NHL suspends Stars' Sean Avery for crude comments

[richpo64]

I was at two packs a day (Winston Light 100's), maybe three on the weeks. I don't remember what it was called, but I bought one of those quit smoking programs. Pills, lotion, tapes. I don't know if they really worked or if I really wanted to quit but I stopped cold one day and that was it.

Best thing I ever did for myself.

[BT]

Will your heirs maintain the site?

Yes. My son has been instructed to fund it as long as there is traffic.

He has the keys. And i willl be sending Victor VI a new set in the next day or two.

[richpo64]

I have to ask. Is your son a Republican?

[BT]

He is in the Navy.

But he did vote for McCain.

[Henny]

Oh, it's been over six years since I quit smoking. One thing I know for sure, you won't quit if you don't want to. All you can really do is offer a little encouragement once in a while. He knows he should quit. He doesn't want to. His choice.

Oh hell. You were one of the smokers I was counting in here. Traitor! 

More to the point, congratulations for finding the strength, and being convinced that you needed to do it.

[Henny]

I was at two packs a day (Winston Light 100's), maybe three on the weeks. I don't remember what it was called, but I bought one of those quit smoking programs. Pills, lotion, tapes. I don't know if they really worked or if I really wanted to quit but I stopped cold one day and that was it.

Best thing I ever did for myself.

I've recently done something cold turkey. I had a 20+ year habit of drinking only diet sodas (two or more 2-liters per day) to the exclusion of everything else, including water. Some months ago I hung it up. Not quite sure why, but I've substituted and now drink at least 3 liters of water every day - sometimes more. (Then someone told me about a condition called a water overdose that can throw the electrolytes out of whack and possibly even kill you. Seems I can't win.)

Maybe there's some hope yet for the smoking.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I started smoking because it was soooo cool back in high school. I went to grad school in Mexico and smoked Mexican cigarettes (at the time all the bourgoise Mexicans smoked Raleighs) like Records, Filtrones and Deltas. When I returned to the US, they had added all manner of additives to cigarettes and so I smoked a pipe. In 1986, I realized that the only benefits of smoking were that it went well with coffee in the morning and gave me a slight dizzy feeling, it make me cough all the times, and I could count on at least one case of bronchitis every two years. So I just quit one day when I was on vacation in Honduras. 

At sometime in the 1980's the sine qua non cigarette used to impress others in Mexico ceased to be regular Raleigh filters and became king size Marlboros. I wasn't there to see how they did this, but it must be one of the great ad campaigns of all time.

After pestering my sister for years about how she could stop coughing if she quit and hearing her say, between coughs, that she didn't cough all that much, I bought her a rolling machine, tobacco and tubes, and at least she is spending less than a third what she used to spend.

[MissusDe]

Oh, great, Henny.  Now I feel guilty about my Coke habit.

That's Coca-Cola, just to clarify.

I have to laugh at the commercial that shows a woman and a man sitting on a couch, and she says, "My husband gave up drinking soda and only drinks water, and he lost 15 lbs" (animation shows the guy's belly shrink). 

"I gave up sodas and here's what happened" (boobs shrink).

And then the dog drinks out of its water bowl (dog gets smaller).

[Xavier_Onassis]

Drinking sweet things, even sweet no calorie things, makes me want to eat more sweet stuff. If I drink tomato juice or yerba mate or even some other herbal teas, I sense no need to be chewing on anything.

[Henny]

Oh, great, Henny.  Now I feel guilty about my Coke habit.

That's Coca-Cola, just to clarify.

I have to laugh at the commercial that shows a woman and a man sitting on a couch, and she says, "My husband gave up drinking soda and only drinks water, and he lost 15 lbs" (animation shows the guy's belly shrink). 

"I gave up sodas and here's what happened" (boobs shrink).

And then the dog drinks out of its water bowl (dog gets smaller).

S'ok, Missus, if I remember correctly you don't smoke, and Coke (a-Cola) is much healthier habit. 

[Henny]

Drinking sweet things, even sweet no calorie things, makes me want to eat more sweet stuff. If I drink tomato juice or yerba mate or even some other herbal teas, I sense no need to be chewing on anything.

XO, exactly. I had noticed this too, and the problem doesn't exist now that I've quit the stuff.

[Plane]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081207/pl_nm/us_usa_obama_smoking_3

 U.S. President-elect Barack Obama failed to give a straight answer when asked on a U.S. talkshow on Sunday whether he had managed to quit smoking.

In a country where cigarettes are responsible for one in five deaths and smoking costs tens of billions of dollars in health care, Obama has been under pressure to set an example by giving up his reported two-decade-old habit.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" program, interviewer Tom Brokaw told Obama he had ducked answering the question during an interview last month with ABC's Barbara Walters.

Noting that the White House was a no-smoking zone, Brokaw asked Obama, "Have you stopped smoking?"

"I have," Obama replied, smiling broadly. "What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon."

"Wait a minute," Brokaw interjected, "that means you haven't stopped."

[Xavier_Onassis]

We have social drinkers, who only drink once in a while on special occasions.

Many Indians seem to have been "social smokers", puffing on their soapstone pipes only for ceremonies and get-togethers. Of course, the idea that Indians smoked only tobacco is a bit of a myth.

Could it be that Obama is just a social smoker? I know a very few people who only smoke occasionally. The odds seem against it.

But still, Obama smoking is a personal matter. It's not the same as his being an active (as opposed to a recovering) alcoholic, who might put on a lampshade, doing the hootchie-koo and exposing his schlong at a state dinner. His smoking does not impede him from performing his duties. I think we can assume that he is capable of not setting the Lincoln bedroom ablaze.

FDR made cigarette holders stylish, and I am sure gained many votes in North Carolina, VA and Kentucky by being a tobaccoholic.