The smoking rebellion
Some time ago, I had cause to freeze my bollox off outside a pub.
It was midwinter and I was in a different village so, like it or not I had to join the throng on the pavement outside for a smoke.
As is nearly always the case, the atmosphere outside was a lot more convivial than the one inside. The pub reeked of stale piss, stale beer and sweat and the non-smokers were as usual staring glumly into their pints. Most of those non-smokers seem to be miserable bastards. Outside however, there was a lot of laughter and banter interspersed with shivering and the chattering of teeth.
I was chatting up a Yang Wan who tried to bum a fag off me. I told her I didn’t smoke cigarettes, so she blagged one of someone else. ‘Hey, Debbie! I didn’t know you smoked?’ someone shouted. ‘I don’t’ she replied, ‘but it’s a lot more craic out here’.
At the time I though she was joking, but since then I have heard of many tales of people starting to smoke, simply because they felt left out. Usually it’s women, who feel a bit miffed when the fella nips out for a fag and doesn’t reappear for half an hour. She decides to see what the attraction is, and the next thing you know, she’s puffing away with the rest of them.
I thought these were merely anecdotes, but I read an article in the Sunday Times where apparently this is the new phenomenon. People [mostly women] are taking up smoking for the first time simply because of the ban. The article quoted one woman – ‘A lot of the appeal is the fact it’s a form of rebellion and therefore there’s a perception that it’s cool’ Another woman [who apparently is known as a fitness fanatic] admitted ‘I only started after the smoking ban because I got fed up being left behind when everyone else went outside’.
I would love to know what the Antis make of this little result of their efforts. I suppose they are all sitting in their smug, odourless, humourless rooms feeding themselves on statistics that they have just plucked from nowhere, and celebrating because they have statistical proof that ingrown toenails are down 80% since the smoking ban was introduced.
There is something that they all overlook.
Make something compulsory and everyone will hate it.
Ban something and it immediately becomes attractive.
The Antis should should have made smoking compulsory for everyone.
People taking up smoking because of the ban?Almost sounds too good to be true, granddad. Makes sense though and I hope it catches on. In the mean time, you’ve made my day!
“Almost sounds too good to be true” That’s what I thought, but it seems to be the case. Smoking is certainly on the increase here since the ban was introduced, and it had been falling.
Point of information gentlemen: smoking has not been banned. Giving other people cancer in pubs has been banned.
Aside from being idiotic, taking up smoking is not an act of rebellion against that ban, no more than licking tar of the road would be. An act of rebellion against the ban would involve smoking inside the pub and roaring that the dirty pigs will never take you alive.
I for one would pay good money to see young and nubile (albeit anecdotal) fitness fanatics carry on like that in pubs.
“Giving other people cancer in pubs has been banned“
Sorry! I have to laugh at that one. Can you please give me one shred of real evidence [and I’m not talking about the uneducated opinion of Roy Castle] that smoke causes cancer in others?
Well said COC. Taking up smoking today knowing full well the health risks is nothing less than fucking stupid. No matter what the old geezer says. Nothing more than lifelong smokers trying to justify their filthy, disgusting addiction.
In actual fact Grandad, Roy Castle was interviewed about his cancer & is on record as having admitted that he could just as easily have contracted the disease from prolonged exposure to the chemical-bearing fluids with which he cleaned his Trumpet .. as by being exposed to years of smoke ..
The person who made the strident claims that it was other people’s smoke which caused the cancer, was his widow (for whom one cannot help but feel sympathy) .. but that doesn’t automatically make her right ..
The historical lessons of the American “Prohibition” era have obviously escaped the “righteous” in this case ..
Couldn’t agree more, started smoking when I was 15/16 in the pubs in Germany, managed to quit when I came back to Ireland and couldn’t get in until I was 18 — now I actively seek out bars with good smoking rooms.
The best banter is in the smoking rooms, its easier to chat to the “yang wans” (“Can I’ve a light, please?”) — its where all the “cool kids” are.
Terribly bad for my health, but that’s not what this thread is about, right Grandad!?
Excellent! An american shrieking vitriol, ad homs and base insults whilst calling others stupid for having the temerity to make their own decisions (good or bad) in life. Thereby failing to see the stupidity in expecting the world’s population to live by the same choices as him/herself.
Well flushed out, Grandad.
Personally, I find any country which races monster trucks, and treats oiled-up men wrestling to a script seriously, rather backward.
TT – I thought you said you smoked? Heh!
Haddock – I stand corrected. So a major plank in the Anti’s argument is the say-so of an unqualified grieving widow? Makes sense [if you’re an Anti]?
Welcome Enda. Two points – Firstly, there is still room for debate as to whether smoking is terribly bad for your health. Secondly, you can take the ‘safe’ option and stay inside with the non-smokers or you can enjoy life. Your choice. It is supposed to be a free world.
Dick – I would like to wallow in your plaudits, but really there is no credit due. TT always has a bash at my smoking articles, so the phrase “shooting fish in a barrel” comes to mind? Heh!
I am a lifelong smoker, same as you GD. Won’t quit now. But I still understand that it’s fuckin’ stupid. As for Dick Head; go back to rolling hard boiled eggs down hills on Midsummer’s Day or whatever else you Brit faggots do for sport and amusement. Let’s face it you’re shit at soccer.
TT – Are the US still in the World Cup? I wouldn’t know.
Hmmm, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdiFnjtq69g&feature=player_embedded#!
See Fernando Torres (Spain World Cup Finalists) is in there too!
Heh! Dunno who half/most are but I take it they aren’t all suffering from the terrible, deadly effects of smoking? I notice there are no pipe smokers though.
I rode a motorcycle for the better part of 20 years (until my busted back wouldn’t allow me to ride safely any longer) and I smoked for 27 years. Guess which habit was more dangerous?
So the “Antis” never heard of the effects of reverse psychology before?
Certainly wasn’t trying to “correct” you Grandad ..
Just wanted to add a little extra “ammo” to yer pile .. (remember, I’m a life-long Pipe smoker too) ..
I’ve searched t’interweb thingy high & low for the article where Roy Castle made that statement but can’t find it anywhere ..
If I were the suspicious, cynical type (God forbid) .. I might be tempted to think that someone, somewhere had deliberately removed or suppressed it …
Shhh – keep quiet about it or next they’ll be banning Irish classes in schools and the Catholic Church. Then where will we be?
“TT – Are the US still in the World Cup? I wouldn’t know.”
Last I heard, the thick cunts had ‘won’ 1-1. 😉