I just got back to the States from Germany. I was struck by how common smoking seems to be there, but I was glad that it was strictly an outside activity. I sm

I just got back to the States from Germany. I was struck by how common smoking seems to be there, but I was glad that it was strictly an outside activity. I smoked when I was younger, but I started as a teenager. (Intelligence test failed.) Once you are addicted, it operates directly on the brain's reward mechanism, much the same way I imagine opiates would. It seems as vital and necessary as breathing. (I am generalizing from my experience, not everyone is affected as strongly as I was.) I am so glad I quit, and now it is more or less completely out of my system. On the nine hour flight into Frankfurt, the airline had the flight attendants try to sell duty free cigarettes to the passengers. They walked up and down the aisles offering cheap cartons. Of course you can't smoke on the plane. As a former smoker, that must be torture to people who respond to nicotine the way I did. I really hope smoking doesn't become cool again here in the U.S. I have kids, and I suspect they have inherited at least some of the tendency toward risk taking I had in my younger years.