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The Disappearance of the Ashtray

clivethompson.medium.com

221–230 of 668 posts

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You disregard diabetes rather lightly there. Diabetes can result in amputations, blindness, heart attacks, strokes and other fun things. Sure there are other food choices that lead to obesity, but sugar is certainly high on the list. One thing in common though is that telling a smoker to "just quit" is about the same as telling someone who likes sugar to "just stop". Personally I'm working to "reduce my intake", slow…

> there's no such thing as second-hand-sugar

Which makes this a truly personal choice.

“Smoking is a choice, don’t ban it” always irks me because it’s a choice smokers make for themselves and everyone else in a 30m radius around them from forcing others to breathe in their polluted air.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking on planes is absolutely something I can't wrap my head around in any possible way. How the hell someone EVER thought it would be a good idea to let people smoke while packed inside a flying metal cylinder?

It's hard to imagine flying passengers as being a "startup", but it really only dates from around the 60s. Today I know of people who can't fly at all (because they can't stop smoking long enough.) even short flights of a couple hours are out of reach. (I was once on a 2 hour flight that took 6 hours for reasons, and some of the passengers fairly sprinted in the destination airport to get to a smoking area at 1am) So…

I have heard of people using nicotine gum, patch, or lozenge for situations like this.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#223
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

In some of the more old school churches I went to in Missouri yeah. More on the Kansas side of my family it was more everyone would smoke in the foyer / approaching steps or such, and it'd just suck through the whole building the whole day.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You disregard diabetes rather lightly there. Diabetes can result in amputations, blindness, heart attacks, strokes and other fun things. Sure there are other food choices that lead to obesity, but sugar is certainly high on the list. One thing in common though is that telling a smoker to "just quit" is about the same as telling someone who likes sugar to "just stop". Personally I'm working to "reduce my intake", slow…

> there's no such thing as second-hand-sugar

But there absolutely is such a thing as a "food desert"

    an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.
particularly within the USofA, places where lack of finnacial resources across communities, lack of affordable public transport, and lack of shopping options essentially doom large groups of people to low grade high sugar foods.

Good governments that are orientated toward the well being of their citizens population tend to enact limits on sugar in food, improve transport, subsidize good food etc.

Often with the evil socialist goal of better health, improved job options via transport, reduced universal health costs, and more taxpayers ..

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoker's people sense of smell is severely compromised. They have no clue how strong the smell is.

I suspect they also don’t really want to know how strong and obnoxious the smell is to the rest of us.

Only speaking for myself as a smoker: I can smell it very prominently indoors without powerful ventilation. I don’t like it for me and don’t want to inflict it on others. I either steer clear of people outdoors, or put it out if they’re going to be nearby. The only exception is if they want to interact with me individually while I’m smoking, then I stand as far away as I can for the interaction they invited.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#226
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If a lot of worshipers smoked outside just beforehand, it would still smell of stale cigs inside.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#227

> Everyone had hard-smoking relatives who looked like absolute hell by their late 30s, were coughing up a lung in their 40s, and by their 50s were being hoisted by pallbearers. Smoking is a disgusting habit and I love working from home because I never have to step in an elevator with folks fresh from a smoke break, but it isn't nearly that fatal. I grew up when smoking was literally everywhere and the "hard-smoking"…

Yeah... I didn't. My grandfather smoked until his 70s before quitting and my great grandfather was still smoking a couple of Keep Moving cigars a day until he died in his mid 80s. All of my aunts and uncles on my mom's side are in their 60s and 70s and still smoke. Hell, nothing brings me back to my childhood like the whiff of a freshly lit cigarette. I still remember being a very young boy back in the 70s and smelli…

My strongest Grand Isle memories are running along the beach at night with a spotlight, chasing countless tiny crabs. I wonder how many of us here have fond memories from a Grand Isle fishing camp. Maybe just the two of us!

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still ubiquitous in China, or at least was when I was there several years ago. On the other hand, perhaps because of that, some of their buildings seem to have insanely powerful ventilation systems. I remember being in a mall and talking with someone who was smoking only a few feet away, seeing the smoke get sucked straight up into the vents on the ceiling as he exhaled, and I couldn't even smell it (I have a ra…

Many Vegas casinos have similar ventilation systems, it’s amazing to be near smokers and barely smell it.

OTOH the casino in the Nevada side of Tahoe that I went to a few years ago reeked of smoke. I came out smelling like I was 18 and hitting the UK pubs again (which was late 90s for me).

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#229
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But subs get deployed for 6 months at a time. Unless they banned smokers from getting into subs??

You don't have to ban smokers to ban smoking on a sub. Smokers don't have to smoke, they merely choose to do so.

I think this is bad idea. Maybe have a special room for smoking?

> Smokers don't have to smoke, they merely choose to do so.

Some people are legitimately addicted. I know for a fact that I am not (I can go for a month without smoking and I won't go crazy) but removing smoking or nicotine will be a major quality of life downgrade for me.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#230
I'm in the process now of converting my 1986 VW Vanagon ashtrays into USB and 12V accessory outlets.

About 15 years ago I flew from Oregon by way of San Francisco and Taipei to Malaysian Borneo (22 hours of travel) on a budget airline. The airplane, a fairly old 747, had ashtrays in the armrests still, though there was no smoking. That's when I knew it was _too_ budget...

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