"Smokers urged to quit as one cigarette' takes 20 minutes off life expectancy'" the Guardian, 30 December

[Anduril]

My late aunt worked in Berlin straight after WW2 for the British Government. The currency she used were cigarettes and she was a non smoker.

 

[Erichalfbee]

As a very junior doctor I witnessed my cardiac surgeon boss castigating a patient for smoking, leaning over and dropping a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket

As a young journalist my sister was doing a piece on Harefield Hospital. She has a picture of Magdi Yacoub with a pack of Marlborough poking out of his scrubs' pocket

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[Amari]

How times have changed - when Marlborough was the mark if a man and Philip Morris actually claimed their cigarettes actually helped to heal irritated throats ...

Pah, both American brands. I smoked Woodbines - currently >£17 per pack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodbine_(cigarette)

 

[pargyle]

Pah, both American brands. I smoked Woodbines - currently >£17 per pack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodbine_(cigarette)

I started off at about 13 years old at school with Park Drive Plain ... I didn't actually smoke - I used to buy a pack of five for a shilling and sold them at 3d each with a match ! 3d profit each pack ... I then started smoking the 'profit' ... probably not a good idea. The favourite of the girls was Players No.6 but they were TIPPED ... girl stuff. When I came down to Portsmouth to college I graduated to Players Navy Cut - real cigarettes ! When I could get them I also smoked Navy issue blue line (issued by the Royal Navy to sailors at duty free prices and bought by many a non-smoking sailor and sold on ... ). When I started work it was Embassy, then Picadilly and finally Silk Cut .... and then bronchitis and an end to it - hardly surprising after 20 odd years of smoking !

 

[Erichalfbee]

Being a teenager with “flowers in my hair” during the sixties Black Sobranie was the order of the day with players number six to fill the Rizlas.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Pah, both American brands. I smoked Woodbines - currently >£17 per pack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodbine_(cigarette)

The only brand my father would smoke - in fact he said that if the stopped making them he would give up smoking.
Also the first cigarettes I smoked - and the last 'tailor made'before I gave up.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Blimey during the 60s I was none existent, in the 90s when I started smoking it was embacy number 1,
I’ve now give up back in the spring but turned to vaping instead which has its own lot of issues but I think it’s the flavours and choice that gets me pink lemonade and blueberry kush are my favourite- well if your going to vape you might as well get some proper use out of it, blueberry kush vape is home made no I’m joking folks about the blueberry kush, seriously while I munch out on vegetable snacks and a box of roses .
I hate the smell and taste of Tabasco now probably because my taste buds and sense of smell is 10 fold I don’t know if that’s a good thing living out in the country

 

[Macbear]

And you've all taken up a hobby which involves smoke so have you really quit?

There are BKs who eschew the use of smoke ... although I prefer to use the minimum possible. Maybe their colonies are ultra docile?
I encountered an old boy who spurned my shiny stainless steel device emitting a steady stream - he chain-smoked and gently exhaled in a systematic pattern. Although an admirable performance it failed to convinced me to change my own practice.

 

[JamezF]

I encountered an old boy who spurned my shiny stainless steel device emitting a steady stream - he chain-smoked and gently exhaled in a systematic pattern. Although an admirable performance it failed to convinced me to change my own practice.

There are photos of people working bees wearing a veil with a small hole in front of the wearer's mouth, to allow a pipe to be smoked and used for smoking at the same time.

James

 

[Macbear]

My old boy didn't have a veil on. Given the consternation that arose when a veil-wearing member of a BK course I was on lit their smoker with a naked flame, it did make me consider the flammability of veils. Some seem advertised as flame proof... and there seems to be a tricky market of counterfeit goods from which we may not be exempt.

 

[The Poot]

Being a teenager with “flowers in my hair” during the sixties Black Sobranie was the order of the day with players number six to fill the Rizlas.

Had to look that one up….

 

[Erichalfbee]

Had to look that one up….

Pretentious!

 

[Newbeeneil]

Pretentious!

Indeed, we used to smoke Balkan Sobranie ( the coloured ones) when going to posh parties

 

[Jules59]

You have to retrain your hands!

As a young journalist my sister was doing a piece on Harefield Hospital. She has a picture of Magdi Yacoub with a pack of Marlborough poking out of his scrubs' pocket

​

I worked with two vascular surgeons who were heavy smokers - neither made it to retirement - cancer

 

[Macbear]

I worked with two vascular surgeons who were heavy smokers - neither made it to retirement - cancer

I looked up how surgeons' life expectancy compared to that of other graduates. A Polish study indicated that male surgeons had a higher LE, but that female surgeons had a lower LE. At that point the old chestnut of unresearched variables came to mind - tobacco, alcohol, stress... as I'm aware of smoking medics who have at least matched average LE, but, sadly, Dr Michael Mosley who promoted healthy living came far too short of the average. Conclusion: enjoy life while you can.
A spin off thought is how do those who keep bees compare in LE? Without casting nasturtiums about members of my local BKA, I suspect above average.

 

[mbc]

As Billy Connolly pointed out, you dont get these extra minutes/hours/days while you're 18 and shagging everything in sight, but later on when you're sitting in a chair pissing yourself.
I'll still try and give up my favourite golden Virginia rollies again though!

 

[Swarm]

Gauloises Caporal and the hand rolling version was better still. Pull up on the first job of the day with my old mate Mike, kettle on and roll a hit of Gauloises, our Inspector used to love calling on us whenever he had the opportunity, he was a Camel smoker.
Mike used to holiday a couple of times a year in France and bing back the duty free baccy. He built a great friendship with a farmer there, they used to hold annual Brandy making competitions. I remember a works course where the Brandy made an appearance at coffee break, the instructor got in a right flap with the place smelling like a distillery.
Great times!