[Keith Babberney]

I remember wondering the same things before I smoked, and yet it is not easy to answer now that I have. The first time I began to get cravings, I didn’t immediately recognize the feelings. I felt somewhat anxious and agitated, but the rush from the first drag would clear that all up. The addiction is primarily a function of nicotine, as most everyone knows, but the reason people will smoke even when they know they can’t finish the cigarette is more related to the habit. There is a ritual to smoking – how you open the pack (ever notice how some people pound the pack against their palm to pack the tobacco), how you hold the cigarette, how you light it (matches? Zippo? Bic?), how you inhale/exhale -and after awhile the ritual itself can be as comforting as the drug. I smoked in high school, and when late-afternoon cravings hit during class, I could stave them off by mimicking a smoke with my ballpoint pen. I can’t really answer the last questions, beyond saying you get cravings. You know you won’t feel comfortable until you smoke one. Over time, this feeling lessens, but you always remember how you felt better after that drag. I ‘quit’ several times before finally smoking my last butt several years ago. Each time, some trigger (often alcohol) would make me smoke ‘just one’ and before I knew it I’d be back to the level I had been. In the end, I quit because I felt worse after smoking than before. I don’t know if I have an acute sensitivity, or if a mental mechanism kicked in to fool my body into quitting, or what, but I’m not sure I would have been successful quitting without it. At your age, you’ve made it past when most smokers start, so I probably don’t have to tell you this, but don’t start. Once you get past the taste and smell, smoking gives you a little drug-induced lift; later, when you are addicted, the lift is less and doesn’t last, but you still need the nicotine. It ain’t worth it.

User Detail :  

Name : Keith Babberney, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Taoist, Age : 34, City : Austin, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : arborist, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Keith Babberney]

Didn’t you read the whole column? I thought he explained himself pretty well. Would you also be unoffended if, during Italian History Month, a book store offered a discount on a Mussolini biography to people with Italian surnames wearing black shirts? Blacks eating fried chicken is part of a caricature. No doubt, many love to eat chicken (as do people of all racists), but the reason we associate the two together is rooted in racism. Someone who thinks all blacks love chicken probably got the idea from someone who also thinks all blacks are [fill in denigrating comment here]. When the store manager catered to one stereotype, the implication was that he subscribed to them all. What food could he have put on sale to avoid the flap? I don’t know the answer to that one. Maybe he could have highlighted peanut products (in honor of G.W.Carver). Maybe he could have just picked any random assortment–the main point is to do it in honor if BHM, right? I’ll leave it to others to suggest appropriate choices. I just have to express my surprise that this problem is hard to understand. K

User Detail :  

Name : Keith Babberney, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Taoist, Age : 34, City : Austin, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : arborist, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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