Smoking Diary #29: Bad Decision, My Decision (aka Smoking Is BACK, Y'all)

Your narrator at roughly 5am.

by Sarah Hepola

It’s 5:12am on the right coast (or is it the wrong coast?), and your narrator is smoking on the balcony of Nancy’s Chinatown pad. Is it a balcony, or a fire escape? Mysteries abound. Nancy is not here. Your narrator is occasionally wearing her clothes.

Today’s audio ramble takes us on a journey through the sounds and sights of New York City: Smoking is cool again (confirmed in the hipster enclave of Dimes Square), beeping trucks, Billy Joel lyrics, the dangers of cigarettes vs. the dangers of everything else (booze, texting while driving, Jack N the Box), the truly mixed messages of a Lower East Side boutique, how pot became “cannabis,” Ryan Holiday’s blazingly good book about the Gawker vs. Peter Thiel ordeal, what is addiction, why real ladies smoke 100s, and more.

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The mixed messages of a Lower East Side boutique truly boggle the mind.