The dumbest people smoke the most

[LiveMusic]

That's a quote by Andy Rooney.

 

I swear the stats below do not seem right where I live. I swear, if seems like 95% of college age kids smoke. It seems WORSE to me, not better. I dunno. I hope it's getting better. I guess the stats are right.

 

Do you think smoking has decreased where you are?

 

60 Minutes web page

 

...

 

ARTICLE:

 

Every once in a while, there's some good news. Half as many Americans smoke cigarettes now, compared to the number who used to smoke them, and that's good news.

 

The percentage of high school kids smoking is lower than it's ever been.

 

An interesting thing about smoking statistics, 42 percent of those who don't graduate from high school smoke, but only 12 percent of college graduates smoke.

 

People with graduate degrees smoke least of all -- 7 percent of them. In other words, if I can say this without offending anyone, the dumbest people smoke the most. Maybe it would be politically correct to say "the smartest people smoke the least."

 

American tobacco companies are pushing lung cancer in foreign countries now.

 

That's how to win friends for the United States, isn't it?

 

How would you like to be in the ashtray business now that no one wants anyone smoking around them? My mother always had ashtrays around.

 

This beautiful Steuben crystal ashtray was on the coffee table in our living room for 35 years.

 

There was an ashtray on every table in every restaurant. Mexican restaurant. Bookbinders in Philadelphia. The famous Stork Club in New York.

 

This is a silver cigarette box my father brought home from Japan in 1930.

 

They handed out matchbooks everywhere with advertising. Salem Cigarettes, Marriott Hotels. The Harbor Motor Hotel in Steamboat Springs.

 

Actors like Humphrey Bogart used cigarettes as a prop - and Bette Davis, Jackie Gleason on 60 Minutes.

 

Some smokers kept their distance with cigarette holders.

 

This little beauty is made of ivory. An elephant died for this smoker.

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt made this model famous.

 

He looked great with his cigarette holder.

 

Most people kept the pack in their pocket but some smokers put them in silver cases. This leather case has the owner's initials. Why would you put your initials on a cigarette case?

 

Lighters were more fun to play with than matches. That's what you gave a smoker for Christmas - a cigarette lighter. This Ronson was on most living room coffee tables.

 

The most famous lighter was the ZIPPO. Soldiers always carried Zippos in World War II. They worked better than matches in the mud.

 

The inescapable fact that smoking causes lung cancer has obviously had a big effect on cigarette sales, but I think there's another reason, too. We bought these Marlboros to have on my desk. This carton cost us $75. Who can afford to burn tobacco at those prices?

 

Written By Andy Rooney © MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[miroslav]

I know a lot of "smart" people...

...lawyers, successful business men and women, college grads, etc...

...who smoke like it's going out of style.

 

Go figure...

[deanmass]

Perhaps he should have used the word 'educated' rather than 'smart'.

[Bill Roberts]

Smoking is a chemical addition and a nervous habit. I smoke when I have a tidy...but I have been under 8 cigs a day for years.

 

That confirms I am a dumbass!

[Dak Lander]

Ain't had a cigarette since 1972.

 

Unlike most ex-smokers, I could care less if you drive some coffin nails home into your body but don't expect me to suck up the vaporous remnants of your inhalations and exhalations of the shit. I don't slam you for sucking on a cancer stick so don't force me to breath the noxious fumes you leave behind. Have some class, and courtesy, and leave my presence when you have a nicotine fit and have to fire up the poison, or at least ask if it's going to bother me. If we're outdoors chances are you're good to go unless you're upwind.

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

I'm a 12% person. Smoking college grad.

 

I'll probably die from it someday. Or, possibly, I'll die from something else. I'll let you know how that goes.

 

- Jeff

[not coaster MODERATOR]

Originally posted by Jeff Da Weasel:

I'm a 12% person. Smoking college grad.

 

I'll probably die from it someday. Or, possibly, I'll die from something else. I'll let you know how that goes.

 

- Jeff

i visualize jeff will die on the bike path. hit by a lifeguard on an all-terrain vehicle..

 

because he had become fat he couldn't get out of the way in time.

[ptuzer]

James Bond used to smoke ... He was pretty smart. Now only the bad guys smoke in movies.

[Dak Lander]

Originally posted by Jeff Da Weasel:

I'm a 12% person. Smoking college grad.

 

I'll probably die from it someday. Or, possibly, I'll die from something else. I'll let you know how that goes.

 

- Jeff

Yeah Jeff, but you don't blow smoke in my face either though that's not to say you don't try to blow smoke, if you know what I mean...

[Prague]

I can't wait to see all the perfect people in the hospital dying of nothing!

[FoxTick]

http://www.science.uva.nl/~robbert/zappa/files/jpg/maestro2.jpg

[nursers]

Originally posted by Prague:

I can't wait to see all the perfect people in the hospital dying of nothing!

Your point is?

[pseudonym]

I think smoking blocks something in the mental process that allowes someone common sense? I'm not going into detail, but I know someone who has cancer and has chain-smoked for 25-30 years and doesn't think that cigarettes have anything to do with it because it's not lung cancer, this person continues to smoke.

 

I made the mistake of letting some have a cigarette in my apartment last night thinking it would be just one, no, before you know it the next one gets fired-up and I got the door open and the fan going and it's 80 deg and humid outside, jeez what a stupid habit!!!!!!!

[songrytr]

I smoked 'em for a couple of years in the '80s...put 'em down real easy.

 

Years later my GF (who started when she was 14) moved here from NY and I started up again. This time they got their hooks in GOOD.

 

June 22 will be four years since we both put them down together. Yes, the weight did increase...but the cost (in $$ and health) offsets the waistline bulge. Besides, at least now I can get through 30 minutes of aerobic exercise (still working on the motivation, though).

 

And you smokers will be happy to know my wife and I don't look down our noses at those who do continue to burn 'em (just ask Phil O.). Lord, we're still too close to that time when cravings trumped reason.

 

An addiction is stubborn and unreasonable...smarts or no smarts, we're all susceptible to any number of different monkeys.

[Dave The Rave]

My wife and I bought this Dartington Glass ashtray on our honeymoon (nearly 23 years ago). At the time, lots of our friends smoked, but we couldn't stand it. Visitors that were lit up were presented with this ashtray to stub out their nasty habit at the door:

 

http://www.jardini.com/Ashtray_s.jpg

 

We haven't used it in years, but it still enjoys a place in our glass showcase.

 

:DTR

[Prague]

I think Zappa had colon cancer. If you look closely at the photo, he has the cigarette in his mouth. Besides, was Zappa stupid?

[Prague]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/paostby/einstein.jpg

 

Is this thread about...me?

[LiveMusic]

Originally posted by Prague:

Is this thread about...me?

No, it isn't even about smoking but that's the turn it's taken. I just wondered if anyone else thought that smoking in young people had DECREASED. Seems it has not. I don't remember almost every single young person in a bar smoking when I was young. But it's that way now, it seems.

 

As far as rationalizing smoking, you should see the insanity smokers are posting locally due to a new city ordinance that bans smoking in restaurants. (Sadly, not bars.) It's amazing.

 

Now, they are proposing a $1 a pack tax here. Maybe they should make it $5 a pack. I wonder what the elasticity of demand is for cigarettes? For the chronically hooked, I guess that'd be a bitch but for many, they'd kick the habit. Crap, you'd be rich by retirement age if you saved in an interest bearing account what smoking costs monthly.

[Brittanylips]

Originally posted by Prague:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/paostby/einstein.jpg

 

Is this thread about...me?

Before Einstein, people thought gravity was one object pulling on another. Now, educated people know better.

 

Before Einstein, people thought smoking was OK. Now, educated people know better.

 

-Peace, Love, and Brittanylips

[waveyl]

Here in Toronto, smoking has been outlawed in any restaurant and bars. Gone are the days where you walk out of a bar stincking from sigarette smoke, knowing you're one day closer to death from the second hand smoke you just inhaled unwantingly. I sure am glad that law is in place.

 

lavi.

[Sp3nc3r]

We're getting ready to put the same smoking ban in place here in Newfoundland, too. I believe the date is July 1st that the ban is effective for all bars, restaurants, and (gasp) bingo halls.

 

That should improve my bingo playing enjoyment alot more

 

Cheers!

Spencer

[coyote]

Prague, no one's saying all smokers are idiots. Naturally there will be SOME smokers who are brilliant, while there will be many nonsmokers who are idiots (for example, those who insist that every comercial establishment in existence must be smoke-free just in case they decide to walk in the door)...

 

But the numbers speak for themselves. Those who don't graduate highschool likely have less intelligence than those who do graduate college. Is it sheer coincidence that the one group is:

 

- easier to sell to via advertising

and/or

- more prey to their own 'addictibility'

 

than the other? Let's face it: Knowing what we now know about tobacco, you kinda have to be a moron to allow yourself to get addicted to the stuff.

[Lee Knight]

Everyday I see 16 year olds trying to look 17, in groups of 3 or 4, walking down to the beach, with cigs dangling from their lips, or awkwardly holding them like pencils.

 

Those are the COOL kids!

[phaeton]

Have some class, and courtesy, and leave my presence when you have a nicotine fit and have to fire up the poison, or at least ask if it's going to bother me. If we're outdoors chances are you're good to go unless you're upwind.

 

Yeah, what Dak said... my roommates smoke so much that people at work tell me i smell like a bar. I feel bad for their 4yo son. I can't say anything to them bc then they start railing on the amount of b33r i drink (as if it affects anyone else)...

 

Oh well..

 

Speaking of *smart* people who smoke, i know lots of ppl in the healthcare profession that smoke. You think they'd all know better.

 

Most everyone i've met where i live that smoke, were all the str8-edge valedictorian types in HS. This toadilly blows me away! In my HS it was all the dirty-filthy long-haired potheads (like me) that smoked.

 

Speaking of which, i'm 21 months w/o a smog!

 

And i don't umm.. miss it at all...sometimes... yeah...

[Jimbroni]

I think smoking blocks something in the mental process that allowes someone common sense? I'm not going into detail, but I know someone who has cancer and has chain-smoked for 25-30 years and doesn't think that cigarettes have anything to do with it because it's not lung cancer, this person continues to smoke

I think you're trying describe addiction. The docs are getting more knowledgeable about this, but there seems to be alot of evidence that the mind of an addict does get rewired. However, everybody gets rewired based on life's experiences, memories, trauma's, likes, dislikes. Chocolate or alcohol or thc or nicotine or sex create a brainstate, and when you're an addict you're brain kinda short circuits to try and get to that state thus giving you urges. I don't know the details, but I'm sure alot of us have heard something similar.

 

I don't believe this hampers anyone's intelligence, anybody can become addicted. However, I do think people who have discipline are naturally going to be the ones who study in school and likewise fight the addictive tendency. Possibly this could explain the numbers somewhat.

Alot of college kids who smoke started in college. A little taste of freedom, can shock a kid. Many only smoke at bars and parties, at least thats how it was when I was in school.

[Mats Olsson.]

I've never been addicted to the stuff.

My parents used to smoke (a lot) but quit some 25 years ago.

 

As of june 1 we have a indoor smoking ban at reataurants/bars/clubs here. I suppose a lot of folks will switch to snuff, so that they don't have to go out to get a fix. At least snuff does not expose other persons to secondary smoke.

 

We also have a 18 year limit on tobacco since a couple of years.

 

I welcome this progress with open arms.

[Mats Olsson.]

stupid double post

[Bongofury]

Originally posted by FoxTick:

http://www.science.uva.nl/~robbert/zappa/files/jpg/maestro2.jpg

Gee, the most brilliant human being that ever lived was a smoker.

[philbo_Tangent]

Originally posted by coyote:

Those who don't graduate highschool likely have less intelligence than those who do graduate college.

What do you base this opinion on?

 

I know many, many highly educated fools.

 

It's simple to generalize, difficult to back up those generalizations...

[hard truth]

I live in the SF Bay Area. Here's the behavior I observed:

Tobacco smoking is most popular with people ages 16 through late twenties. By the time they reach thirty most people start trying to quit. Smoking is usually taken up by relatively "straight" college-type kids as a way to be "bad." Smoking is most common with Asians and suburban whites. Older people who still smoke are usually from the lower classes.