Butt out

I've been giving a lot of thought to the issue of smoking... which I abhor. I'm not going to get into a persons' rights or anything like that... you want to close yourself off in a room and puff away, be my guest. Where I have an issue is, of course, when this smoke hits me.


I apologise for any generalizations... but it seems that many smokers have a different set of values or rules for behaviour. I was entering a mall last week and two women were walking ahead of me, one smoking. Just before going through the door, the woman tossed her butt down and squashed it with her heel... and proceeded to enter the building as if the butt no longer existed. Apparently her magic foot made the butt completely vanish to her. What's up with that?? I also routinely see butts tossed out car windows... outside office buildings, sidewalks etc.. what's in a smokers mentality that the spent cigarette vanishes from the earth?

I'm getting more and more aware, even before Smidget arrives, of what tiny people can pick up off the ground... put in their mouths etc. The example of the woman outside the mall? Going in the entrance to Sears and the baby section.

So how do you discourage smoking? There's lots more info out there now about the dangers of smoking than when I was a kid so that should help... The health dangers are well-documented, one only need look at someone who's smoked for their whole life, sallow faces, hacking cough... spot 'em a mile away.

I wonder about the technique my dad used on me... before I was born, apparently he smoked cigarillos. I can recall a time, I was maybe 3 or 4, maybe 5... he sat me down in my room, with a little table and a BIG glass of water. He had me take a puff. It was the worst, most vile thing I'd ever tasted... that water was drained in no time. Never ever wanted to touch one again.

Hmm... I wonder if that was an anti-smoking technique or if he just wanted someone to smoke with...