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Today in the news 06.13.07
KARE11: Brooklyn Center man severs wife's tongue (caution: horrific)
WCCO: Hayfield white collar criminal gets sentenced; "He's a dirty devil!"
PiPress: Musical instruments for troops, by way of Fergus Falls
TC Daily Planet: Summit (and, presumably, Summit Beer), between city and bar owners
Minnesota Monitor: TB or not TB
WCCO: Minnesota jobless rates higher than the national average
93 Reader Comments
Y'know, the whole anti-smoking crusade could use a little more love-the-sinner-hate-the-sin kind of vibe.
Wrong thread?
That's always been my vibe -- I'm sorry if that doesn't always come across that way.
I'm completely against anti-smoker hate. I smoked. Some of my friends smoke. My own mom smokes. Indoor smoking? Take it outside. Making fun of -- or worse, putting down -- smokers? Leave that idea in the butttray, where it belongs.
Not as satisfying as self-righteously hounding them into submission though.
There's nothing worse than a Larry Hagman-like former smoker who now crusades against tobacco and ridicules those who still use the sacred leaf. But they're still not as bad as those who would use the strong arm of government to do their dirty work for them.
Bob, you're very nice about it. Don't worry.
I am sort of fascinated by how parents explain smoking to their kids. I saw a kid in a minivan yelling at a smoker walking by. I assumed mom would tell him to can it, but she started in, too. I wondered if they were on their way to tell some homeless people to get jobs, or weigh patrons entering McDonald's.
I had a woman try and cluck cluck at me about smoking during a class break from my Marketing Management class...that was a very, very bad idea...
Didja put out the cigarette in her face?
That was me. I sometimes hound smokers while in drag. You are so mean! I just wanted to judge you! I cried all night.
;-)
Maz don't like? Then I know I'm right on the right track!
Thanks, sailor! You complete me.
I used to smoke. I loved it. It didn't love me. I had to break it off. I'm pretty tolerant of smokers, but I don't think that expecting courtesty is out of line. Don't smoke around people who don't like or can't tolerate smoke and DON'T THROW YOUR CIGARETTE BUTT ON THE GROUND when you're done smoking. I think it's acceptable to scream at someone who uses the ground for a trash can. Picking up after yourself is part of the smoking process just as relieving yourself in a bathroom rather than the street is part of the soda or beer drinking process.
I used to smoke. I loved it. It didn't love me. I had to break it off too.
When I look at smokers I feel sorry for them. They've got enough problems without me making life harder for them. I talked to a waitress at Punch the other night who had quit smoking for two and a half years ... and then recently had a cigarette. Her boyfriend was so mad at her he threatened to leave her! I told her to leave him first.
I guess I'm just a bleeding heart liberal.
We always knew it, Maz.
Did I post something about smoking? WTF?
Did you read the first story? The man cut his wife's throat over a smoking argument...
Maaaaax, that's why dude cut out his wife's tongue. Well, that and he's batshit crazy.
Yeah, I'm a former smoker and still a sympathizer with my former smoking buddies. They're beleaguered enough as it is without another ex-smoker getting on their case. Besides, I miss the camaraderie of smoking; it's a quick and companionable bond between strangers from all walks of life.
I don't miss the toll smoking took on my beautiful, beautiful lungs. Daddy loves you both very much, my bronchiolic angels. I also don't mind not having to stand outside in bitter weather, or that weirdly horrible morning-after taste that cigarettes sometimes leave you with.
Didja put out the cigarette in her face?
I told her to blow me, she was to far away to use as an ashtray...
Don't smoke around people who don't like or can't tolerate smoke
The bitch of it was, this chick was about 100 yard away from me. Some people just have a hard time minding their own damn business...
Oh, I see where this is coming from. Got it.
I'm touched to see that most of you have smoker empathy.
I smoke and I quit and I smoke and I quit. Smoke for weeks on end and then quit for months and then start it right back up again.
But, I think I'm a polite smoker as I won't blow it in your face... unless you deserve it and I don't litter, well, I can't say I've NEVER thrown a butt on the street, but 99.82% of the time I find the trash.
It's unnerving though how this culture has changed from the 60's groovy smoker gig to the devil-spawn-cuz-ur-a-smoker vibe. We know it's bad for our health, but for God's sake lay off the judgement. We're still reeling from the Target survey.
We're still reeling from the Target survey.
funny.
I have been lectured about the dangers of smoking by a guy who destroys his liver every night with cheap whisky (enjoy your cirocis and alcoholic hepatitis), a guy who went to rehab twice for cocaine addiction, and a woman who tipped the scales at about 300 pounds...
Let he without sin, cast the first stone...
and apparently I can't spell "Cirrhosis..."
Amen, sista!
Although I'm somewhat more annoyed with the "clucking" woman because how do you respond to that? Cluck back? If you did there be an all out clucking smackdown.
And then not only would people be hatin' more on the smokers, but PETA would probably get involved thinking you were chicken mockers.
Sorry, it's my day off today and I've had a lot of coffee.
Yikes! I just read the KARE-11 link.
Did anyone else pick up that both victim and (alleged) attacker were respiratory practitioners at Regions Hospital? I used to work at Regions, but I don't know them.
How can a person spend any time at all in a respiratory ward and still be a smoker? The Rat spent too much time in those places. Learned all he needed to learn about smoking.
Secondhand smoke is deadly. Can't we credit the this throat-slasher hero for at least trying to take this killer off the streets before our revolving-door, activist judicial system lets her off the hook for killing her loved ones and the people around her? It's called preemption, folks -- sheesh!
God, I used to love smoking.
Rat you'd be surprized at how many medical professionals still smoke...albiet closeted...
Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.
Don't use this tragic and horrible incident to make some snarky point (whatever that might be), champs.
Rat, I had the same thought, but I know plenty of doctors and nurses who smoke, too. Yes, they know it's bad for them, but it just goes to show how tough it is for some people to quit smoking.
Camel Special Lights, baby! Gotta love that Turkish blend...
What aliecat said. Nice try, sub boy, but I'm not wayne. Scat!
Err, what she said earlier.. Although I was a Camel smoker once myself.
regular. unfiltered. ackkk..cough.
Bob, I'm still pretty agitated over my biking experience on the way home yesterday. Two flat tires, a closed bike shop, plus a poorly-endowed pickup truck driver who doesn't understand how the bike lane works on Summit and is so chickenshit that he hid in an alley instead of confronting someone who's not afraid of his bullying will do things. In the past couple weeks, I've had garbage, change, and water thrown at me in St. Paul for doing nothing, and I'm starting to understand why cyclists rage against the automotive machine.
Bob, when I started smoking, I was a Camel Wides girl, until I got bronchitis that summer...BTW, that is the ONLY time I have ever had bronchitis and I've been smoking for almost 12 years...
I was a Vantage guy, myself. Thems snasty.
We should all should meet somewhere and have a Summit, champs, so you can unwind from that nasty experience. You can trade bike commute horror stories with wayne. Someplace with a nice patio, so aliecat can enjoy, too.
Not tonight, however. Going to a party in an undisclosed location.
Counting down the seconds before hit and run troll "just saying" adds something witty like: "Bob sure drinks a lot, doesn't he?" 1, 2, 3, 4...
I don't think I've ever met a smoker that didn't toss them on the sidewalk or pitch them out of their car window.
Whenever I take a flight I can't believe that not so long ago the people next to you might just light up. Remember they had a Smoking Section. What a joke.
I also feel sorry for tobacco addicts. Standing outside, looking cold, draining the companies they work for with their smoke breaks.
When I was a kid my Grandpa would roll up the car windows, turn on the AC and light up a Salem. Those were fun times.
OK, I'm not really sure how to say this without sounding bitchy, but as a smoker, I don't need or want your pity. It's something that I do to myself that, thanks to the recent smoking ban, does not affect you. If I want to stand outside and freeze my ass off for 5 minutes for a smoke break, that's my business and I really don't appreciate the holier-than-thou attitudes of some non-smokers. Just leave me and my Camels in peace, please...ugh...I need a cigarette.
I used to be a Parliament Light smoker. Gotta love the recessed filter.
yuck. Why bother? When I first started smoking (in the navy, natch, after being a jock in h.s.) I smoked Bull Durham cigarettes. Their circumference (that's distance around, for you non-math people) is/was twice that of your regular cigarette. Think blunts. I don't think they make them anymore.
I don't think I've ever met a smoker that didn't toss them on the sidewalk or pitch them out of their car window.
Guilty of throwing the cig on the street, but NEVER out of the car window - too paranoid that it would be my luck to start some major hideous fire. BUT, if you saw my 'hood there is more trash being thrown around, i.e. fast food garbage, beer cans, alcohol bottles and weird American Beauty floating plastic bags than cig butts.
Standing outside, looking cold, draining the companies they work for with their smoke breaks.
Kind of a generalization as I see a lot more of my co-workers wasting more time than I do smoking with standing around bitchin' about the company or their crappy boss.
"OK, I'm not really sure how to say this without sounding bitchy..."
I'm pretty sure that I'm allowed to feel pity for you. Don't care of you don't need or want it.
If you can't handle it, that's another one of your issues.
You're right. The biggest drain on companies is probably people writing in blogs all day that have nothing to do with their job.
If the farmer and the cowman can be friends, can't we?
"OK, I'm not really sure how to say this without sounding bitchy, but as a smoker, I don't need or want your pity."
Well, now, not so fast here. Sometimes, people who pity others for some reason can be talked into giving them money, or free drinks, or other stuff, like iPods.
So, let's just be kinda quiet about this no-pity thing. I still need an iPod.
You're right. The biggest drain on companies is probably people writing in blogs all day that have nothing to do with their job.
Or maybe the bloggers are highly-intelligent and talented people who get their work done in 1/2 the time it takes others to do the same work.
... or closeted smokers and want to get the work done early so they can use the rest of the time to smoke like fiends.
"Or maybe the bloggers are highly-intelligent and talented people who get their work done in 1/2 the time it takes others to do the same work...."
Uh....have you read this blog before?
How is not wanting pity from complete strangers an issue? I mean, sympathy is one thing, but pity just smacks of "gee, look at those poor smokers, I'm so much better than them cuz I'm in my cozy warm office." That's what I can't abide.
I'll shut up now, lest I blow my top for no reason...
That-a-boy!
Wrong gender...
Now, there's your issue!
Uh....have you read this blog before?
Yup. Digression and 12-year old behavior don't mean someone is a doody-head. Just means there's a healthy, sometimes snarky and sometimes milk-snortin' hilarious exchange going on.
I totally agree.
PS: I love this blog AND I'm a doody-head (and, I vote!)!
Cat- I know you are, but what am I?
God, can you tell I'm bored at work, yet?
Cat- I know you are, but what am I?
I'm rubber, you're glue?
See... voting, blogging and wasting company time is now the new favorite american pasttime.
God, I love this country!
Cat, I've got a great knock-knock joke...but you have to start it.
Knock Knock?
Who's There?
Me?
Me Who?
Meooowww.
Oops, sorry told the whole joke. My badness.
Wow....how did you know?
psychotic that way.
I have way too many neices and nephews to get sideswiped by the knock-knock joke joke.
And apparently a lot of time on my hands today.
knock-knock?
Who's there?
I'm a big pile-up
I'm a big pule-up who?
You shouldn't be so hard on yourself
;0)
Re: The Monitor's TB post:
When ALAMN was founded in 1903, tuberculosis was the great scourge of our state. More people died from TB than from any other disease--one out of ten Minnesotans. They wasted away by the thousands, and died in agony. ALAMN lead the fight against TB, providing mobile x-ray units that traveled around the state screening for TB and providing education on prevention and treatment.
Today, that early battle has come full circle, as TB stages a comeback, especially among immigrants from countries where TB incidence can be 30 times higher than in the U.S.
It's a nasty, tough disease. A few weeks ago max was asking me about drug-resisitant TB, something most people had never heard of until a lawyer from Atlanta took a little trip.
Don't know a lot about TB, but is it possible for this drug-resistant strain of TB to mutate into something that is easily contracted?
Are there currently strains that one can contract with little contact to the infected person?
Everything I've read thus far makes it sound like it's not easily transmitted unless you live with the infected person.
or work with them... wait, when talking about TB, what does "prolonged exposure" mean?
Thankfully, it's not like smallbox. However, TB is a tricky and sneaky disease. You can be infected and not show any signs for years.
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease (caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a bacterium) that usually affects the lungs but that can attack other parts of the body. There are two forms of TB: TB infection and TB disease (or active TB). Most people with TB have TB infection.
Tuberculosis is spread from person to person through the air. People with TB disease of the lung spray the bacteria into the air when they cough, sneeze, talk, or laugh. People nearby can breathe in the bacteria and become infected. To become infected, a person usually needs to be exposed for a long time to air containing many TB bacteria.
When a person breathes in TB bacteria, they lodge in the lungs and begin to multiply. From there, the bacteria sometimes move through the blood to other parts of the body, such as the kidneys, joints, and brain. In most cases, the infection is kept in check by the body's immune system. In about 10% of cases, however, the infection breaks out into active TB disease at some point during the life of the infected person.
smallbox!
He he.
She's sexy and she has smallbox!
You people are sick!
Hopefull not with XDR-TB or smallpox....
... but, but what does LONG or Prolonged exposure mean? 1 year? 10 years? 8 hours?
And if it's more prevelant in developing countries is this because they didn't/don't have the drugs to fight outbreaks? So exposure goes untreated in someone which may remain dormant until the infected person becomes ill or their immune system is compromised in some way and the cycle starts all over again?
"And if it's more prevelant in developing countries is this because they didn't/don't have the drugs to fight outbreaks?"
They haven't had the decades of usage of the drugs that knocked most cases out (remember, infection usually follows more of an exponential spread rate than a linear one), they've not had the decades of good nutrition that strengthens the immune systems, nor the public education about healthy lifestyles or avoiding exposure, and mostly lack the medical facilities required to segregate the carriers.
They don't define it because there is no absolute way of saying "how long." Studies show that the people who live with/near people with active TB are at greatest risk. So the concern over the people on the plane is likely overkill -- however, considering this form has a 60% fatality rate, I would err on the side of caution, too.
The causes (and even origins) of XDR-TB are not yet known, so I can't speculate on its possible relationship with medical care in other countires.
Like some forms of cancers, many lung diseases are difficult to understand, even though they have been researched for years. We don't know what causes asthma, although we know how to treat it pretty well. We know from the past how bad TB can be in certain circumstances. This new strain is about twice as deadly as the TB our grandparents fought against.
In a word, yikes!
So, MNspeakers, next time I climb stairs or walk in the park to raise money to fight lung disease, drop a dollar in our hat. Thanks!
I'll smoke a cig AND drop some cash in the hat.
That's a 5-star Butt Story.
I give it 5 Butts!
Not to be confused with the 5 butts I threw in the street today... just joshin' - sheesh!
aliecat - As a former smoker, I believe you when you say you stood well away from that non-smoker while enjoying your cigarette. I've gotten the hate stare from non-smokers who couldn't have smelled my burning cigarette, yet looked as offended as if they saw me out on the sidewalk selling crack to grade school kids.
The TB thing freaks me out. Yet another horrible disease that's figured out how to avoid the assault of modern medicine. I read The Hot Zone many years ago - the story about Ebola. That book really brought home how easy a single infected person can share the viral bounty.
icarrie- I can handle the stare, it's when they start chiding me about my personal choices when I get my hackles up...and I agree with the whole thing about people looking at us like we're slinging drugs...sheesh..
You've not seen true irrational cig outrage until you meet the woman I ran into Friday. In a parking garage, walking towards the exit, and I had a cigarette in my mouth.
Unlit.
She got all in my face about it being indoors and how it bothered her. I pointed out that her outrage would be better aimed at people with LIT cigarettes. She screeched that she KNEW it wasn't lit, but THAT WASN'T THE POINT!, that it smelled from waaaaaayyy over there, that I was just doing it to goad people, and that she shouldn't have to look at it in my mouth like that - it was HER RIGHT not to be forced to see such a thing.
I cheerfully told her she was a whacked old bat, (surprisingly, I had been drinking), offered to stick around while she called the police, and suggested she get laid for the relaxing effects. I felt sorry for her poor husband, 'cuz he was obviously a bit shocked at her rant to begin with, and sort of giggled when I was done speaking to her, and boy, did he get a glare from her. I'm thinking he had a tough cab ride home.
(surprisingly, I had been drinking)
Heh.
"and I agree with the whole thing about people looking at us like we're slinging drugs...sheesh.."
Can you explain how you're not slinging drugs?
aliecat, a really good trick is to pretend you don't speak English. Learn a few phrases in a not-commonly-known language, and use them. Say them to the chider (or panhandler, or whomever) and look friendly and anxious to understand.
I've used "Ang init sa labas!" and "Masarap! Masarap!" and boy do they confuse people into leaving you alone. They are Tagalog (Phillipino) phrases that mean "It's really hot out!" and "Delicious! Delicious!"
Also try these phrases:
"mazasapa! mazasapa! mazasapa!"
"LOLmusell!
"Capra hircus syncope?"
I scream them at people who bother me. They scatter like roaches from the kitchen light.
There is nothing addictive about nicotine.
I agree with Jane. Do not, under any circumstances, stop smoking. Pretend you're from the moon if it will allow you to injest more sweet, sweet tobacco.
Another great way to smoke in peace is to act retarded. You can accompmlish this by smoking when it's -10 degrees outside.
Thanks for your continued support!
Can you explain how you're not slinging drugs?
Um, because I am not selling an illegal substance, nor am I consuming an illegal substance, because I am well over 18 and the taxes from said substance support the government. Anything else I can help you with?
Another great way to smoke in peace is to act retarded. You can accompmlish this by smoking when it's -10 degrees outside.
Very clever...now go fuck yourself...gee, I think I heard that somewhere before...
"Another great way to smoke in peace is to act retarded. You can accompmlish this by smoking when it's -10 degrees outside."
How old were you when you began to feel the strong sense of unearned entitlement and self-reverential egoism needed to be able, without shame, to easily refer to other people who have made choices unlike your own choices as "retarded"?
I'm curious, because we're having this discussion about parental rights in re retroactive abortion, and this'll help me to articulate some inchoate thoughts concerning intellectual viability.
(Note to Max: This is NOT prickly. It would be prickly, maybe, had I used smaller words so that the subject could have understood the point, but I didn't.)
(Note 2 to Max: Okay, now it's prickly. Sorry.)
Woo Hoo! The fun was had whilst I was out smoking... dang.
I would love to have a spy-cam around to record all the life-endangering behaviors an anti-smoking zealot engages in from day-to-day. Might teach them some humility.
Speeding? Fast food? Boating without a life vest? Biking without a helmet?
Over an entire lifetime, will the health care costs of a non-smoking 80- or 90-year old wind up being more than those of a dead 72-year old smoker?
Just askin', is all.
Over an entire lifetime, will the health care costs of a non-smoking 80- or 90-year old wind up being more than those of a dead 72-year old smoker?
Kinda off topic, but why anyone would want to live past 90 is beyond me. My grandparents both died in their late 90's and it wasn't pretty.
Two strangers are seated together on a long cross country train ride, and one is drinking out of a bottle stuffed into a paper bag.
The other fella asks if he can take a sip.
The older fella ...the one with the bottle...says, "young man...you really don't want to drink what I have in here"
To which the younger man replies, "you think I can't handle it!?"...so the bottle is handed over and the young man takes a sip and forces it down.
"That's the nastiest thing I've ever had...is that supposed to be a Bloody Mary?!"
"Why, no" says the old man, "actually, I have TB and that's my spit bottle"
Ish...
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