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Associated Press Percy Arrowsmith, 105, and his 100-year-old wife, Florence. Click photo for larger image. |
Did he inhale?
Now that we bring it up, what is the world record for cigarette-smoking? In 1996, Stefan Sigmond, a non-smoker from Transylvania, tried to puff his way into the Guinness Book of Records, by smoking 800 cigarettes in six minutes. That sounds impressive, except he did it with the help of an ingenious wheel-like device that held the smokes in place and allowed him to rotate them, so an asterisk would seem to be in order for that record. But for all the lung damage, Stefan, 29 at the time and possibly still alive, got stiffed by Guinness staffers, who said they preferred eco-friendly excesses, such as marathon tree-plantings, according to the Australian Advertiser. Stefan had previously failed to get into the record books by attempting to eat 29 boiled eggs in four minutes -- Cool Hand Luke ate 50 but that took an hour -- and jumping into a lake from a 125-foot-high platform.
Smoke out
Sweden has joined the ranks of countries that send smokers out into the cold. A ban on smoking in bars and restaurants took effect Wednesday. A poll showed that 85 percent of Swedes favored the ban. Still, there is fall-out. "I don't know what smokers are going to do," said a young woman stubbing out a cigarette at a Stockholm nightclub, as reported by Deutsche Welle, dw-world.de. "They'll go smoke outside with their drink, but some will probably leave without paying." Meanwhile, Sweden's centuries-old tradition of "snus," a form of moist snuff placed under the lip and used by more than a million Swedes, could see an upswing. The European Union banned snus in 1992, citing research that said it causes cancer, but granted an exception to Sweden.
Smoking bans worldwide
All enclosed work places, including bars and restaurants: Ireland, New Zealand and Italy.
Bars and restaurants: Australia, Iran, Montenegro, Malta, Norway, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda. Canada: British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Saskatchewan and several cities.
U.S.: Arizona; New York; California; Florida; Massachusetts; Delaware; Connecticut; Maine; Rhode Island; Boulder, Colo.; Eugene, Ore.; Madison, Wis.; Lexington, Ky; and Columbus, Ohio. From Wikipedia at answers.com
Book 'em
Public library patrons in the Chicago suburb of Naperville will soon have to give a fingerprint if they want to use the Internet. The library has figured out that computer users aren't always who they say they are, according to The Christian Science Monitor. So patrons will press a glass-topped scanner. In Naperville, fake identities are employed mostly by kids trying to get around their parents' Internet-filter rules. But users can have more sinister goals: sending spam, looking up child pornography, or, increasingly, trolling for personal information, such as bank-account numbers and passwords -- all under a cloak of anonymity.
I swear Sartre smoked
Jean-Paul Sartre, the father of existentialism and world-class smoker, had to undergo an indignity recently, even though he's dead. France's national library airbrushed the Gauloise out of the poster promoting a Sartre exhibition that runs through August. The library didn't want to risk being prosecuted under a law that bans cigarette advertising. Wags at The Daily Telegraph of London ran the headline: "Hell is other people removing an existentialist's trademark cigarette", in a play on the writer's infamous quote: "Hell is other people."
And the loser is . . .
From Paris to McKeeport: Roll call can cost you at McKeesport Council. At every meeting, City Clerk Patricia Williams draws each council member's name by lottery, which sets the voting order for the night. It also establishes who has to fork over $5. According to our ace McKeesport reporter, Ann Belser, the tradition in the old steel town goes back to at least 1976. The last person drawn not only has the tie-breaking vote but also must cough up the $5 for the council flower fund for funerals and the sick. On Wednesday night, it came down to Vice President Darryl Segina and President Regis McLaughlin. The moment is a bit like the Miss America Pageant: Everyone wants to know who wins (or, in this case, loses), but it's the runner up who's called first. Williams pulled McLaughlin's name. Segina reached for his wallet. "Who put the hex on me?" he said. His contribution swelled the fund to $22. It seems council has had to send a lot of flowers lately.
Follow this closely
Reader Barb Barnes on the mysteries of where Pittsburghers live:
I live in Hampton Township, my post office is Allison Park. Residents of Hampton Township could have ZIP codes of Allison Park, Gibsonia, Wildwood or even Glenshaw. Conversely, if you have the Allison Park ZIP, you may live in Hampton, Shaler, McCandless, Indiana or West Deer. Talk about confusion, how about the telephone? Hampton is split between North Pittsburgh Telephone Co. and Verizon. So, if I phone someone one road south of me, also in Hampton, it's considered a toll call. For the last several years, North Pittsburgh has allowed its customers to call into Shaler Verizon free of toll charges; not so the reverse. My son lives in Shaler and uses Verizon. I can call him free, but he cannot call me without incurring toll charges. When my five kids were in school, the phone bills were horrible. Friends, schools, stores, church members, fire and police were frequently toll calls. It took years, but finally North Pittsburgh Telephone was able to solve that problem -- for the Hampton people anyway. Are you totally confused now? We've lived here for almost 40 years, I think I'm starting to get it. Maybe.
Random Acts of Kindness
On Tuesday, I was riding the 54C from Oakland to the South Side in mid-afternoon. A man got on the bus in Oakland, and he was a talking loudly to everyone, a real "chatty Cathy" (maybe he had had one beer too many -- I'm not sure). He, of course, had the attention of most of the bus riders. He got off on Fifth Avenue at the stop before the bus crosses the Birmingham Bridge to the South Side. Just as the bus began moving, a man yelled: "Stop the bus! That guy forgot his bag." The driver stopped, and the man picked up the plastic bag containing whatever, went out into the busy traffic, crossed the road and gave the bag to the "chatty Cathy." I thought this was such a kind thing for that man to do. Most people, including myself, would have just paid no attention to it and let it end up in the Port Authority's lost and found. Anyway, this was truly a Random Act of Kindness -- both on the part of the man who noticed the bag, as well as the bus driver. So many bus drivers will not put out ANY extra effort, but this one did.
-- Mary Ann Miaczynski, South Side
On one of my regular visits to New York City, I was walking all over the place, as usual. It was very late, and I was in an area with unfamiliar street names, not the familiar number streets. I ended up at a river -- lost, very lost. I saw a young woman walking her big dog and asked for directions on how to walk where I wanted to go. She insisted that the walk was too far and I should take a bus. There was one "resting" at the corner. New York buses do not take cash -- only transit cards. I had none. She waited with me until the driver returned. She told him where to let me off and used her own transit card to pay my way. After all that, I told her I was a Catholic priest, and I have used her act of kindness in more than one homily.
-- Father Ed Wagner, Las Vegas, Nev. (Formerly of the North Side)
How do you say wired?
Top 10 nations in number of Internet users, in millions:
1. United States: 185.6
2. China: 99.8
3. Japan: 78.1
4. Germany: 41.9
5. India: 37.0
6. Britain: 33.1
7. South Korea: 31.7
8. Italy: 25.5
9. France: 25.5
10. Brazil: 22.3
Source: CIA World Factbook via the Christian Science Monitor
