For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 03, 2014

As an adult, Michael’s house burned down because his neighbor smoked in bed; I hope Michael at this age knows how to put the cigar out.

Yes, even “used” tobacco. Cigarette butts are poisonous to small children.

Tobacco in all forms has been so completely out of my life for so long that I had forgotten that.

Pipes stink as well. I was waiting for take out and noticed a foul smell. I turned around and there was this idiot smoking a pipe. I wanted to shove it down his throat.

Cigar smoke gets you noticed alright. You’ll notice people (like me) move as far away from it as possible.

“Smells like Uncle Danny’s pig barn!” I’m going to try to use that sometime today.

Michael’s right, it will get you noticed (it’s a phallic symbol). And maybe the odor will wake up the parents.

I smoked briefly in my teens (Lucky Strikes- Hit Parade).I have often enjoyed the smoke of a friend’s pipe, and even helped him mix the various brands that he preferred, but have always found the smell of cigarette and especially cigar smoke really BAD- I always thought of a garbage dump with the latter.

The smell of leaves decomposing in pond water is actually very pleasant in comparison, and I frequently cleaned out my pond in the spring, spreading that compost around the garden.

I’ve always thought that cigars smelled kind of interesting – reminded me of football games from my youth. Pipes smell pleasant, but cigarettes – yecch! (I’ve never smoked, except for the one puff at age eight, which I mentioned earlier. As my favorite English teacher used to say, “De gustibus non est disputandum – every man to his own taste, said the old lady as she kissed the cow.”

Instead of looking for things to criticize, consider that if the smoker left his cigar, he likely left his (or her) matches as well.

Snuff!

A`nd the “tobaccoless, electronic” cigarettes still make the user smell like an overflowing ashtray.

even when i was that young, smoking was nasty and we would always walk past the smokers coughing and choking. Smoking was not allowed in the house by guests, and you were crazy if you wanted to smoke.

Yep, even water can kill you if you drink too much of it .

I never knew that. Live and learn

From a CDC report:The investigation in Rhode Island documented ingestion of cigarettes or cigarette butts by children aged 6-24 months, an age range during which children are actively exploring their environment and are at increased risk for ingesting toxic substances (3). These ingestions were associated with only minor toxic clinical effects; however, previous reports have described severe toxicity among children who ingested cigarettes, cigarette butts, or snuff, including depressed respiration, cardiac arrhythmia, and convulsions (4-6). In Rhode Island, ingestion also was associated with smoking in the presence of children and easy accessability to cigarettes and cigarette butts, reflecting careless placement of these objects and/or lack of parent’s knowledge about the potential toxicity of ingested tobacco products.

I think maybe that’s the purpose – to drive folks out of the room that the smokers don’t want there.

What about all the time tobacco bashed US? I’ll say thatsome pipe tobacco blends smell good, and cigars remind me of a beloved uncle…..but the image of a goodfriend with throat cancer standing over his sink coughingout bits of lung, not able to breathe….kind of counteractsany good image of tobacco products. (pot too. If you want toindulge, make cookies or brownies….)

It’s called SNUFF!!!!!

Yeah, I realized that when I wrote it, but it just seemed like to shortest way to get the idea across. I figured that people would get that I mean that it is particularly dangerous for small children. And animals, for that matter.

cut cheese and you’ll be noticed

Elly walks in.“Were you smoking, Micheal!?”

I think Michael is about to get “noticed” when the smoke starts wafting into his parents’ bedroom.

Michael, start singing. “Burning your house down to let you know I’m still around!”

So what’s the point of your calling it “curious,” other than to carp for the sake of carping. You referred elsewhere to your 2 “funny” comments, but you are not funny.

It’s odd (ish) but this is the first strip in this New Year’s Morning storyline that I remember from reading the archive over the past months. I must have read them but I do not remember.