# I smoked my first cigarette this weekend **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 6, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399 "2003-05-06T14:52:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qazzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@Qazzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qazzz)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/1 "2003-05-06T14:52:38Z")
Hey there, I smoked my first cigarette this weekend at a bar. It was kind of like losing my virginity – I had been holding off for 23 years, thinking that the first time would be special. And it was, in its own little way. It didn’t affect me very much. In fact, I guess I can say I didn’t feel anything. And it tasted gross and I coughed. But I felt cool. Real cool. I’ve been thinking about getting some more just to feel cool. Anyways, I guess it’s good that I didn’t like it so much. ---
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/2 "2003-05-06T14:55:44Z")
I hope this was a joke: > [@](#): > > But I felt cool. Real cool. I’ve been thinking about getting some more just to feel cool. **Qazzz** , ever heard the saying, “If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you smoke, stop.” Don’t take another drag. I’m a former smoker and I will never do it again; mostly because of how hard it was to quit for good. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/3 "2003-05-06T14:56:25Z")
Well, ya stupid butthead! Nice goin’. Write this on your hand: Smoking was cool in the '50s and’60s. It is not cool now. It doesn’t look cool. It doesn’t make you look smart, sophisticated, or sexy. It makes you look like a butthead. Take it from me, an un-cool, un-sophisticated, un-sexy smoker (who started in the 60s…when it was cool.) ---
**Author:** ![Contrary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/db5fbb/32.png) [@Contrary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrary)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/4 "2003-05-06T15:02:33Z")
You sure have a different idea of cool than I do. What’s cool about smelling like cigarette smoke? What’s cool about lung cancer? Or emphysema? ---
**Author:** ![Qazzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@Qazzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qazzz)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/5 "2003-05-06T15:14:26Z")
Hehehehe you guys are so mean. ☹ I don’t know. I think I felt cool because I was so awkward doing it. You know, naive dumby kid coughs like a moron from smoking – it’s cute. But regardless, some people look hot smoking. Like models and stuff. And the point isn’t emphysema or lung cancer when judging coolness. If that were the case, Xtreme sport athletes wouldn’t ever be considered cool, for they would be chastised for the possibility of harming their bodies. Marlon Brando wouldn’t be cool for wearing T-shirts because he was risking skin cancer or hypothermia. Nothing would be cool because some pessimistic meany would always find a downside. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/6 "2003-05-06T15:21:36Z")
Pessimistic meany? Eh wot? We’re trying to help you, ya loon. No, tell you what. Come back in twenty years when you’ve matured and tell us all how cool it is to be hooked on some very expensive sticks of rolled tobacco. ---
**Author:** ![Qazzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@Qazzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qazzz)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/7 "2003-05-06T15:24:11Z")
Arg I said that I didn’t like it too much. I don’t intend on taking it up. I just said that some might interpret it as cool. Anyways, alcohol is a lot more fun and effective. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/8 "2003-05-06T15:34:10Z")
Don’t worry about these other pessimistic meanies. I think you are soooooo cool. I’ll bet you looked hot with that ciggie in your hands. You must be very adventurous to court danger like that, just the way Xtreme athletes do. And smart too – why spend all that time practicing a sport and exercising when you can just smoke? Live life large! Just do it! Maybe your SDMB name should be MarlboroMan. Then people will admire you, as I do. ---
**Author:** ![Contrary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/db5fbb/32.png) [@Contrary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrary)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/9 "2003-05-06T15:48:04Z")
Just don’t expect me to pay for your health care later in life 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/10 "2003-05-06T16:01:03Z")
Well, know you know what a cigarette tastes like, leave it at that. You have NO idea how hard it is to quit. I quit once, failed, and am preparing to quit again. If you don’t start, you don’t need to quit. ---
**Author:** ![Marathon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7cd45c/32.png) [@Marathon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marathon)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/11 "2003-05-06T16:02:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qazzz \* > \*\*You know, naive dumby kid coughs like a moron from smoking – it’s cute. \*\* Of course it’s not. It is, to use your own words, “naive” and “dumby.” > [@](#): > > \*\*But regardless, some people look hot smoking. Like models and stuff. \*\* Perhaps, but why would you use that as a justification? I don’t get it at all. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/12 "2003-05-06T16:03:57Z")
Smoker for 10 years checking in. There’s nothing cool about it. I try and hide the fact that I smoke from as many people as I can. I imagine that a good chunk of people that know me don’t even know I smoke (I hope. Actually, I probably smell like smoke a lot of the time, so I’m not really fooling anyone.) I am absolutely ashamed of it, and if I could go back to the moment I first started, I would not have taken that first puff. As far as looking “cool” for the opposite sex (or same, as the case may be), I’ve met a lot of girls who say they _will not_ date a smoker. I’ve yet to meet one that says _will not_ date a non-smoker. It might seem cool now, but it becomes a nasty, embarrassing habit. You might think, “Oh, I’ll never get hooked; I’ll just buy a pack to look cool.” Well, that one pack gets smoked, and you’ll buy another to keep looking “cool.” Next thing you know, you smell like smoke, your teeth are yellow, you’re spending $500-$1000 per year on a little rolled up piece of paper that you’ll set on fire and destroy, your dashboard will become ashy, your house will reek, clothing will become ruined because of one mis-flicked hot ash. This is not a PSA, this is my friendly advice: DO NOT SMOKE ANOTHER CIGARETTE!!! Happy ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/13 "2003-05-06T16:04:12Z")
Congradulations, you’re going to die. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/14 "2003-05-06T16:08:10Z")
> [@](#): > > You know, naive dumby kid coughs like a moron from smoking – it’s cute. An 8 year old trying out mom’s makeup is cute. A 23-year-old hacking on a cigarette is _not_ cute. Note: you’re not a kid. ---
**Author:** ![NoGoodNamesLeft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8797f3/32.png) [@NoGoodNamesLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoGoodNamesLeft)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/15 "2003-05-06T16:14:31Z")
[Emphysema](http://www2.lungusa.org/diseases/lungemphysem.html) is [cool](http://whyquit.com/joel/emphysema.jpg), too. Just wait to you get to have one of those funky little [portable oxygen machines](http://www.westerndrug.com/images/Portable_Oxygen_Sys_sm.jpg). You’ll be the envy of everybody else in the [long-term care](http://medicine.ucsd.edu/clinicalmed/lungs-tripod.jpg) ward! Ohhh, but that’s nothing compared to the [lung cancer](http://www2.lungusa.org/learn/art/dirty_lung2_hr.jpg)! Now that’s something!! Slowly suffocating in your own mucous while your body fights off the [effects](http://barneyburman.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/powdercancerafter.jpg) of the radiation treatments. (-It’s ‘hip’ to be bald now, right?) That is of course, unless you get to have [Heart Disease](http://brighamrad.harvard.edu/Cases/jpnm/images/1073/PreAngio.GIF), [impotence](http://www.canadacaremedical.com/personal_care/male_impotence.php), [hair loss](http://www.skincarephysicians.com/agingskinnet/images/0232.jpg), [periodontal disease](http://oi.odont.ku.dk/basic.periodontology/large/95.jpg), [osteoporosis](http://www.hughston.com/hha/b_14_3_1a.jpg), [stomach ulcers](http://www.pathology.vcu.edu/education/dental2/images/sc3.2.jpg), [discolored fingers](http://www.blc.arizona.edu/courses/181gh/Lectures_WJG.01/cancer_F.01/graphics/finger.gif), [psoriasis](http://www.psoriasis-vl.be/images/foto1_300.jpg), [Buerger’s disease](http://www.vascularsurgery.com/vasc_images/buergers.jpg) first! Awesome! ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/16 "2003-05-06T16:22:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qazzz \* > \*\*I don’t intend on taking it up. \*\* No one does, Qazzz. They say to themselves, “God, this tastes like crap. There’s no way I could possibly need to do this everyday. I can smoke a few when I drink, but I don’t think I could possibly tolerate it more than that.” That thought is reinforced even more the next morning, when you feel aweful, it tastes like someone crapped in your mouth, and you’re dehydrated. You think, “Man, this really is a terrible feeling. There’s no way I could get addicted to this. I don’t understand how someone could do this so much they get a nicotine addiction.” You go out with your friends a few more times, smoke a few more each time, and love the enhancement it gives your buzz. You soon forget that you ever said something like: > [@](#): > > Anyways, alcohol is a lot more fun and effective. Sure, alcohol is more fun and effective, but alcohol + nicotine is the best of both worlds (except for the need to do more laundry each week, and food doesn’t taste as good anymore). Pretty soon, it’s not the enhancement of your beer buzz you’re after, it’s the fact that smoking a cigarette makes your brain stop nagging you for one. Once that nagging stops, you can get on with drinking beer and hanging out with your friends. Plus, if everyone else is lighting up, you might as well have a real cigarette instead of breathing in their secondhand smoke - that stuff just gives you a headache (a/k/a that nagging I mentioned earlier). You soon find yourself smoking to ease the tension, and to relax, completely forgetting that you were plenty capable of relaxing all by yourself before you ever lit up. “But I get a little jittery if I don’t have that smoke after dinner. I enjoy my dinner experience more with a cigarette,” you say. Yeah, because you never enjoyed a meal in your life for 23 years before you discovered cigarettes, right? Seriously, Qazzz. Don’t start. Don’t think to yourself that the negatives associated with smoking will help you stop at any time. Tell yourself that the negatives associated with smoking will help you NOT START. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/17 "2003-05-06T16:26:21Z")
[Supermodels smoke, so it must be cool!](http://smokingsides.com/asfs/T/Turlington.html) [Supermodels will look so cool when they are old, too!](http://speakerskit.chestnet.org/04/ppt_pages/grab_go/teens/images/d_08.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/18 "2003-05-06T16:33:53Z")
You’re not participating in an extreme sport, Qazzz. That involves exercise. And you’re not Brando, he could act. You’re just a guy who should know better smoking in a garage. You should be tested - you may have some kind of illness that renders you unable to read what you write. 😉 In the same post, you say you’re naive and dumby, but cool, and say that you didn’t like it much but may start doing it. Me? I always get addicted to doing things I don’t like. If you were 12, the above post/thoughts would be less alarming. ---
**Author:** ![nitroglycerine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@nitroglycerine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nitroglycerine)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/19 "2003-05-06T16:43:51Z")
Don’t listen to them. Smokings great! I mean how else can you get those extra little breaks at work? See, I figure its like this…the dangers of smoking are offset by the health benifits of working an hour less each day! Not only that, but you get the added enjoyment of sticking it to the man while you’re getting paid for smoking 🙂 Jon ---
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399/20 "2003-05-06T16:49:41Z")
I prefer “Darwin’s Friend” cigarettes. For the flavor. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-smoked-my-first-cigarette-this-weekend/173399.md?page=2)