When I was a kid, my best friend's mother, who in some ways was a 2nd mother to me, constantly smoked Lucky Strikes. I can remember watching her, and even as a kid, I thought, "Wow, no filter! That's gotta be REALLY dangerous. And you get those little pieces of tobacco sticking to your lips and tongue." Not long after my friend got married, his mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. They successfully removed the tumor, but in the process discovered she was also suffering from lung cancer. The doctor told my friend it was classic "smoker's cancer"- the cancer actually originated in the lung, broke off, and manifested itself in another part of the body. The doctors were able to treat the brain cancer, but not that of the lung, and she died pretty quickly (and unpleasantly). I don't think of myself as a zealot when it comes to cigarettes or tobacco products: if we're truly a free people in a free country, then we should be able to make bad choices when it comes to our lives and our health. But I don't have any misguided "nostalgia" when it comes to them. They've killed too many people I've known and loved.
