but devine dinner.

Sensuality is not necessarily sexual, ya know. Ergo sailing itself.







P.S. My neighbor is big time addicted to cigars. He's told me a dozen times that he is trying to cut down. He never does. Two cigars a month is my limit, and many months I'm under that.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by anjou

...Filthy dirty habit, I cant stand the slightest smell of nicotine and when your a non smoker you notice all the evidence like bad breath, damaged teeth and gums, smelly clothes, stained fingers, sick looking skin etc etc...

Well,

Yes - it is a habit that is said to be making some / much damage to health. There is some scientific and medical evidence towards such a statement too. In this respect we can say it is a bad habit.

But why "filthy" and "dirty"? What about people who smoke and care about their hygiene (I believe - vast majority of smokers)? Do they show any of the signs mentioned ("...bad breadth, damaged teeth and gums [...] sick looking skin...").

Interestingly, being a non-smoker, I must notice that the "evidence" given above is much more descriptive of a non-sailor after a short bumpy passage: ... bad breath, damaged teeth and gums, smelly clothes, stained fingers, sick looking skin ...

So while some skippers will not permit smokers on their clean, rose and lavender smelling boats, I will rather ban armchair sailors on mine.

;-)))
b.

[anjou]

Filthy and dirty because of the detritus left in the form of butts and ash, nicotine stained ceilings and walls.

[Therapy]

A lot of peoples first question after someone has died, no matter what they died of, is "Did they smoke?". If yes, then it is automatically "See, well there you have it." If no, then aghast condolences are offered.

Utter BS.

Yes, it does bad things to the body. Coal mines - duh! Working in one with a mask is bad for you.

And we know it affects the brain, which depending on how it is wired (we are all a little different, right?) determines the "level" of craving. Nicotine is way up there on the scale. Said to be worse than heroine and crack. I don't know about that stuff but think crack is worse - or maybe it is just the cost.

Cost? If everyone quit, the US would be far deeper in the s**t hole it is in now as the tax revenue from that alone is staggering.

This is a sailing forum and the OP asked a different question than what this has developed into. Kinda like anchors - truly LOL, with so many facts that are not true.

The best one I like is about second hand smoke. BS. Read the stuff for yourself.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by anjou

Filthy and dirty because of the detritus left in the form of butts and ash, nicotine stained ceilings and walls.

This is true. I'ts very dissapointing to anchor off a pristine beach and find cigarette butts .

Even the top of Ayers rock was covered in cigarette butts.