Although I don’t smoke regularly anymore, I have acquired so much free merch from the cigarette companies that it amazes me. First of all, I used to get free cigarettes ALL-THE-TIME when I went out to bars and clubs back in my DJ/promotion days. I couldnt tell you how many cartons i didnt pay for. It pays to party, i’m tellin ya!
But really, in the past 6 months i have gotten a leather bound dominoes set, a very beautiful ashtray (that has since been broken), and now my newest acquisition, a very nice looking cigarette case:
Well it looks like i just may have to start smoking again…NOT. I already have other plans for this case, as i’m sure it will make a fun wallet!!! Oh and i just realized it is a lighter too, see the part on the top left that’s kinda pointy? You flip that with your thumb and voila! Fire. I of course will not be activating that feature. Even though it is totally radical, I dont even want to begin to think what might happen to the world if my toddler got a hold of it.
But yeah, the cig co.’s are always sending me offers and i just file for them. Although I wonder if that could get me in trouble someday, like for life or health insurance purposes. As in, “oh Ms H., we know you need a lung and you haven’t smoked in 20 years, or so you say…but see Camel says you’ve been a smoker for 35 years now. See, you signed here!”
Ah i think i am paranoid because I just saw the movie Sicko by Michael Moore–you know, the documentary on the American health care sysytem. It actually made me 1/2 way consider socialized health care for our country. It was interesting how they have it in Canada, U.K., and France just to name a few countries. And they have medical luxuries that you and I would never dream of, like a nanny who works for free and is an employee of the government. She comes by for a few hours a few times a week, for the first 5 weeks that you are parents–and will do anything you need, from errands to laundry to childcare to cooking–anything to help out. Pretty amazing, I must say. I know Moore really slants things to support his views, but those people seemed pretty happy to me. They cracked up at the idea of privatized care that you pay exorbitant amounts for and require insurance to afford. I think i want to research that a bit more, but it sound interesting. I wonder if you could really do that for a country of this stature though…
Awesome cigarette case!
Oh, that nanny doesn’t work for free honey, and it isn’t ‘free’ to you either [i.e. taxes...] I am not down w/socialism of any kind, and we could talk more about why if you feel like it, but I thought I’d tell you that all of my Canadian friends have told me terrible things about their healthcare system, even my socialist Canadian friend, heh.
Werd, I’m all registered now. <3
So anyway, I just wanted to comment that a universal socialized health care system would be disasterous for us. Yes, we definitely need reform–specifically, the INSURANCE COMPANIES need to be regulated and laws passed sanctioning them–but socialized medicine would be WAY too much of a tax burden. We’re already at a level of taxation higher than when we were a British colony–and we revolted!!
Seriously, the French are so overwhelmed with the deficit caused by their “great and free” health care system that they voted in a conservative for the first time in decades–and the platform was to reform and cut back on the health care benefits they receive. That “typical” couple from France? Not typical. They make about 3 times more than the actual average, and the sales tax there is at about 20%. Oh, and the unemployment rate there has been at about 9 to 10% for YEARS. Conditions in France are not what he makes them out to be and that has a lot to do with why they voted out the welfare-state candidate in favor of the conservative candidate.
Just some food for thought. We need to bring the hammer down on the insurance companies–problem is, they’ve got so much money that between them and the drug companies, it may be decades before we see some kind of relief. It will only happen when health care and health insurance become a complete luxury, afforded only by the rich. If and when the middle class becomes disenfranchised by the health care industry, we may finally start to see a change.
yea, boo tobacco and all, but that is pretty. and i envy you the dominoes!
XOXO
I have the same one!!! I don’t smoke, so it just sits here on the desk, lol.