Althouse: "I am debilitated because I cannot move. My life is my bed, my spot in the dining room where I read the newspaper, and from there I do not move."

January 5, 2010

"I am debilitated because I cannot move. My life is my bed, my spot in the dining room where I read the newspaper, and from there I do not move."

"I am to blame for the condition that I am in. I deserve it; I sought it out. I picked up this damn cigarette."

Among the last words of Sandro, the Argentine Elvis, dead now, at 64,

16 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Coffin nails!; 1/5/10, 10:58 AM
Night2night said...: Too many friends and family members who died young and in great discomfort were often accompanied by a box of those fragrant, smoldering little wonders. When young, their embrace of smoking was often both humerous and fatalistic, but when the end came it was often just horrible.; 1/5/10, 11:12 AM
Wince said...: My father died of smoking-related emphysema over a decade ago.

It's not the eventual death that is so tragic -- he made it to 73 and was lucky enough to be able to pick a time of his own choosing -- but the quality of life lost in the preceding years of increasing debilitation.; 1/5/10, 11:29 AM
AllenS said...: I smoked from 1966 to 1993 or 94, can't remember. One of the smartest things I have ever accomplished was when I quit smoking. I see young women smoking all the time. How can they afford it?; 1/5/10, 11:35 AM
Arturius said...: One of the smartest things I have ever accomplished was when I quit smoking.

Consider that the lion's share of the federal tax on cigarettes funds the SCHIP Program you might want to reconsider picking the habit back up for the children ;-)

I read not too long ago that the combined taxes on cigarettes in NY was in excess of $5 per pack. I can't imagine too many chain smokers at that price.; 1/5/10, 11:48 AM
traditionalguy said...: Cigarettes were originally a cheap form of cigars that the Prostitutes in Paris smoked in public as a signal of their stressful profession. So women smoking in public was verbotten, until Virginia Slims celebrated the freedom for women to smell bad and die young too. I wonder if El Rushbo's recent panic attack in Hawaii was partly from smoking too many Cuban cigars.; 1/5/10, 11:50 AM
AllenS said...: When I moved to Wisconsin in 1973 the price of a gallon of gas was 24 cents. Now the tax alone is 50.3 cents. So, I'm still doing my part.; 1/5/10, 11:57 AM
Irene said...: Women smoked in public long before the Virginia Slims ads.; 1/5/10, 12:25 PM
Irene said...: I meant, "it was socially acceptable" for women to smoke in public long before the Virginia Slims ads.; 1/5/10, 12:32 PM
Methadras said...: What a whiner.; 1/5/10, 12:46 PM
paul a'barge said...: Apparently today's theme is ... personal responsibility

Take note, Democrats. This is what it looks like.; 1/5/10, 1:19 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Virginia Slims ads depicted early women smokers. So the ads were in the 1970s, showing women in the 1920s.; 1/5/10, 1:57 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I have the best Sandro compilation, that an Argentine friend brought back, where Sandro talks about how his recorded hits were inspired and his fight with his addiction.

My friend told me however that despite his (Sandro) public pronouncements against smoking he really never gave them up.

RIP Sandro de America.; 1/5/10, 2:49 PM
Matthew Noto said...: Yeah, it's the cigarette's fault, right?

If he didn't have a cigarette to smoke, he might have been a drunk, or a drug addict, or he might have stuffed himself with Twinkies, or just couldn't say no to gambling.

The cigarette was just his drug of choice, and in and of itself is not responsible for his condition when he died. Sandro was the only one responsible for that.; 1/5/10, 3:14 PM
Night2night said...: Well, there's cause and effect and then there's events associated with outcomes at a high probability and confidence level. Cigarettes fall in that latter category. So yes Matthew, the cigarettes in all probability killed him.

Years ago as a NY paramedic, any patient with a 20 pack year history (pack-a-day for 20 years) was assumed to have COPD ("pink puffers" and "blue bloaters"). Anybody unable to get enough air, or drowning in their own fluid is going to be pretty agitated and I think it's a little bit disconnected from our common experience to suggest "Well, they just picked their own poison is all."

We all die, but some deaths require more suffering than others. I would suggest a recognition of a high probability of a bad outcome with an appreciation of the horrors of certain diseases might be of more value than a cavalier dismissal of the reflections of others who have sat besides the death bed of a loved one.; 1/5/10, 10:43 PM
vbspurs said...: Charly Garcia, the Mick Jagger of Argentina, is still alive and that's what counts.

Still, RIP.

Cheers,
Victoria; 1/6/10, 12:17 AM