I'm not even going to ask how this topic started...

One day, back in the Winter of '72, my four-year-old best buddy and I were being chauffeured about town by my friend's mother. We were leaving the parking-lot of a Friendly's restaurant, and this mother decided to light-up with the windows closed. It must have been the first time I was exposed to 2nd-hand smoke since it was so vividly offensive. I asked her innocently if she would not smoke since my primitive child's brain was telling me that the atmosphere about me was detrimental to my health, and since I could not retreat, I had no recourse but to ask. She refused (though not rudely), but offered to crack the window. Needless to say, my friend and I froze our little asses off for the ride home. I can recall this incident with crystal clarity.

In the intervening years, I became a sometime smoker myself, though I was hypersensitive to others' comfort during my habit. Since I've been on both sides, I can understand why most smokers don't realize how offensive their habit can be. The fact that your olfactories are desensitized, and you have a severe addiction add up to blinded devotion to the tobacco-leaf. Good luck to those of you who want to quit. I've been cold-turkey for 7 years, and I STILL wake up in cold-sweats if I happen to light up in a dream.

“Mind if I smoke?”
“Why, no. Mind if I fart?” -Steve Martin