Anthony – your post put a smile on my face, especially the link back to Kinsella’s very old article encouraging the revival of the Joe Camel mascot. I laugh because I personally detest smoking—don’t like the smell or consequences, and won’t choose it for myself—but I love to see people smoking, especially when they do so in violation of some arbitrary law passed down from the Prohibitionist Puritans.
I’m a big fan of old country/bluegrass/western swing (and related genres), and this topic makes me recall that great old song—”Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette),” a favorite on my iPod. Lyrics: “Tell St. Peter at the Pearly Gate/That you hate to make him wait/But you just gotta have another cigarette…”
The gun store I frequent is under local rule, of course, that does not allow smoking on your own retail property, so as not to “offend” your petty customers and kill them with your evil secondhand smoke. But the owner smokes anyway, all day while he works, and I liked watching him smoke while he was putting a Leupold Mark II scope on my .243 Remington. That’s striking two blows for freedom in one fell swoop.
I buy candy cigarettes for my nephew/godchild, who will be eight this month—and the first time he ever had them he was experiencing bliss. He especially loves the chocolate ones. My sister and her husband have no predisposition toward politically correct puritan prohibitionism or health hystericalism, thank goodness. My sister posted a photo of him “smoking” his candy Lucky Strikes on her FaceBook page—making “Auntie Karen” proud.
