Over at the Clog, the City Paper's official blog, I have a little chat with illustrator Emily Flake, the author of These Things Ain't Gonna Smoke Themselves: A Love/Hate/Love/Hate/Love Letter to a Very Bad Habit (Bloomsbury USA). It's a fuckin' riot. I'm not a smoker; the one time in college I tried to fake it, just to ask a beautiful woman to borrow her lighter, I ended up getting so sick I puked on the back of my best friend on the ride back to campus. (God I wish I were making that up.) But reading about Flake's personal wrestling match with the world's least favorite vice (seriously... heroin addicts have it better than smokers these days) makes me want to pick up a two-pack-a-day habit, just to stick it to the man. And my lungs, I suppose. If you are a smoker, consider this required reading. If you're one of those sanctimonious people who gives smokers crap every chance they get, this book will be waiting for you in the waiting room of Hell.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em
Over at the Clog, the City Paper's official blog, I have a little chat with illustrator Emily Flake, the author of These Things Ain't Gonna Smoke Themselves: A Love/Hate/Love/Hate/Love Letter to a Very Bad Habit (Bloomsbury USA). It's a fuckin' riot. I'm not a smoker; the one time in college I tried to fake it, just to ask a beautiful woman to borrow her lighter, I ended up getting so sick I puked on the back of my best friend on the ride back to campus. (God I wish I were making that up.) But reading about Flake's personal wrestling match with the world's least favorite vice (seriously... heroin addicts have it better than smokers these days) makes me want to pick up a two-pack-a-day habit, just to stick it to the man. And my lungs, I suppose. If you are a smoker, consider this required reading. If you're one of those sanctimonious people who gives smokers crap every chance they get, this book will be waiting for you in the waiting room of Hell.
I don't know if you have seen it or not but the movie Thank You For Smoking is brilliant. It's insightful and very funny.
ReplyDeleteI smoked (cough cough) 30 cigarettes a day for almost 25 years (hack) and finally quit cold turkey 13 years ago. Hmm, almost exactly 13 years ago. My last cigarette was 11:00 pm, August 19th, 1994. (wheeze)
ReplyDeleteBut at parties I still go outside and hang with the smokers because they're almost always more interesting than the non-smokers inside.
(cough cough)
Never been a smoker never will. And I don't hassle smokers because most I know are considerate people.
ReplyDeleteAnd I whole-heartedly recommend Thank You For Smoking. Satire may not be for everyone, but the movie is hilarious.
Hey Duane, I've been reading you fiction work, the wheelman and the blonde, and been loving them. I wanted to pick your Complete Idiot's Guide To Frauds, Scams, and Cons but it's been sold out everywhere. Even places like amazon and barnesandnoble are selling them used for around 100 to 1000 dollars.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if they're going to be reprinting them at all?
Hey, anonymous--thanks for the kind words. As for the Complete Idiot's Guide... that's so damn weird. What's with the guy selling it for a thousand bucks? Am I notorious, and nobody told me?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, send me an email (duane.swier AT verizon.net) and I'll shoot you one, compliments of the house.
duane
ReplyDeletethe glasses first, make you look deep, never hurts, and I nearly said make you look Depp........as in Johnny......not hurting there either
My own glasses and me age got me into Geezer noir!
I think I'm in love with emily.........if she ever comes to Ireland.........she is so..........am..........flaked, we 'd kill for her verbals
That girl is seriously wonderful
Bheannacht
ken