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The Disappearance of the Ashtray

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121–130 of 668 posts

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#122
post #35

Uggh, I remember ashtrays in the 70s the size of basketballs sliced in half below the equator. Full, every other day? Yellow walls and clouds in the living room. Don’t miss that shit one bit. Last time I experienced it was a trip to Europe around 2005, multiple people smoking indoors at the next table without a concern in the world.

Nothing like when someone brought a PC into the shop to work on and it was from a smokers house. Made the whole place small like an ashtray, and the parts were sticky with tar.

Second-hand NES cartridges were notorious for that.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#123
post #18
post #7

It's tough to portray just how ubiquitous smoking was to a modern audience. You would go to a restaurant and the first thing your hostess would ask is "smoking or non"? I remember standing in a checkout line in the 80s as a child and being fascinated with the billowing clouds of smoke an old lady blew. I remember coming home from bars reeking of smoke, even though I didn't. Even teachers had their own lounges that re…

Do you remember professors smoking in class or office hours? The student smoking area in high school?

We called it "the smoke hole".

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only BigSugar could have a day in court like BigTobacco. Sugar addiction is the next big social health care type of thing I'd like to see recognized. Yes, opiates are bad right now, but I don't think anyone would have ever denied it out side of the people making/selling. Great majority people do not even recognize sugar as a problem.

no one is getting stage 4 lung cancer from sugar. Or having their jaw removed due to mouth cancer . Or hooked up to one of those oxygen machines due to irreversible lung damage. Sure, there are risks with obesity, not not as lethal or causal as with tobacco products. Fats are also a major contributor too, like steak.

Fat is such a complex topic it would be hard to spend enough time refuting the last statement. But, in short it depends on what kind of fat (body fat? (if you're in a catabolic state, you will be "eating" your own fat; and this too has different types, depending on what your diet was!),trans,polyunsaturated,saturated,mono), how active you are, how much you consume, whether you're in ketosis/adapted, as well as a host of genetic factors,which determine your lipase production. Mostly agree on the "like steak" part, though that too would take a long time to, umm, break down.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#125
post #7

It's tough to portray just how ubiquitous smoking was to a modern audience. You would go to a restaurant and the first thing your hostess would ask is "smoking or non"? I remember standing in a checkout line in the 80s as a child and being fascinated with the billowing clouds of smoke an old lady blew. I remember coming home from bars reeking of smoke, even though I didn't. Even teachers had their own lounges that re…

Smoking or non? Looks like you're about 25 years younger than me. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as a nonsmoking section. Of course you could smoke, anywhere! Us kids didn't get real tobacco cigarettes, but we always had candy cigarettes so we could "smoke" along with the grown-ups. https://www.google.com/search?q=candy+cigarette&tbm=isch One difference from today was that our candy cigarettes had brand na…

Side comment, but the old paper-wrapped bubblegum cigarettes were elegantly designed with some white dust coating the bubblegum keeping it from sticking to the paper. And if you put it in your mouth and blew, it would make a puff of smoke!

The candy design was equally as good as the product was terrible (for all the obvious reasons).

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#126
post #7

It's tough to portray just how ubiquitous smoking was to a modern audience. You would go to a restaurant and the first thing your hostess would ask is "smoking or non"? I remember standing in a checkout line in the 80s as a child and being fascinated with the billowing clouds of smoke an old lady blew. I remember coming home from bars reeking of smoke, even though I didn't. Even teachers had their own lounges that re…

I went to Vegas a couple months ago, and one thing that absolutely blew me away was the fact that, just within the last ~5 odd years since I last visited even the casinos stopped reeking of tobacco . I figured it was a confluence of factors: people smoke less now, people are far more likely to vape than smoke (which, for its ills, definitely doesn't leave a lingering stench like cigarettes), and there was a lot of ta…

[deleted]

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably due to insurance companies charging huge amounts more health insurance for smokers.

The smoking rate in Canada is far lower than the United States, despite having universal healthcare. I think it's more cultural than financially driven (though aggressive taxation of tobacco could be a factor if that's a thing in the US, too).

Sources I can find suggest that Canada and the US are comparable (10% CA, 12% US). Your point is still valid that it's culture.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#129
post #7

It's tough to portray just how ubiquitous smoking was to a modern audience. You would go to a restaurant and the first thing your hostess would ask is "smoking or non"? I remember standing in a checkout line in the 80s as a child and being fascinated with the billowing clouds of smoke an old lady blew. I remember coming home from bars reeking of smoke, even though I didn't. Even teachers had their own lounges that re…

Yeah, smoking was everywhere. I remember flying when you could smoke. But the main thing is the smell of stale cigarette smoke was just like this undercurrent of any public place you went. Everyone's car. Churches. Everywhere it was that smell. Also at least where I was in KS, store clerks didn't give a crap. We could buy smokes in middle school if we wanted. Thankfully I never did more than a brief fascination with…

People would smoke in church? During the service?

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#130
post #37

My grandfather (who died because of his smoking addiction) had a number of ashtrays I distinctly remember. There was a push-down one that would spin, depositing the ashes and butts into a trap door compartment inside. There was one made of old coins bent and welded together. Of course simple glass ones around the house. The truck had an ash tray built in, with a lid mechanism so it could be removed and emptied withou…

> Drinking alcohol is similar in that regard, people are amazed (for opposite reasons) to find out 60% of Americans drink. I'm technically in that 60%, but I drink so infrequently I barely qualify (outside of certain social events, I never drink, and never more than 2 drinks). I think I had about a dozen drinks in all of 2022. I wonder what percent of that 60% are similar to me.

Roughly half https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/3i83rv/til_i...
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