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Topic: Are you a smoker?
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 03-02-2010 10:25 AM
I never became a smoker, in part because of the memory of my mother's father dying of lung cancer. The last time I saw him his left lung had been removed. One afternoon my grandfather was resting on the couch, shirtless. A thick bandage was strapped to his rib cage and gooey yellow mucus was oozing out from underneath the bandage. Really gross. That image didn't fit with all the cool advertising imagery I had seen about smoking up to that point. Both of my parents were smokers, but they quit "cold turkey" after seeing what it did to my grandfather.
Oklahoma ranks 3rd in the nation (behind Kentucky and West Virginia) in highest prevalence of smoking among adults. Still, the state has improved to where 3 out of 4 adult residents do not smoke.
Oklahoma lags in a number of other areas. We still allow smoking in bars and certain other enclosed spaces. Although one sports bar and another tavern in town have gone smoke free. Restaurants in Oklahoma can allow smoking only if they have a separately ventilated smoking area. Pretty costly proposition. That basically means the vast majority of restaurants are smoke free.
AFAIK, you can't smoke in movie theaters at all in Oklahoma. Although I occasionally see an asshole or two light up inside a theater while the movie is going. The last couple times I've seen it happen other audience members have either directly told the person to put out the cigarette or alerted management about it.
Many of my coworkers and local friends have quit smoking simply because the cost of the habit has become way too expensive. Still, I think hell might freeze over before our accountant and chief neon tube bender quit smoking willingly. Those two guys are just going to keep smoking until cancer, COPD, heart disease or something else kills them.
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Jonathan Smith
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 201
From: Youngstown, OH
Registered: Jan 2010
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posted 03-02-2010 11:02 AM
I've always wondered this too.
I'm a social smoker. Although it's technically illegal to smoke anywhere indoors in Ohio except in your own home or hotel rooms, I've a few favorite "Smoke Easies" that still allow the habit. So I'll have a few cigarettes every other month for kicks.
I worked at one theatre, the Detroit in Lakewood Ohio, that used to allow you to smoke everywhere except the theatre itself (including the booth, including the lobby, including the restrooms, and including the ticket office outside) until I think 2003.
I could probably still smoke up in the booth if I wanted to, but, frankly, theatre projection rooms were the first places after churches to ban smoking (before hospitals) because of the danger of booth fires when they were running the highly inflammable nitrate stock.
Although we universally use safety film (or worse, digital) these days, I am NOT going to contribute a source of dust to the booth.
IDK WTF got into projectionists to smoke around a $2,000, perishable product that is susceptible to dust; cigarette smoke is a fine, adherent dust.
What I want to know, for those projectionists that work in Nevada, Las Vegas specifically, can patrons from the casinos smoke in the theatres?
Only time I've seen someone smoking in a theatre auditorium (though I've heard stories) was the Don Draper character in the AMC television series "Mad Men" (shot on 35mm film by the way).
I've heard stories about certain former AMC managers lighting up when doing screenings of new films to check for splicing errors, but this was back in the '90s, maybe even the '80s.
I've also heard stories, that are recent, post 2000 about projectionists, literally lighting up in the booth using a Xenon bulb as a "lighter" and the projector exhaust pipe as a "ventilator."
It was, and I assume still is allowed in some theatres, but on the off chance that a patron (probably a poor little kid) looks back and sees you, is it really worth it to get that fix?
IDK, I have a love-hate relationship with smoking; it has killed my grandmother and father, given my other grandfather a bad heart, lungs and a pacemaker, but at the same time, enjoyed in moderation, cigarettes cause basically no harm.
You can smoke a pack a day until you're 30, quit cold-turkey, and you are statistically no more likely to suffer any form of smoking-related illness or cancer than never-smoked-a-cigarette-in-my-lifers. TRUE STORY.
I used to work in a bar, on and off after the 2007 Ohio Smoking Ban, and I used to let people light up in there anyway. We charged a dollar an "ashtray" (a plastic cup filled with water in case we got fined or they did a health inspection), and it was great.
Another true story, auto exhaust is worse than outdoor second-hand smoke, for states inclined like California to ban outdoor smoking next.
WHAT THE FUCK??? You can smoke weed in Caly ("medicinally") but not cigs?!?!
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-02-2010 11:38 AM
Montana banned smoking in indoor public places (except bars and casinos) five years ago, and last year the ban extended to bars and casinos as well. Results are mixed: The air in the bars is a lot nicer, but now the smokers are standing around outside and littering their butts on the streets. Also, many smokers have stopped gambling because "smoking and gambling go hand in hand," so apparently they're going to the Indian reservations or something, because state tax revenues from gaming are way down.
My parents both smoked. My dad died of a heart attack brought on by pneumonia, but his condition was aggravated by the smoking. I think it's safe to say he'd have lived somewhat longer if not for the smoking.
My mom used to smoke all the time, and quit many years ago. However, I think she still smokes a little -- she just can't completely give it up. She said that "anyone who thinks it's easy to quit smoking has probably never smoked." She said that even if you go years without a cigarette, you NEVER stop craving one. I suppose different people have different results.
I experimented a little when I was in my 20s, and actually enjoyed the "feel" of the smoking, but knew it was a stupid thing to take up so I just stopped before it became a habit. I guess it's nice to know "how" to smoke in case I ever become a dramatic actor, but that's as far as it's going to go with me.
I don't exactly see why anybody would take up smoking these days, not only for the health risks but because it's so hard to find a place to enjoy the habit. And, you tend to be repulsive to many members of the opposite sex. And, it's horrifically expensive. But yet teens still pick up smoking. More than anything else, this proves that many of them are idiots.
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Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.
Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004
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posted 03-02-2010 12:32 PM
To put things in perspective, my high school had a school-sanctioned STUDENT SMOKING SECTION up until the mid-eighties. And anyone of any age could smoke there.
We had an auditorium in town with smoking allowed until just a few years ago. Billy Joe's Picture Show, a low-rent dinner/bar operation, would show Harry Potter movies with whole families sitting around a table, kids eating pizza while mom and dad lit up. Iowa has since banned smoking pretty much anywhere indoors that isn't a casino or private residence, and Billy Joe's has since closed.
I never took it up even though my parents did, my sister did, most of my girlfriends did, and Wife #1 did. (And yes, that's what killed her).
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