> Levick found that discomfort can be tolerated remarkably well if the
> sufferer is a good person, a philosopher or a smoker. ...
Which gives you two ways to avoid smoking. :-)
(I smoked a pipe--never cigarettes, but an occasional cigar--for quite a long time, but didn't notice that it helped me tolerate life's rough edges any better than I can now, without smoking. What I believed it did was give me a philosophical sort of image. I eventually cut down to smoking only outdoors in order not to stink up whatever joints I happened to be in, and stopped altogether when I grew tired of the bad taste it created in my mouth. The threat of causing disease in myself did not play much of a part in my decision, because I was assuming, rightly or wrongly, that the risk was much lower than that of cigarette smoking. I tend to be rather neutral on the question of whether smoking or prohibiting smoking is the worse evil.)
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, 'You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.' -- Sir Arnold Bax