And buses, i.e. highway coaches: even more cramped, and less ventilated, than planes.

My dad used to get through a carton a week — 200 cigarettes, or 8-10 packs. (I dunno about USia, but in Canadia, for some reason, there are two sizes, 20 and 25 smokes each). But, he said much later, in practice he likely ended up smoking less than half of those: at least directly. He’d light one at his desk, get down…

Another respect in which Trump is another version of Putin — a pathetic, wannabe, cartoon version to be sure: a low-rent Saruman to Putin’s Sauron — but still.

Altamont, more like.

Does it make Trump a messiah?

That is a good reason. While quitting I develop a persistent, hacking cough that I’d never had while smoking. Lasted two or three months anyway. And I’d never been nearly as heavy a smoker as some. Never a pack a day, for example, though on some days up to a half a pack.

True. Though it could be that addiction isn’t quite what it’s commonly said to be.

It’s touch and go whether Keef, or Iggy Pop, will become the first living mummy in human history.

Well played, regardlessly. I can imagine someone like Stephen Wright, or Milton Jones (great, deadpan British comic) delivering that line.

Irrelevant digression: a local family restaurant in my hometown, in eastern Ontario, had that identical artwork (the chef, at least) on their menus in the 60s and 70s.

In Canada, some of the worst poverty is in remote or even isolated reserves and tiny First Nations villages. Hundreds of thousands of people, probably, without safe drinking water. Disgraceful, in a wealthy country: but, because of the isolation, easy for most people to ignore. Many such places have no road access,…

True. And then there’s the “illness as metaphor” tendency, to use Susan Sontag’s phrase. I wonder how many people still ascribe someone’s cancer, say, to their having a “repressive” personality? Probably more than I’d imagine, if fewer than formerly.

Likewise. This started at home. Being more or less friends, or at least not totally unfriendly, with myself, I finally persuaded myself to quit around 13 years ago. (Though for a while there, we weren’t on speaking terms).

Individualism has had many pernicious effects. One is that too many people regard good (or bad) health as purely and simply the result of individual choices. They don’t stop to consider, or know little about, the social and economic determinants of health (and of illness).

The British have an expression I like: “cold as charity”. Amply sums up, for me, the attitude of some possibly well-meaning, but too often self-righteous and/or clueless would-be counsellors, whether they’re trying to “help” smokers, drinkers or what have you.

No two ways about it — a lot of talk concerning health and “wellness” smacks of moralism. The smugs can deny it all they like, but it’s true. I especially hate the implication that non-smokers are better people than smokers.

Dying here, as the youngs say (I think — do they still? And is there honey still for tea, &c., &c.?)

You nailed that one.

Well, this is it. By analogy with a novel from a couple of generations later, he was a bit like one of the Eloi, surrounded by Morlocks.

If so, it’s not one I plan to... shed...