The Dirty Smokers Thread

@ T Paradox: If you're looking for a starter cigar, I highly recommend Vieja Hacienda as a good brand to try. That was my first cigar and it's still my favorite. Romeo y Julieta and Java are two decent cigars to try if you can't find a Vieja Hacienda.

I used to smoke cigars more often, but I can't really afford it at the moment, since most of my money goes to food and college. I'm thinking of saving up and getting a pipe, since it seems to be a large initial cost, but cheaper overall.

Ooh, they are nice.

I used to smoke a pipe, it was nice but too much maintenance. Still, I do get a craving for a nice pinch once in a while...it was more relaxing than cigarettes, and it had this wonderful vibe to it. I remember going down to the local whiskey bar for a glass or two of Glenmorangie and then stepping outside for a puff. Good times.

Oh lord, my odyssey with nicotine...

Started smoking around 15, but only on an infrequent basis. By 18, I was a basically a pack a day guy. My brand of choice was Pall Malls (just like grandpa used to smoke), but I loved a Black and Mild as an occasional indulgence.

Sometime around my twentieth birthday, I invested in a Dr. Grabow pipe. I did find it high maintenance, but I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed Paladin black cherry flavored tobacco, but it was a cheap brand, and whatever additives they flavor it with were murder on your lungs if you inhaled. I got around this by mixing it with Middleton's cherry blend, and kept up until my briar got too burned out to be usable. Moved to a corncob; it cracked. Got another corncob; found myself unable to find Paladin, or afford Middleton's. Switched to a generic cavendish blend; hated it so much I was turned off of pipe smoking.

Went back to cancer sticks; found 305's more economical than Pall Malls. Switched to their menthol, as the full flavor were just a bit rough. Found I actually preferred menthol, once I got used to it. Experimented with dip. Found it irritated the inside of my mouth, and didn't get that deadly, deadly nicotine into my system fast enough to satisfy.

Then they heaped on taxes, and prices went up by a factor of "holy shit". I switched to the filtered cigars to satisfy my addiction. I tried to cut costs by smoking hand rolleds, but didn't notice any savings through that route. Apparently I was packing them too tight, because I only got 101 cigarettes out of a 16 ounce can of Bugler at the price "of exactly the same as a carton of factory mades."

Returned to filtered cigars. Started working out with isometric contraction. Plateaued with isometrics, decide I'd need to switch to a more active resistance program, and probably add some cardio. Faced with the need to breathe, resolved to quit; went back to dip as a cessation aid. Got myself down to three cigarettes a day, after meals, sometimes only two.

Was doing quite well for a couple months, but life threw a whole truckload of bullshit at my face. Needed something to manage the stress; "nicotine or homicide" takes on a slightly different connotation when you've just developed a forty five inch chest and sixteen inch biceps. Gradually worked my way back up to a pack a day while resisting the urge to punch my landlord in half. Still working out, nearly dying from lack of oxygen each time because my lungs are trashed, feeling like shit. Trying to quit again.

edited 16th May '12 12:38:07 AM by SuperHeroineAddict

Tragic. One of my friends fell from cigars to the dreaded sawdust-filled-bogroll-tubes-of-doom.

Still haven't fixed him.

edited 16th May '12 1:38:55 AM by InverurieJones

So...despite what the statistics on such endeavors say, I've actually had better luck with cutting back on my cigarette intake than I ever did quitting cold turkey.

I've gone from being a pack-a-day smoker to only burning a pack every 2-3 days. Granted, I'm in relight hell...but it feels sort of good to take conscious control of the habit.

Wait, there are statistics saying that cold turkey is easier than easing off? I've never heard of such things when physical addictions are in effect.

You are apparently more likely to give it up or something. I find cutting back easier to stick to.

This. It isn't that cold turkey is easier, just more effective as a method of quitting completely. Easing off just about never works.

Here's a question for my fellow dirty smokers: Do you purchase one pack at a time, or shop by the carton?

I prefer carton. Obviously because it's more economical, but also because-odd as it may sound-I smoke less when I have a carton stockpiled. It's like if I have to buy a single pack, I'll constantly be thinking, I have to make this pack last til X. I'm compelled to keep checking the pack, making sure my last count was right. It's always on my mind, and I can't stop smoking them.

But if I have 9 more packs to fall back on, it's on the back burner. I don't dwell on it, and so I only smoke when a real nicotine fit hits.

If I'm forced to buy packs individually for whatever reason, I will go through a pack a day. A carton, I can stretch for two weeks or so.

On the other hand, I actually know a few people who have the opposite problem. They can't buy a carton of smokes, because they don't have the self control not to chain 'em. Buying one pack at a time is the only way to control themselves, even if they wind up spending 50% more buying them by the pack. It strikes me as weird.

You guys?

edited 22nd May '12 7:09:59 PM by SuperHeroineAddict

I buy by the carton, because I live near an Indian reservation and can get a carton for about $30 less there than anywhere else. It's also an expense I can plan for rather than a slow constant drain on my bank account.

Also, I have to say...I'm not trying to quit so much as take control of the habit....and doing so gives me more joy than actually quitting, because its something I'm doing for myself and my own reasons rather than because other people think I should.

I like smoking, but I recognize that people don't get to do what they want whenever they want and I'm really no different.

I hate how my college campus has become smoke-free. >.<

Got jury duty next week and could use a rec for a cigarette or cigarillo to smoke during the recesses so I don't drink the entire jury coffeepot. Normally I would bring my pipe, but a court recess likely won't give me time to pack and enjoy a nice pipe. In the past I have rather enjoyed Nat Sherman's and Hoyo de Monterrey products, though am looking to expand my horizons, as they are. Any suggestions?

edited 15th Dec '12 7:08:57 PM by tdgoodrich1

I used to smoke a pipe and found that the best thing about it was the ability to duck out for a puff or two and not be worried about smoking the whole thing. Sure, you couldn't "properly enjoy" it, but if one was pressed for time a partially-smoked pipeload was more appetizing than, say, a relit cigarette.

What I have taken to doing is carrying my half-smoked cigs in a Zip-Fizz plastic tube. This way I can smoke half a cigarette and save it without stinking like an over-full ashtray. Now, people run down re-lights but really the bad flavor disappears after the first couple of drags. Just don't inhale those and you are good to go.

One thing though; anyone wanting to try this, I recommend you periodically wash and dry out your plastic container. It gets nasty in a big awful hurry.

I've saved a lot of money and potential cancer cells this way, having gone from two packs a day to a couple packs a week.

Thanks for the tips, DS. Hopefully the marshals at the security checkpoint won't harass me for bringing my pipe and cigs to court.

Okay, permit me my little rant. I... really can't stand cigarette smoke. I'm not asthmatic or anything, but for some reason being in the presence of cigarette smoke has a rather negative effect on my breathing. I can always tell when someone has lit up nearby, even when they're not very close, and just have to get away. Normally, I'm a libertarian, but I can't help but find myself wishing for even more restrictive laws about smoking in public. And it seems like almost inevitably when someone lights up a cigarette around me, then after they get done, they litter the butt on the ground, even when there's a trashcan like five feet from them. But I figure, "Hey, they don't care about their health, so it makes sense that they don't care about the environment, eh?"

At least it seems like most of you here are smoking something other than cigarettes, or trying to cut back. That's good. And the thing a couple posts above - at least they aren't going on the ground.

Most people are libertarians until the behavior of someone else bothers them somehow.

Anyhow, It's not wise to throw butts right into a trash can. Even when snuffed, they can retain enough of a burning bit to start a fire. And society's slowly been removing public ashtrays (at least they have in my area) so really, there's no other place to put them.

It rains a lot where I'm from so I can usually just dip them in a puddle and then throw them in the trash, but otherwise I hesitate to put them there. When I'm at home they end up in the trash, and in my car I toss them in a soda can and then throw the can away when it gets full.

If it's really dry out I won't toss them on the ground or out a window, as too many wildfires get started that way. But again, there aren't a lot of other good options. I sometimes carry a plastic Ziploc baggie for butts, but that requires having a pocket to keep it in. <shrug>

Ah, see, in my part of the world the bins all have ashtrays and dropping a fag end (or anything else) carries a £500 fine. Which is as it should be.

Cigarettes are nasty, grotty things. Pipes are much nicer and all you have to dispose of is a small amount of fine ash.

I want a good pinch of pipe tobacco right now.

I've been drinking (and anyway everywhere that carries pipe tobacco has long since closed) but still...I want to puff, dammit. The cigarettes in my pocket are suddenly a poor substitute.

Tripple Maduro cigars are nice if you can handle the stronger stuff with actual flavor, but they can easily overpower people.

Acids are popular, but you can easily get burnt out on them, so I avoid them.

The liberty series is expensive, but you are likely to need a new set of pants while smoking them. Every year's series is different and every year is amazing.

So the local Indian reservation has started offering a "generic" version of American Spirit cigarettes called "Traditions". They are about the same as Spirits, but they are cheaper than Pall Malls. I got a carton of them for my last resupply and so far they are treating me okay.

Anyone else seen this brand, or is it a West Coast thing?

Never seen them in the ATL area at the tobacconists that I frequent.

Unrepentant chain smoker here. Started smoking in 2006, and still do. Usually I smoke some godawful local die-bug-die, but I also like papirosa (old style Russian cigarettes) very much, and often buy expensive brands like Bogatyri and Herzegovina Flor.

Okay, gonna blow off some steam for a second.

I just got back from a long airplane trip...and there is fucking nowhere in any of the airports I visited to light up at which is within the Security Bubble. Worse, even asking seems to be anathema. When I did, the security guards would be all "we don't let people do that in here"...and from the tone in their voice you'd have thought I was asking to publicly masturbate or something.

Now, I get it...smoking is a declining vice in America and the health nuts are winning this one. I understand that not everyone wants to smell smoke. But still, I feel an enclosure within the Bubble of TSA Security isn't too much to ask; I'm a paying customer too, Mister Airline.

Also...stop being so godawfully nasty about it, will you? I don't mind being told "no" when I ask about lighting up and I don't mind being told there isn't a place to go do it, but I do object to being looked at like a fucking degenerate just for asking about the matter.

Seriously; the next time someone gives me the stink-eye for inquiring where the smoke hole is, I'm gonna light up right then and there and give that person a face full of delicious cancer fuel...fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

Here's an honest question from someone who's only ever bummed a few cigarettes while drunk just to have something to do: Why? The cigarettes I've smoked never seemed to do anything whatsoever to my mood, and I can't really find anyone who explains what tobacco actually does for you.

Tobacco, or more accurately nicotine, causes, among other effects, reduced appetite, increased heart rate, and blood pressure.

A slightly better answer: nicotine is both a stimulant and a relaxant.

While I can't speak for everybody, I just enjoy the act of smoking. For others it calms their nerves.

On an unrelated note, today I discovered that about 20% of one of my math classes smokes, including the professor, which explains the otherwise unscheduled break in the middle of the class. Guess I oughta start bringing my pipe or cigs to class.

edited 23rd Sep '13 8:38:11 PM by tdgoodrich1