Posts by BenWilson
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I'd just struggle to believe that anything like Mad Men or Outrageous Fortune which depicts a smoking culture is only, or indeed primarily, doing it because of pressure from the tobacco industry.
Yes, there's work needed to prove any conspiratorial link there.
Overall, I agree. I don't watch TV to be preached at, period. I'll see how I feel about it when the kids get to an impressionable age, but I heartily agreed with Danielle that Cookie Monster should still be allowed to do his thing. It's not on Sesame Street if I give them open access to cookies, and they get fat.
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If his name rings a bell it's because he’s the former advisor to the UK’s former Labour government, an internationally renowned expert who was chucked for daring to suggest they base drug policy on the actual harm caused to people, and therefore consider alcohol and tobacco to be more dangerous than drugs like marijuana and ecstasy. Heresy.
I think he's righteous, but my greatest fear in this kind of approach is that it can be used to simply advocate harsher drug policy, and including alcohol and cigarettes in this, rather than what I'd like to see, the relaxation of policy on stuff that's about the same level of harm as alcohol, and using price and advertising controls as the lever rather than the law.
I mean I really don't think anyone should be banned from smoking tobacco completely, there's way too many addicts for that. But if it was priced so that it totally discouraged kids, then it might just fade away as society's laziest extreme sport. As for alcohol, I guess the aim would be to have excises that pretty much covered the cost of cleaning up the mess it creates. Same could go for cannabis, painkillers, and various minor uppers, possibly including coffee. We can leave to another day what to do about the likes of heroin, meth, coke, LSD.
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Lucy, are you saying that there would be no cigarette smoking in film and TV unless the tobacco industry directly pay for it to be there?
I thought that too until a careful reread of Lucy's words. I missed the 'just' in the piece you quoted first time too.
Is anyone saying depiction of smoking should be banned? I understand the push to be toward R rating it, in much the same way as graphic violence and sex. Ross only said he'd be 'happy' if no images were shown, but knew it was an unrealistic ask.
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(Can anyone explain to me the mechanics of vomiting on a ten foot high ceiling without getting a drop anywhere else?)
Simple, Watson. I'm familiar with the various distances and arcs of projectile vomit from a 3 week study involving myself and my entire family and nonovirus, just ending yesterday, and I can tell you it is not possible to vomit more than 3 feet straight up unaided, the entire biological function of projectile vomiting being to take the contents away from you as fast as possible. Clearly the room was being used for the purposes of drinking copious amounts of alcohol, and attracted a throng. The source of the vomit was no doubt a reveler, held aloft by his peers, possibly on account of some feat of alcoholic gluttony, and tossed about, as befits a hero in such company. The raining parbrake would have landed entirely on the revelers and left the premises in their hair and about their shoulders. If there was also carrots in the vomit, a very likely thing, then we'd also be safely able to say that fellow was a young engineer from Christchurch, and that his memory of the occasion will only involve meeting a mysterious girl four hours earlier. Now, hand me the coke, there's a good man.
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Resistance now officially futile ;-)
Who needs resistance? Every store I've walked in and asked to fondle their iPads has said they don't have any in stock but their Botany branch does. If I were quicker on the draw I'd have said "Look honey, I came to fiddle with your iPad, not go down to your Botany".
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I was speculating that the next generation are going to think a hand with the first two fingers extended and slightly parted is some kind of covert symbol for something.
It is. The mystic secret number two.
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Indeed, I prefer the aroma of a well-placed fart as the smell dissipates much more quickly.
Yes, and can be enjoyed safely in bed. Well, mostly safely - I did read in the Darwin Awards of some guy who ate a lot of baked beans, got drunk, feel asleep in a small room with no windows and a closed door and actually died of his own farts. Another reason for HRV!
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Interpreted by Dick Frizzell "A man and a woman" by the Front Lawn
A man and a woman,
A woman and a man,
Look at them lying there,
Sleeping in each others arms,
Oh don't wake them up -
There's quite a few prescribed psychoactives that could be similar to the Holmes portrayal. Maybe Ritalin?
Interesting, in that it suggests Holmes uses cocaine as a downer, rather than an upper.
Yes, that's kind of where I'm going with Ritalin. His brain is portrayed as bordering on hyperactive, although not with any clear attention deficit. But he is also fictional.
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My own stint as a 'smoker' was during my only time of high-rise office work. It was an extremely convenient excuse to take frequent breaks that involved sunshine, fresh air, and generally idling hanging around, which didn't run the risk of being ambushed at the coffee machine by someone about some work. I didn't usually inhale, but if I didn't take and use a packet of cigarettes, I would have been frowned upon rather than tolerated. I probably got some kind of mild nicotine buzz from mouth absorption. I bought the cheapest nastiest ones I could get, and put them in a constantly recycled box for something classier. If I had to do such a silly thing now, I'd probably pack my own ones with some inert aromatic substance, but I didn't have a proper packing machine then.
I'm not certain, but I tend to think I felt almost as refreshed as most of the smokers after those little breaks.
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