A cigarette is an efficient delivery vehicle for the drug nicotine, derived from tobacco. The smoke from cigarettes may cause lung cancer or emphysema. The cigarettes themselves cause various forms of hysteria in many people who never smoke them. Just as the nicotine is addictive, the hysteria seems equally so.

If you are a smoker and want to quit, here is my suggestion: Quit smoking all the ones that taste like shit. Every time you light one up, take a couple of drags and then ask yourself, "Does this taste good?"

If your experience is like mine, you will find that there are very few cigarettes each day that really taste good. Mine are the two or three that I smoke with coffee in the morning. The next one that tastes good is the one after dinner each night. So, for several years now, I smoke three or four cigarettes a day. If that kills me, then I'll be glad to thank them for their great taste for all these years.

What I've noticed during these lean cigarette years is all the people smoking who are hating the taste. You can see that look on the face of the girl in the car next to you at two in the afternoon who is smoking 'cause she's pissed off at her boyfriend. You see the guys at the bar smoking one after another 'cause they think alcohol makes them smoke. You even see people smoking on a hot summer day when they are already burning up; you've just got to know that this is the worst one of all.

I know it's a bad habit and you want your little buddy in your hand. In fact, buying a pack is sort of like picking up twenty little friends at the store, isn't it? But try chewing gum or chewing on a toothpick instead. Being considered a redneck beats having lung cancer in fact.

A cigarette is the ultimate sex symbol, the most visible proof of sexual confidence, the indisputable hallmark of a true Diva.

A cigarette is a coyly displayed phallic manifestation of my innermost desires, it is my cry to the world - "despite all, I am alive (and wearing black lace panties)!", it is the ultimate come-hither.

A cigarette is my pledge to never submit to corporation propaganda, to political power mongering, to information witten and re-written as times dictate, to factlesness, to greed.

A cigarette is the fabricated demon of a century obsessed with survival, tittering as it is on the brink of self extermination. It is a defiant stand of those who believe that their freedom to live must extend to their freedom to die.

after the first cigarette, it all changes. some people hate it and i guess they're lucky, cause they never smoke again. some people like it alright, but lack some addictive tendency and though they smoke while they're young, they give it up and are troubled only by headaches and shakes, which pass and are forgotten. and some of us.. we never come back.

me, i never wanted to. something clicked with my first drag and i knew that whatever toxins i might be taking in, whatever irreperable damage i'm causing, this is me. this is the accessory that makes the outfit, the mistake that makes the masterpiece - whatever. when i'm insecure, i hide behind my portable cloud. when i'm elated, i blow out slow fireworks to celebrate.

i don't care about the nicotine. it would be hard to quit cold, but the nicotine does not make the cigarette. my hand, back and forth, up and down, the slow inhale or the quick one, the way a breeze plays with my smoke once i relinquish it.. that makes the cigarette.

i chose my vice, and the thrill ain't gone yet.

According to Mark Twain, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it fifty times."

But in between, when people walk up and start proselytizing at you all the reasons you should quit, simply tell them

"That's OK, they're prescription."

They will either laugh or be puzzled -- and you will have time to finish your dose.

---

from "Bringing Out The Dead". Thanks to DanHibiki for finally giving me the source of the quote.

Here's what a cigarette is to me:

The ultimate Turn-off

No matter how interesting, how charming, how perfect a girl is, as soon as she put's a cigarette in her mouth, that's it. No more romantic thoughts whatsoever. Some people like smoking girls, think of them as sexy, even mysterious. Not me. I somehow can't bring myself to love a smoker, best they can get is friends. A lot of my best friends smoke, and I don't judge them, or try to convert them, accepting them as they are, but not love. And when dating, smoking is the surest way to make sure we become just friends.

Even if they quit, the oblong whitish image lingers in my mind for a very long time. It is not the thought of dying of secondary smoke; it is not the thought of licking an ashtray when kissing, I can't really say what I is that really turns me off. I often regretted this, when I really liked someone, and felt she liked me back, maybe even more. But then, the smoke appears, something clicks, and it's all over. So the fact remains: I can only love non-smokers...

sigh!

The Cigarette Metanode

"Smoke 'em If You Got 'em"

Cigarettes and cigarette smoking. It's a huge part of society. It's also a huge part of the nodespace here at e2. There are countless nodes about cigarettes, smoking cigarettes, quitting smoking, and cigarette culture in general. Millions of Americans alone are smokers. I myself am a casual smoker. There's something almost fetishistic about the cigarette, something mysterious and very powerful. Something powerfull enough, I thought, to be worthy of a metanode.

The Basics

• Cigarette (also, Fags)
• Cigarette Butt
• Cigarette Smoke
• Clove Cigarettes
• Smoking
• Smoker
• Tabacco
• Quitting Smoking (also Quit Smoking)

Cigarette HOWTOs

• How to Avoid Buying Cigarettes for the Underaged
• How to Be A Polite Smoker In A Non-Smoking World
• How to Blow Smoke Rings
• How to Help A Friend Quit Smoking
• How to Put a Cigarette out on Your Tongue
• How to Reduce The Number Of Smokers
• How to Quit Smoking
• How to Roll a Cigarette (also, rolling cigarettes)
• How to Smoke
• How to smoke a pipe

Cigarette Manufacturers (Big Tobacco)

• Brown and Williamson Tobacco
• Liggett Group
• Lorillard Tobacco Company
• Philip Morris
• RJ Reynolds

Cigarette Brands

• American Spirits
• Bugler (roll your own)
• Camels
• Camel Lights
• Camel Turkish Gold
• Camel Turkish Jade
• Chesterfield
• Cool
• Davidoff
• Death Cigarettes
• GPC
• Guarana Cigarettes
• Go To Hell Cigarettes
• Liggett
• Lucky Strike
• Marlboro
  • Marlboro Lights
  • Marlboro Reds
• Nails cigarettes
(fictional)
• Nat Sherman
• Pall Mall
• Parliment Cigarettes
• Player's Navy Cut Cigarettes
• Premiere Cigarettes
• Sampoerna
• Springwater Cigarettes
• Sweet Dreams Cigarettes

Cigarette Accesories

There's a ritual surrounding smoking, and ever good ritual needs its talisman and fetish

• Cigarette Case
• Cigarette Cards
• Cigarette Lighter
• Cigarette Vending Machines
• Rolling Papers
  • Vogue cigarette rolling papers
  • Zig-Zag
• Smoking Jacket
  • Golden Corduroy Smoking Jacket of Century 21 Goodness

Not Quite Cigarettes

The cigarette, like any other poweful icon, has inspired several knockoffs and lookalikes.

• Candy Cigarettes
  • Fags
• Cigarette Boat
• Cobalt Cigarettes
• Herbal Cigarette
• Marijuana Cigarette
• Special cigarette

Songs About Cigarettes

• Cigarettes And Coffee
• Give The Anarchist A Cigarette
• Guns And Cigarettes
• Pink Cigarette
• Smokin' In The Boys Room
• You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette

Cigarettes Concepts, Things, and Ideas

• The Advantages Of Hand-Rolled Cigarettes
• Anarchist's Cookbook: Delay Igniter From Cigarette
• Anti Cigarette Ads
• Canadian Cigarette Package Warning
• Casual Smoker
• Cigarette Tobacco Additives
• Cigarette Burning
• Cigarette Jingles
  • Good Grammar, Good Taste
  • Taste Me, Taste Me
  • You've Come A Long Way, Baby
• Cigarette Karma
• Cigarette Song
• Cigarette Mileage
• Cigarette Smokers In Fiction
• Cigarettes Are Good For You
• Cigarettes Cause Cancer
• Cigarettes Cause Strokes And Heart Disease
• Considerate Smoker
• Class B Cigarettes
• Craving A Smoke
• The Debate Over Smoking in America
• Famous People Who Died From Smoking Related Illnesses
• Free Cigarettes
• French Inhale
• Hopelessly Addicted Smokers
• Japanese Cigarette Ads
• John Waters' Thank You For Not Smoking Psa
• Kretek
• The Last Cigarette
• The Last Cigarette Before You Start Smoking Again
• "O Only Smoke When I Drink"
• Listen Up Smokers!
• No Smoking By-Law
• Not Only Does Smoking Kill You, It Also Prevents Alzheimer's Disease
• Out Of Cigarettes
• The Outdoors is Not the Smoking Room
• Pain In The Ass Evangelistic Ex-Smoker
• Passive Smoking
• Philip Morris Advertising Campaign Contributed To My Decision To Quit Smoking
• The Prayer To Stop Smoking
• second hand smoking
• Smoke 'em If You Got 'em
• Smoke Hangover
• A Smoker's Defense, And A Request For Some Courtesy.
• Smokers' Rights
• Smoking as a Nihilistic Displacement Activity
• Smoking can Kill You
• Smoking Causes Heart Disease
• Smoking During Pregnancy Can Harm Your Baby
• Smoking has Class
• Smoking in the Shower
• Smoking is Addictive
• Smoking is Cool
• Smoking Lamp
• Smoking Matches
• Smoking vs. Drinking
• Smoking When Pregnant Harms Your Baby
• Sparkling Cigarette
• Times When You MUST Have a Smoke
• Toast Cigarette
• "Truth" Makes Me Want To Start Smoking
• What's Dumber Than a Cigarette in Your Ear?
• Why Does Smoking Suck?
• Why Smokers Are More Friendly
• Your Smoking Can Harm Others

Prose and Cigarettes

Cigarettes have long been heavily used in art and literature. They can usefull and powerfull literary devices, as Cigarette Smokers In Fiction points out. Our own noders have busily created and noded prose about and involving cigarettes. Several nodes here border the line between informative and art, and I've listed them here as a sourd of found art.

• 3-Days, 3-Weeks, 3-Months
• Analog Cigarettes
• A Bottle of Cheap Wine axnd Cigarettes
• Begging for a Cigarette
• The Burning Point Of A Cigarette
• Cigarette Smokers In Fiction
• Cigarette Virgins
• Cigarettes are Addictive
• Cigarettes are Quasi-Community Property
• Cigarettes are My Personal Proverbial Planck's Constant
• Cigarettes at Midnight
• Cigarettes as Social Tools
• Cigarettes Cause Fatal Lung Disease
• The Craving For a Cigarette
• The Dangers of Dating Smokers
• Don't Litter! But Go Ahead and Throw Your Cigarette Butt on the Ground.
• First Cigarette of the Day
• Giving Up Smoking
• The Good Excuse of Cigarettes
• How Many Drags Does it Take to Get to the Good Drugs Near the Filter of a Cigarette?
• I Need Something Like Smoking
• I Wish I Liked Cigarettes
• I Wish I Was Carrying Cigarettes
• I've Switched to Hand-Rolled Cigarettes
• The Last Cigarette Before You Quit Smoking
• Losing Your Cigarette Ash On Its Way To The Ashtray
• Make Cigarettes Illegal
• Milk, Cookies, and a Cigarette
• Missing Cigarettes (See Not Missing Cigarettes)
• My Cigarettes
• My "Giving Up Smoking" Log
• My Secret About Cigarettes
• Not Missing Cigarettes (See Missing Cigarettes)
• Not Smoking
• One More Cigarette...
• Only Until This Cigarette is Ended,
• A Shadow, And a Smouldering Cigarette Butt
• Smoke Break
• Smoking Cigarettes Beside a Moonlit Lake
• Smoking Cigarettes on a Roof in the Middle Of Winter
• Smoking Cures Cancer
• Smoking Fetish
• Smoking While Bathing
• The Tale Of The Smoker
• To Me, Cigarettes are Food
• Times When You MUST Have a Smoke
• When You Sell a Cigarette For a Quarter
• Your Cigarette Traces a Ladder

As always, message me if you need to bitch, or a have a suggestion, or want a node added.

Cig`a*rette" (?), n. [F. cigarette.]

A little cigar; a little fine tobacco rolled in paper for smoking.

 

© Webster 1913.