The Star-Tribune tells of one recently deceased Margaret Madigan, who was as famous for her chain-smoking habit as she was for her big laugh, and her mourners are being encouraged to light up cigarettes in her honor. Although the article mentions that Ms. Madigan passed away at the relatively young age of 66 from complications of a stroke, it doesn’t speculate whether her chain-smoking habit might have contributed to her death, even though smoking considerably increases the risk of stroke (particularly for women over the age 35 who use birth control pills, which may or may not describe Ms. Madigan). But, then, it’s not likely that people who have a puff or two at the funeral are going to take up smoking as a result, and the request seems to have been made in affectionate good humor.
So: Smoking at a smokers funeral. Does it seem like an appropriate sendoff to you?
21 Reader Comments
1:27 pm
(firing up a symbolic heater in honor of the late Ms. Madigan)
puff….puff….(cough)
damn, this tastes goo…err, TERRIBLE!
Goodbye and fairwell, Ms. M. Sounds like you will be missed by many friends.
Thought to ponder. One group figures that the big tobacco excise tax increase tommorow will eventually prevent more than 14,000 premature deaths casused by smoking. That’s just in Minnesota.
1:52 pm
I always thought smokers had a very particular relationship with their own mortality. It makes denial harder because every hour or so you take action to hasten your death. They must have a unique perspective I can’t appreciate.
2:08 pm
I never thought much about my mortality when I smoked.
If everyone had to wait until age 50 before starting the habit, I doubt few would. Most start as kids, before they know better. By the time they should know better, they are hooked.
There is an evil genius to this product, you know.
2:13 pm
@jeffk: Why can’t you appreciate it? Every breath you take, even if it’s sans smoke, brings you closer to death, too.
3:21 pm
My, what a Debbie Downer you are, today, noodleman. Technically true, but…
4:02 pm
Bob, I’m not being down; just realistic. I don’t think smokers spend any time thinking about their “hastening death” anymore than a non-smoker worries about it when they breath smoke-free air.
I speak from experience. Sometimes I think the anti-smoke crowd gets a little too smug about themselves and need to be reminded of the inevitability of — DOOM! — death. It happens to everyone. Everyone … regardless of your diet, hygiene, sexual proclivities, or hobby (dangerous or otherwise).
4:10 pm
Sometimes I think the anti-smoke crowd gets a little too smug about themselves and need to be reminded of the inevitability of — DOOM!
I was a smug, snarky SOB before I joined the anti-smoke crowd.
Ask anyone.
4:40 pm
@Bob: Them, too.
5:30 pm
I think of smoking as insurance that I won’t die old, alone, and senile in a substandard nursing home.
5:43 pm
Wait, all the single women are going to kill themselves off before they get to a nursing home?
That was my failsafe option.
6:24 pm
I for one can’t wait to go to a nursing home. I hear they’re like senior orgy houses, and the few men left alive can go through them like knives through butter.
Sure, it seems a little icky now, but, when I’m 80, I suspect a 70-year-old is going to be looking pretty good to me.
6:25 pm
Yeah, but if you’re all senile and stuff, you won’t remember all the wrinkly nakedness.
6:25 pm
Smoke if you got ‘em. Cigs are only like $500/pack nowadays. The state could use that money and The Rat is running out of customers.
1:00 am
I don’t think smokers spend any time thinking about their “hastening death” anymore than a non-smoker worries about it when they breath smoke-free air.
I never knew my father because he died when I was two months old from lung cancer. My oldest sister died eight years ago from cancer caused by smoking. My brother died on Saturday from cancer caused by smoking. I’m 34 and a smoker. There may be some smokers who don’t think about it, but there are plenty of smokers like me who think of their own mortality with every cigarette they light up. All the non-smokers should save their yells of “Idiot!”, “Tobacco should be outlawed!” and “Smokers should rot in hell!” for assholes like me and leave the rest of the smokers alone.
7:54 am
Robert Mottiff?!?
The spelling of my name get s April Fooled by Jason’s Station on this ciggie-related news that ran yesterday.
9:33 am
My one smoking friend insinuates that once cigs hit about $7 a pack (which I gather isn’t too far off in MN), he will reach the tipping point and quit for good.
I smoked a tiny bit for a year or two, and if I knew I only had a month or so to live, would take it up again. That would be the only way, however, so I’m guessing I’ll never have a smoke again.
9:40 am
3 years ago, I paid nearly $9 for a pack of smokes in NYC. Yup, I fully embraced my idiocy. One must do this periodically during one’s life.
I would have liked to have known Margaret.
I’m back to being a non-smoker, but I make no promises once I start running regularly again.
9:44 am
At $9 a pack you might as well just switch over to narcotics.
10:20 am
Some of the top Philip Morris brands are now selling for $7 a pack in MN and yes, the cost of a pack in NYC has topped $10.
Our quit lines are ringing off the hook today.
10:25 am
“At $9 a pack you might as well just switch over to narcotics.”
problem is that that narcotics make you want more cigarettes.
11:42 am
And narcotics are still a tad harder to acquire.
I don’t necessarily want to work that hard for a buzz.
If I could handle weed, I’d be the female Big Lebowski of Minneapolis.