Election Results

Sometimes those "party rooms" are the only fun n' relaxing thing about a Convention ........ so you wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to visit one of them.

I was in a "smoke filled room" once, and all I can tell you was that I found it ridiculous.

The partyin' is only fun if you enjoy the company of those in the room, with or without smoke.

There's a world full of weird people out there. Many of them are content to sit and wait in a room with a coffee urn and two-day old cantaloupe. Me, I like to move around a bit.

ohio county wrote:There's a world full of weird people out there. Many of them are content to sit and wait in a room with a coffee urn and two-day old cantaloupe. Me, I like to move around a bit.

OK......you guys are all cracking me up tonight.

Oh, come on. You know far better than I that you sit around in those rooms which are now smoke-free and you wait and you wait. More often that not the wait is anti-climactic. Usually we're glad to have that day-old cantaloupe if there's a couple pieces of canned pineapple in there to impart a little acidity. At least it seems fresh. I still love it. Maybe I'm just tired...

I can't eat the cantaloupe. I'm allergic. The canned pineapple, now that I L-U-V love, but it cannot have come into contact with the melon.

I really enjoyed the smoke-filled rooms. Now I'm running outside to smoke my brains out with regularity, wondering if I'm missing something going on in the smoke-free room where nothing ever happens.

We need sleep. lol

I haven't touched a cigarette since March 7. I'm thinking maybe two more weeks and I can become the forum scold.

Congratulations, Jimmy. I'm absolutely thrilled for you. Leave me the hell alone, though. I smoke for other people's health and you may find out what I mean if you go messin' with me smokes.

I may have it this time. A greater accomplishment is my oldest daughter graduating from Shepherd University today. A sweet and loving child, she is a source of constant joy and satisfaction in me.

Wow! Congrats, first on the great kid, and then on the college graduation. I am convinced that if there were more happy, healthy parents who loved their children and loved being parents, the world would be so much better.

WTG, Jimmy. I'm very, very pleased for you and your family.

I'm sure smoking leads to global warming and George W Bush.

Congratulations to your daughter Jimmy and to you for not spoking. I quit over a year ago and can honestly say, I don't crave them anymore.

Congratulations Jimmy. I also quit smoking after 32 years. It took me getting really sick though which is too bad.

I think Bronchitis has a higher success rate than Nicarrest.

It does. But I ended up with it not just from smoking which made it worse. I somehow came into contact with a Respitory syndrome virus which usually only children get. No one knows how I contracted it or from where. I was very ill. I was left with an inhaler which I had never had before. I should have quit smoking a long time ago. I still crave it but don't give in to it.

It might just be you and me, Sammy.

I quit for a year and a half after a heart attack. They say that's common. I wouldn't recommend that method for everybody...

My MIL had a massive heart attack in November. Holy crap that was scary! I mean looking at her lying there like that. They put this balloon pump thingy in her and she was stuck lying flat on her back for a couple of days. The nurses kept on and on about how it was the smoking narrowed her arteries etc.

Still hubs & I would sneak out of her room in CICU to puff away. I'm sure we deserve whatever we get. I feel bad that my poor kids won't, though.

Stephanie wrote:It might just be you and me, Sammy.

You are right about that Steph.

Now smoking cigarettes is a habit, ….. not an addiction, ….. and is no different that drinking coffee or soda pop, ……. or even cursing.

I know of no one that wakes up 2 or 3 times at night to have a cigarette or stops in the middle of having great sex …… just to satisfy their nicotine craving.

And giving up a habit that one does, especially if they enjoy doing it ……. is a hard thing for some people to do. It is a “subconscious mind thing” and to “quit a habit” one has to re-program their subconscious mind ….. or consciously deactivate their “urge” to perform or execute whatever “habit” they have.

Now whether anyone wants to believe it or not, but I have no problem “quitting smoking” whenever I want to and which I have done several times for short durations and I do not get the DT’s, hyper, mean, nasty, weird, shaky, sick, excitable, in a bank robbing mood or make all sorts of f’ing excuses blaming my actions on “I just quit smoking”.

Me thinks all those psychosomatic “problems” attributed to “quitting” smoking are just that, ……. mental problems. Mental problems brought on by the “fears” of the hyped dangers of cigarette smoke that they have stored away in their subconscious memory and ones inability to recognize the difference between fact and fiction …… and/or their self (conscious) control of learned subconscious actions.

Thus, they have a subconscious fear of the danger of cigarette smoke …….. competing with a subconscious urge to smoke a cigarette ………. and consciously …… things go to hell in a hand basket real quick like.

And thus having said the above …….. I will re-post that great poem that I wrote ..... followed by historical facts that support all that is stated in my poem.

cheers

A Cause that created a Carcinogen – The Great American Smokeout

No way, no way, you’ll surely say,
Don’t lie to us, do not betray.
Oh yes, ….. tis true, …. tis true,
The truth is out there ……. if you only knew.

T’was long ago, back in Seventy-One,
When money was needed, for the Scholarship Fund.
In Randolph, Maine, not so far away,
Mullaney said “Don’t smoke today”.

The cause was good, the smoke that day was held back,
The money was donated, that would have bought a pack.
“Great News” said Mullaney, they had met their quota,
His message was heard, far away in Minnesota.

It was a cold day, in Seventy-Four,
That silly Lynn Smith, started knocking on doors.
She was Editor of the paper, she wanted her say,
Thus was born, the state's first Don't Smoke Day.

And “DUH”, what better opportunity to garner money, notoriety and fame,
T’was none other than the American Cancer Society, who joined in the game.
Their Great American Smokeout, was launched forthwith,
The gullible public loved it, and the rest is history, …. to wit:

By Samuel c. Cogar

This casual acceptance of smoking was the norm when the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout went nationwide more than 25 years ago in November 1977.That quarter century has marked dramatic changes in the way society views tobacco promotion and tobacco use. Many public places and work areas are now smoke-free which protects non-smokers and supports smokers who want to quit.

The American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout event grew out of a 1971 event in Randolph, MA, in which Arthur P. Mullaney asked people to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money they would have spent on cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund. In 1974, Lynn R. Smith, editor of the Monticello Times in Minnesota, spearheaded the state's first D-Day, or Don't Smoke Day. The idea caught on, and on Nov. 18, 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society succeeded in getting nearly one million smokers to quit for the day. The first national Great American Smokeout was held in 1977.

During the next 25 years the Smokeout was celebrated with rallies, parades, stunts, quitting information, and even "cold turkey" menu items in schools, workplaces, Main Streets, and legislative halls throughout the US.

The Great American Smokeout has helped to spotlight the dangers of tobacco use and the challenges of quitting, but more importantly, it has set the stage for the cultural revolution in tobacco control that has occurred over this period.

Because of the efforts of individuals and groups that have led anti-tobacco efforts, there have been significant landmarks in the areas of research, policy, and the environment:

In 1977, Berkeley, California became the first community to limit smoking in restaurants and other public places.

In 1983, San Francisco passed the first strong workplace smoking restrictions, including bans on smoking in private workplaces.

In 1990, the federal smoking ban on all interstate buses and domestic flights of six hours or less took effect.

In 1994, the state of Mississippi filed the first of 24 state lawsuits seeking to recuperate millions of dollars from tobacco companies for smokers' Medicaid Bills.

In 1999, the Department of Justice filed suit against cigarette manufacturers, charging the industry with defrauding the public by lying about the risks of smoking.

In 1999, the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) was passed, requiring tobacco companies to pay $206 billion to 45 states by the year 2025 to cover Medicaid costs of treating smokers. The MSA agreement also closed the Tobacco Institute and ended cartoon advertising and tobacco billboards.

And "YES", ..... Lindaredtail, ....... I did author the above poem,

and "YES", ..... all those historical facts can be verified iffen you want to check them out

but don't be expecting me to do that for you.

.

ohio county wrote:I quit for a year and a half after a heart attack. They say that's common. I wouldn't recommend that method for everybody...

Careful, there, OC. A Democrat who is listening might want the government to encourage heart attacks to cut smoking, kind of like ruining the economy for the cause of global warming.

I'm sincerely glad that you have recovered and pray for great success in your endeavors and wanderings. What is your daughter's degree? Is she going to be part of the exodus out of WVA or is she going to stay and stick it out? Do people up your way ever commute to Pittsburgh for work?

I know a fellow who drives to Bayer's corporate headquarters out by the airport. Have heard of several others. Considered it myself briefly.

Melissa has a degree in English - she harbored a secret ambition to write poetry for pay - and will be looking for a job in the publishing industry. She's thinking now in this order: 1) Pittsburgh, 2) Baltimore-D.C., 3) New York.

Well Sam, I have quit a few times cause I was preggers. It sucked. I felt sick, but it may have been the pregnancy. All I know is I always wanted a damn cigarette. When I had my first child, I had a pack in my suitcase for the hospital. My husband found me smoking (26 years ago you could still smoke in the hospital) so he threw them out the window.

He left, I got a candy striper to go down to the vending machine and get me another pack. lol

I'm a smoker.

Congrats again, Jimmy. Your family must be very proud. I love the name Melissa, btw. I wish her much success and every happiness.

Stephanie wrote:Well Sam, I have quit a few times cause I was preggers. It sucked. I felt sick, but it may have been the pregnancy. All I know is I always wanted a damn cigarette. When I had my first child, I had a pack in my suitcase for the hospital. My husband found me smoking (26 years ago you could still smoke in the hospital) so he threw them out the window.

He left, I got a candy striper to go down to the vending machine and get me another pack. lol

Steph, I spent bout 10 days in the hospital with a bout of pneumonia. One day a nurse came in with a "new pill" and before I would take it I asked what it was for.

She said I'll check and came back telling me the Dr. prescribed it, an anti-depressant of some kind, ..... because I was a 3 pack/day smoker and would surely need it.

I asked her if I looked depressed ...... and if not she could take it or give it to someone that lookked depressed to her.

But Steph, my first un-attempt at giving up smoking was downright gawd awful.

It was my 1st 3-week hunting trip into the BC bush and I thought I had packed enough cigarettes to do me.

WRONG, .......I think I was "cigarette poor" by the end of the 1st week ..... and there ain't no place in the Canadian bush to buy any.

But what was just as bad, ...... with insult to my injury, ..... one of the others "planned better" ........ and brought along a case of Black Label Scotch.

So there I sat every evening, ...... with no cigarettes. ...... watching those other four a drinking n' enjoying that BL.