For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 29, 2022

ahhhh… fresh nicotine, eh, Jim?

Not getting “fresh air” there, just shortening your life by a day.

My grandfather died of lung cancer the year before I was born. I never got to know or even meet him.

.

He owned a smoke shop. ’Nuf sed.

It’s never too late to quit! My dad died of emphysema at 75, he was a life-long smoker. So many people begged him to quit but he couldn’t.

Lynn Johnston’s real-life father died from lung cancer about 3 years before this comic strip was published. I suspect she was working through some personal issues when she wrote this particular comic strip and the ones following about the grandfather character smoking.

and then somebody spoke and I went into a dream

Panel 4, grandma, that is the most listless, lackadaisical fit that I have ever seen anybody ever have!

You would think by now, he would know that she knows ALL of his bad habits and just tolerates them to keep a ‘happy home’ ! ! ! !

I’m sorry, that’s just disgusting. And she’ll know, Jim. all she has to do is get a whiff of your clothes or your breath.

You’ll come home smelling like cigarette smoke… or hadn’t you thought of that?

Guys….you can NEVER pull anything over your women.

Smokers think they’re getting away with something.

With all the crap in the world today, the West has seen a dramatic reduction in tobacco abuse. A few poor souls, still have that monkey on their back.

As a former smoker, I can’t remember the number of times I ruined being out in fresg air with a smoke.

Lynn’s Comments:

My dad smoked until the day he died—of lung cancer. To keep us from knowing he was smoking, he’d go for a walk. This was funny…we could see him light up before he got past the kitchen window.

I laughed at this, and it makes me think – I can’t believe ANYone will go outside from a home or job for a smoke break these days. But I do see it at the stores.

Grandmas, they alway know.

Yeah, not like its possible to hide that smelly habit. Kinda funny, people that smoke cant smell (or taste) it, so they think they can easily hide it.

Mrs-es and moms always know.

You’ve been found out, Grandpa. One of these days you’ll figure it out.

Well, at least grandpa has the decency to be discreet with his indiscretion.

For people of Grandpa Jim’s generation, I can understand. Cigs were touted as healthy and were given to soldiers during WWII which Jim fought in.

For anyone born after about 1950, I have zero sympathy. There is no excuse whatsoever to be stupid enough to start that habit. It’s hard to stop? Then you shouldn’t have been idiotic enough to kill yourself slowly in the first place. Why would anyone with an ounce of intelligence these days smoke?

Grandpa paid for it near the end of the strip with a lifetime of health problems.I think Lynn sat up nights thinking of new ailments she could give him.

I can relate. My dad “secretly” smoked for years and it killed him early.

My husband’s two brothers both smoke and have since they were in their teens. They are now in their late 40s-50s respectively. They each have a few daughters and they BEG them to quit. I think they have tried a few times, but the younger brother says, “I don’t like how angry I get when I am quitting. I don’t want to be mean to my family, so it’s not worth it.” I thought, that’s just an excuse. That will eventually go away. They would rather have a grumpy dad for a while than no dad at all.

It smells

My grandfather had a short period of taking up smoking again, which lasted for just a couple of years and then it petered out again. He tried to do it secretly as well, and my grandmother almost certainly knew about it but let him believe that she didn’t, because then she didn’t have to deal with it in the house. Probably he gave it up because it was less enjoyable when first having to come up with reasons to ‘go for a walk’.

Plus the lingering ‘stink’ of the tobacco on your clothes – gives it away.

What’s the problem? There is OHIP!

Grandpa lives a fantasy life. . . .

Wives, Moms, and Grandmothers always know…. :-)

You can’t hide tobacco breath.

The plant substance that got our dogs extra walks by my mother-in-law when they visited one June was the lilac blooms in the park across from the end of our block.

We have treatments for alcoholic recovery, gambling recovery, drug recovery. Nicotine is a drug. Why can’t people go to recovery places and be covered by insurance? It affects more than the person who won’t quit or thinks they can’t because it takes time to get past withdrawal. It’s expensive these days, too. There is no benefit to smoking other than to tobacco companies.

My niece and her husband both smoked. They had a rule that they would never smoke inside the house and kept to it for many years while their daughters were growing up. The two of them still reeked of tobacco smoke every time we saw them.

I think my husband still thinks I don’t know he smokes.

For anyone who thinks it’s OK to let kids smell smoke on them or to directly smoke in front of them – ask yourself first if you would hand the child a cigarette. I raised my child at home to know better, to know the risks, etc. I was adamant, but polite, about the risks, dangers, and costs. My child did start smoking in high school and I eventually asked her why. She said, “grandma smoked, so I figured it was OK.” She lied to me for a while, then I asked her to let me smell her hands. Evenually, she went into the medical field, and I reminded her that she wouldn’t be able to get a job in medicine if she didn’t quit. It was a good motivator and she did quit. Knowing now what she does as to what it does to a body, I am sure she wishes she never started.

That made my mom so mad, convinced him to stop smoking they he go back.

I lost my uncles Ralph, Louis and Bob, My dad and my younger brother to cigarettes.

Does seem like, most people of my age have lost someone to the filthy things.

She’ll smell it on him…

She knows EVERYTHING, Jim. And sheesh, I know it was “the norm” to smoke in Jim’s generation (even with the reboot, I think?) but it’s so dangerous and I’ve lost relatives to it (and so have a lot of you, scrolling the comments). The modern world isn’t perfect, but banning smoking in a lot of places makes it more pleasant.

My neighbors have two cats and a cat-sized dog. As bad as last week’s weather was, I heard barking outside. You gotta go when you gotta go.

Don’t think fresh air and smoking computes. More like an oxymoron

They always know.

It’s amazing how many smokers think nobody knows. But there’s no way to hide that smell.