lifestyle: February 2008 Archives

So, several months ago, I forsook (is that right?) filtered, prepackaged smokes in favor of rolling my own. I had several reasons for doing so, none of which had to do with affectation. (Tip for the kids, at my age, you don't look like the angry anti-corporate loner polluting your lungs with non-corporate carcinogens, you're just another old man at the bar with a weird pouch and a ritual.) Like that time on Friends when Joey had Chandler get into the box, my reasons were threefold:

Expense. Hey, I'm getting married in a bit, which means I need to squeeze every penny. (Read: My groomsmen might be paying for my flight to Vegas, but I'm going to have to lose my own money at the roulette table. Also, there are centerpieces to pay for, or something.) And a tin of tobacco lasts me twice as long as a carton of smokes, at half the price.

Flavor. Contrary to what visual logic and that time you had a Pall Mall might tell you, home-rolled tobacco is a smoother and lighter-tasting smoke than Marlboros. I don't know if it's the dreaded Big Tobacco additives or what, but an unfiltered Drum or Bali Shag smoke weighs less heavily on these veteran lungs than your average top-notch brand.

I'm going to quit, I swear. Smoking home-rolled cigs means smoking less. I'm not yet ready to quit altogether - though that's the goal - but I'm smoking, like, ten thin, delicious, retarded-looking coffin nails a day. And I'm splitting cigarettes up over the course of the day. It beats jogging.

There have been drawbacks, however. And they're really fucking irritating.