Absolutely Anything Else

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

..... Las Vegas Conventions, has dozens of people paying her rent to use vending stalls, opened up a animal rescue in her dogs name.
Does those frequent flyer things to HI, travels there every 2 months or so.
She is a interesting person, used to be a professional dancer on cruise ships and was a child tv personality in Germany and worked in a show as a child with her younger brother in a circus.
She still is on local Vegas news every so often promoting her animal rescue and showing off pets
  for adoption. She's a natural on tv, right at home with the camera in her face.
She is a natural entertainer. Her husband is about 17 years her senior so he is semi-retired in Hawaii and plays drums at night in local places in Kona. ....
I know it's odd to get Island fever, I used to be on the phone with my sister in Minn. She would tell me about some snow storm and I'd be moaning about how bored I was just looking at the ocean from my living room window, I must of sounded insane to her.

Yes, people think island life is some kind of paradise but if you live and work there, you still have to do all the normal things like visit the dentist, fix the car, do the laundry etc.  So that's the difference really - being on holiday or just day to day living.   it's not just one continuous holiday unless one is a zillionaire and working is effectively a hobby!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
They sold their home and moved into a small private room in the old folks home.
They were in their 90's and walked on their own and seemed in good shape for their ages.
Maybe as couple is better off in a home then a person by themselves like our neighbor would be.
....
Hate to say it or think about it but maybe I should make sure my little black dress still fits me.
Never know, I really dislike getting close to "old people" as soon as you get to know them, they check out.

Sounds like my folks.

My Dad was 94 a few days ago.  He seemed to be enjoying his birthday cake.  Quite sensible to move into a place where they have company and can be supervised somewhat.  I can see my Dad reaching 100 if he's careful but I don't think my Mum will get  that far as she's a walking medical experiment cum pharmacy.  My folks live in an older persons apartment complex and they get checked on each day and can talk with the neighbours in a common area. 

My impression really is that it's a kind of waiting room for the grim reaper.  People are dropping dead each year there - possibly 2-3 per year pop off.  Then there's just one person if in a couple leading an empty life if no other family.  Some of them at that home just die in their beds, go off to hospital and never come back and one I know of just died in the street outside. 

Shame really but in that place, anyone under 75 is considered rather young.  I expect the average age must be over 85.

Just got a phone call from the older ladies girl, we are off the hook!
She wants us to visit her this weekend at home instead of having us go and smell and enjoy all that a hospital has to offer a visitor.
I am "overjoyed"!
I had a surgery when I was 40, was going in for about 2 to 3 days in NM.
I had my husband literally drop me off in front of the hospital and go off to work instead of waiting around with me pre surgery.
I wanted to treat it as a spa day or something, wasn't so bad after all, that 24 hour morphine drip was pretty darn nice actually...
The post morphine hang over wasn't so great though.

Your parents seem so lovely, great idea to live in a senior home as they are,some are very nice places.
We must not think about how limited their lives are as with younger minds it seems hard to live in a home.
For older people it must give them a sense of safety and some comfort, after all they probably aren't into riding roller coasters or dancing the night away.
These places are set up just for them after all.
Being older isn't a curse really.
Anyone can pop off at any moment no matter their age.
I knew a lady in S.Ca. who was a tiny bit older then I was at the time. She and her husband met in school, she had 3 sons and never worked a day in her life.
Guess she was about 36 years old and her husband was the same age.
They went to the Ventura country fairgrounds for a fun day of activity.
All of a sudden her husband's head started to hurt badly, they sat on a bench and he just fell over dead on the spot.
So sad, she was lost without him. heard she moved back to the mid west to be with more family and her sons moved back with her.
Way too young to just drop like that.
It happens though.
Same thing happened in Vegas to a friend of my son. He was also married and in his early 30's just stroked out and died.
Me, I am almost ready any time, just would enjoy a heads up first to be sure I am properly dressed for the mortician.
As mom would say, never leave home wearing dirty panties, and always dress your best ... How insane to say wear clean panties in case you die on the street, everyone knows you loose it when you go and clean panties aren't going to stay that way for long.
My mom actually was hit by a car at age 8, guess that would be around 1932. First time she ever rode in a car was that day.
2 young men hit her as she crossed the road, right on the head. She passed out and they just picked her up and put her in their car. She came to and they drove her home. They gave her grandmother a few dollars in to take my mom to the doctor. She never went to the doctor , they needed the cash .
Now I know why she always said to wear clean clothing in case you get hit by a car!
Never know, as the native Americans say, Live each day as your last" It's a good day to die, etc.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
I wanted to treat it as a spa day or something, wasn't so bad after all, that 24 hour morphine drip was pretty darn nice actually...
The post morphine hang over wasn't so great though.
....
They went to the Ventura country fairgrounds for a fun day of activity.
All of a sudden her husband's head started to hurt badly, they sat on a bench and he just fell over dead on the spot.
.....
Me, I am almost ready any time, just would enjoy a heads up first to be sure I am properly dressed for the mortician.
As mom would say, never leave home wearing dirty panties, and always dress your best ... How insane to say wear clean panties in case you die on the street, everyone knows you loose it when you go and clean panties aren't going to stay that way for long.
My mom actually was hit by a car at age 8, guess that would be around 1932. First time she ever rode in a car was that day.
2 young men hit her as she crossed the road, right on the head. She passed out and they just picked her up and put her in their car. She came to and they drove her home. They gave her grandmother a few dollars in to take my mom to the doctor. She never went to the doctor , they needed the cash .
Now I know why she always said to wear clean clothing in case you get hit by a car!
Never know, as the native Americans say, Live each day as your last" It's a good day to die, etc.

I've never actually had any morphine but maybe it's a good thing.  I was in hospital as a day case once and they had to relax me for the procedure. Wow! That was really good stuff. Best dreams and sleep I ever had.  I became very "happy" like I'd had a few too many and was really laughing and smiling and saying stupid stuff to the nurses.  Mrs Fluffy was most impressed.  Apparently they could tell I wasn't dead on the other side of the hospital as I was snoring so loudly!  Anyway, I am afraid I'd like that morphine a bit too much!

My bro had a similar departure with pains in his head although it was not sudden and we knew what was doing him in.  The Mark 1 human is not very resilient.  We should have at least 2 hearts like Dr Who and plenty of spare brain.  The ability to grow back limbs and other parts would be a help and 80 years for a lifespan is a bit on the low side. 1000 years more like it.  The first 965 years would be aged say 35 with perfect health.   I'll put this on my Xmas list but I doubt I'll get that as Santa is not complying with the GDPR. He hasn't asked me to opt-in and tomorrow is the last day.

I think it's only polite to wear clean underwear every day regardless of accident status.  If you are out in the jungle without a washing machine then you could make it stretch out a bit - day 1 normal, day 2 inside out, day 3 back to front.  Day 4 and everyone will be 100ft away to avoid the vapours and the stalking predators tracking the underwear trail.

Yes, seems as soon as you are old enough to enjoy life, it's almost over with.
I did find it funny how my mom said the very typical mom thing of wearing clean underwear in case you get hit by a car, and she actually had it happen to her.
Morphine... Sweet sister morphine.
I never tried anything like that unless it was under doctors orders, I'm too afraid to go that far off the rails.
My father was a medic in the S. Pacific in the US Army during WW11.
He was no "hero" he told us the only way he made it through was because of his morphine shots.
He had his medical kit loaded with injections of that stuff for his job, one for you and one for me was his way of being able to go into danger and help people.
Sometimes he told us he hid until his services would do any good.
He climbed up a tree, tie himself in for the ride and dose himself before any action happened.
After the fireworks he would climb out of his nest and help who ever was still breathing. Sounds a bit selfish but then again he said if he was injured he wouldn't be able to help anyone.
A real survivor.He could of been arrested for saving himself.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Yes, seems as soon as you are old enough to enjoy life, it's almost over with.

Shortly after when my wife and first met, we attended a rather splendid dinner at a conference we were both attending at a large recently renovated former Royal Palace in Hungary. Each room had different food plates. It was a sort of "smörgåsbord" affair where one went around and picked their food from each room, while circulating and networking. I went straight to the dessert room first. Put some on my plate, then got the rest of my meal. My future wife thought I was nuts. Going for dessert first. How gosh! By the time she was ready for dessert, they were all gone.

My life rule: Life is short. Don't wait to get the dessert. In other words, don't wait to get the good stuff. Do it as soon as you can. Each day. Don't wait.

I think that real world example was one of the reasons she decided to marry me. And the fact I shared my dessert with her ( ). After all, I am not really  that good looking (except in my mirror of course, but my mirror I suspect is bias).

klsallee wrote:

..... I went straight to the dessert room first. Put some on my plate, then got the rest of my meal. My future wife thought I was nuts. Going for dessert first. How gosh! By the time she was ready for dessert, they were all gone.

My life rule: Life is short. Don't wait to get the dessert. In other words, don't wait to get the good stuff. Do it as soon as you can. Each day. Don't wait.

I think that real world example was one of the reasons she decided to marry me. And the fact I shared my dessert with her ( ). After all, I am not really  that good looking (except in my mirror of course, but my mirror I suspect is bias).

Isn't that a bit Benjamin Button like?  Do everything in reverse?

Are you sure she married you for a bit of your cake? 

I think Mrs Fluffy  was somewhat unimpressed by one of  my rationales for getting spliced.  As we'd been together for a long time I said it was a pretty comfortable and easy going relationship and we were both happy.  Then we got drawn into really unhelpful comparisons like us being an old pair of slippers you wear around the house.  Needless to it wasn't the right romantic sales point. 

But anyway, great idea to go dining in reverse and unconventional in Western  terms.  The Chinese don't seem to have a beginning and an end when having dinner and different dishes at each stage.  It all comes at once and you take a bit from each plate.  I rather like the idea about having say, some noodles for breakfast and only the other day I had some Mexican chilli beans for breakfast in a hotel. It was very nice.  I only wish they'd done some curry and rice after that.  They did have pizza once and strangely kebabs too.   Both not bad, even at 0800h in the morning.

"Sweet" story...
Life is short but some days do tend to drag on...
What impressed me when I met my husband was his independent spirit.
He also looked like a skinny rock star at the time or a clothing designer,
He hardly spoke English but was doing his thing without any help from anyone.
Had only been in the US for about 18 months but had already lived and worked in NYC for a year, had his own sports car, apt, nice clothing,loads of friends and was always happy and cool at the same time.
He was old too, 26 years old, really very old...
Come to find out many years later that5 he could hardly understand anything i said to him, one reason he seemed so cool all the time. He would just nod his head like he knew what I was going on about.
He later teased me by saying if he knew what I was talking about ,he would of run the other way.
Of course he was joking, hope so anyways...

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.......
Come to find out many years later that he could hardly understand anything i said to him, one reason he seemed so cool all the time. He would just nod his head like he knew what I was going on about.
He later teased me by saying if he knew what I was talking about ,he would of run the other way.
Of course he was joking, hope so anyways...

My god, this is deja-vu Mrs Fluffy style. 

She was just nodding - I thought i was doing really well but as it happens she was utterly baffled and she just went along with it.  Now there's trust.   Now I am wondering if this is or was a Hungarian "thing".

fluffy2560 wrote:

Isn't that a bit Benjamin Button like?  Do everything in reverse?

No. I only said I got the cake first. To be sure, when I wanted it, I would have it. I did not say I actually ate it first.

That is, my "moral of the story" was: get what you want early so you can enjoy whenever it is you want in life, when you want. Else, it may not be there when you are "ready for it". Because, by that time, life, the world and the universe may have move on. And you are SOL.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Are you sure she married you for a bit of your cake?

Yes. Absolutely. My wife and love appreciates a sharing nature.

But of course, by "cake" one may also be speaking metaphorically..... 

fluffy2560 wrote:

Then we got drawn into really unhelpful comparisons like us being an old pair of slippers you wear around the house.  Needless to it wasn't the right romantic sales point.

Old slippers = worn out, ragged, full of athlete's foot fungus and toe jam...

Dude, in that you still got hitched, I can only assume you had some otherwise good "cake" to offer. 

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Then we got drawn into really unhelpful comparisons like us being an old pair of slippers you wear around the house.  Needless to it wasn't the right romantic sales point.

Old slippers = worn out, ragged, full of athlete's foot fungus and toe jam...

Dude, in that you still got hitched, I can only assume you had some otherwise good "cake" to offer. 

My take on Old Slippers:  comfy fit, lived in, shaped to your style, multi-use,  matching pair.

I wish I could say I had good cake now but I suppose  two Fluffyettes and some years together we're probably more of a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Isn't that a bit Benjamin Button like?  Do everything in reverse?

No. I only said I got the cake first. To be sure, when I wanted it, I would have it. I did not say I actually ate it first.

That is, my "moral of the story" was: get what you want early so you can enjoy whenever it is you want in life, when you want. Else, it may not be there when you are "ready for it". Because, by that time, life, the world and the universe may have move on. And you are SOL.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Are you sure she married you for a bit of your cake?

Yes. Absolutely. My wife and love appreciates a sharing nature.

But of course, by "cake" one may also be speaking metaphorically..... 

There's more to this story than meets the eye.  You clearly kept the cake in reserve ready to spring it at the right moment.  That's planning.

I think you are thinking carpe diem with the moral of the story.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I wish I could say I had good cake now but I suppose  two Fluffyettes and some years together we're probably more of a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

With two Fluffyettes, I would say your cup runneth over with glad tidings, you should be proud and less modest. You have done well.

fluffy2560 wrote:

There's more to this story than meets the eye.  You clearly kept the cake in reserve ready to spring it at the right moment.  That's planning.

Who?

Me?

Plan?



You're damn right. 

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

There's more to this story than meets the eye.  You clearly kept the cake in reserve ready to spring it at the right moment.  That's planning.

Who?

Me?

Plan?



You're damn right. 

I do a lot of planning and always look at minimising risk but I would never thought of cake on my critical path.  I think now, I'll have to consider this at critical points.

Forget, where's the beef, it's where's the cake?

I could nuance that by saying where's the donuts, the francia kremes and the csoki torte in this plan?

Yes, let them eat cake.
I'll go for the ice cream every time.
It is strange about the Hungarian habit of head nodding without understanding a word that one has spoken.
Oh well, it looked "super cool" at the time, a slight head toss and a cig hanging out of his mouth...
Now days no more head nodding or smoking.
Some things change and others stay the same.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Now days no more ... smoking.

Are you sure you live in Hungary? Admittedly, smoking is no longer compulsory but it still is pretty common, one of the things I like about the place.  It doesn't have the kinda idea of being immoral that it has in the UK or much of the US now. Unhealthy, waste of money, unsightly, smelly, messy etc but not immoral.

Although it is becoming more common to hear the non-smoker's cough i.e. when standing outside with a cig, someone walking upwind ten metres away will spy your cigarette, look at you and start coughing. I just want to clobber them for that and remind them that my taxes and the fact I am likely to die sooner (seven years mean average) and thus be less of a drain on the public revenue in my old age should mean that they thank me, not cough at me. I suppose we could call it passive non-smoking, the suffering smokers get from pious non-smokers. (Or more often, ex-smokers. My never-smoking wife, living with an habitual smoker, has an increased chance of death of 1 in 3000 per year, when I last looked. That is an increased chance on her chance of dying by anything not smoking related. Which is frankly Not Very Much. She has more chance of being killed by our sofa. Honestly.)

A pity you can't smoke in pubs or restaurants though. While this is no doubt more pleasant for diners (smoking or non-smoking) a cigarette after a meal is a true pleasure.

It's subtle the way they creep up the cigarette prices by just taxing each brand each turn a bit more, I think monthly one or other goes up. You don't tend to notice unless (like me) you tend to carry the exact change. Rovid piros marlboro tailor-mades have just gone up by ten forints (I think). But the rolling tobacco is still at 1120 or did they increase it to 1150? On the other hand it is the same price everywhere (except at the airport if you are fool enough to let them charge you in euro) and we get twenty in a packet instead of eighteen or nineteen.

Still, cigarettes are extremely cheap compared to the UK (where they are the most expensive in the EU). When we lived in the UK, certainly a cheap flight to Budapest to pick up cigarettes (a suitcaseful is fine, if they are for your own use), stay overnight with family and fly back the next morning, would easily pay for the flights and ground transport etc.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Yes, let them eat cake.
I'll go for the ice cream every time.
It is strange about the Hungarian habit of head nodding without understanding a word that one has spoken.
Oh well, it looked "super cool" at the time, a slight head toss and a cig hanging out of his mouth...
Now days no more head nodding or smoking.
Some things change and others stay the same.

Head wobbling champions are people from India.   Having worked with Indian people (from India) a few times,  this is quite hard to work out.  A head wobble and saying yes probably means "no".  Now I think of it, I still don't get it.  But it's interesting cultural thing and would be very cool to know how it works. I could google it but where's the fun in that?

BTW, smoking is definitely not cool now.  Apparently Cost Rica has the strongest anti-smoking laws on the planet.   Heard that on the radio this morning.

I was advised to quit my casino job after my lungs couldn't take the second hand smoke. Felt like a elephant was sitting on my chest sometimes, coughing at work etc.
I still sometimes cough when smoke is around and not trying to play with the smoker by doing it out of spite.
Allergies to pollutants in the air is real for many people.
My beloved sister died at age 43 from asthma. She loved clubbing but often had to run outside of a club to get some fresh air due to smoke.
I saw her toss out her own house guests for smoking inside her flat.
I used to smoke in school because we thought it was "cool" usually we smoked cigars, one little lady smoked a pipe, yes we were the odd girls at school...
Smoked those Red box Marlboro later on when they only cost 45 cents a box, could get them out of a machine at any gas/petrol station at any age.
My husband started smoking around age 9! Here in Hungary of course, would never happen if he grew up in the states unless he was very "back water".
He stopped for 7 years, started again then quit for good, thank goodness.
My father smoked like a chimney but my mom never smoked at all.
My step-dad used to have 2 going at once sometimes...
I understand it's a habit that's hard to break but when we see young people and young ladies smoking, it just looks wrong.
Maybe they are trying to off themselves early but in the mean time they are taking down a few people with them.
I was never a heavy smoker, maybe 2 to 4 a day, when I became pregnant at age 20, I stopped right then and there.
Once in a very blue moon, if I am around a smoker and we are having drinks, I will bum a cig off of them and do enjoy it even if I am coughing up a lung.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Head wobbling champions are people from India.   Having worked with Indian people (from India) a few times,  this is quite hard to work out.  A head wobble and saying yes probably means "no".  Now I think of it, I still don't get it.  But it's interesting cultural thing and would be very cool to know how it works. I could google it but where's the fun in that?

We have an Indian lass (i.e. Indian Indian) who shakes/wobbles her head to say yes. It took me a while to get used to. British Indians don't tend to do it (at least, second/third generation) so indeed it is a cultural or perhaps more accurately national custom thing. I mean, I knew of it and Indians subcontracting and coming to the UK would do it, but it takes a little while to switch on to it, a bit like remembering to look right when crossing the street. (Or standing at the wrong side of the street to catch a bus.)

These things are learned, I think, so early in life that they are very difficult to unlearn. I know this is stretching it, but for example switching left to right hand drive and back is no problem, because I learned it later (and have all sorts of environmental cues to remind me). But as a pedestrian I have to make a conscious effort to remember which way the traffic goes.

fluffy2560 wrote:

BTW, smoking is definitely not cool now.  Apparently Cost Rica has the strongest anti-smoking laws on the plant.   Heard that on the radio this morning.

Smoking has never been cool. Smokers are cool. Making it harder to smoke only makes it cooler to be the "rebel" and do so.  (I have never been cool but then I didn't start smoking until I was in my twenties.)

Any government that had any guts would make smoking compulsory from the age of, say, ten. (And still tax it, of course.) Then it would become immediately uncool and youngsters would try to find ways to avoid smoking (and taxation)

fluffy2560 wrote:

I could nuance that by saying where's the donuts

fluffy2560 wrote:

BTW, smoking is definitely not cool now.  Apparently Cost Rica has the strongest anti-smoking laws on the plant.   Heard that on the radio this morning.

Costa Rica seems to be about in the middle of Wikipedia's List_of_countries_by_cigarette_consumption_per_capita, so I am not sure that really tells us much beyond the fact that you're equating "government says it is wrong" with "this is not cool" (which seems rather a non sequitur, to say the least).

SimonTrew wrote:

Smoking is a net benefit to society (in the form of taxation and reduced end-of-life costs) and that is exactly why governments have not the guts to ban it.

The last time I checked (2007), the duty raised in England and Wales from tobacco was about twice as much as the cost of treating all smoking-related diseases on the National Health Service. If you can prove to your private pension provider that you have smoked for so many years, you will get a "smoker's premium" i.e. higher yield on the assumption that you won"t be getting it for so long (this obviously is merely a statistical thing, we all have an uncle who smoked until he was 156 etc). What a state pension (with no lump sum on death) wants is for you to die on the day you retire. By dying on average seven years earlier than a non-smoker, you save the country a fortune.

One of the rather perverse things about the health warnings is people tend to assume that lung cancer is always caused by smoking, as if cancer never spreads and pretty much always does for you once it gets to the lungs. Yet depending on how "cause of death" is recorded, it can skew the statistics. Insurance companies, like bookmakers (which essentially they are), have an extremely good idea of the real risks from their actuarial books. That is where their competitive advantage lies, of course, so they won"t tell you, but you can infer it to some extent from premiums and payouts. Are young motorcycle riders more likely to die in road accidents than older drivers in Morris Minors? You can check the police records, coroner's reports, or look at the prices insurance companies charge. Yes, they are.

Humans are just extremely bad at assessing risk and constantly surprised by it. Smokers actually tend to over-estimate the risks of smoking. They just have a slightly less cautious attitude to risk than non-smokers (again, taken in the aggregate of course). You are unlikely to die from a cigarette falling on you, tripping over a cigarette, electrocuted or bitten by one, they are unlikely to be used to strangle or stab you, they increase your tolerance to carbon monoxide poisoning, improve dexterity, and so on.

Our society's addiction to the internal combustion engine is far more troublesome to me, yet, because somehow we feel we can't live without it, we turn a blind eye to it for the large part. Typical human race, eh.

My father looked a "cool smoker" in his old photos from the 40's and 50's.
Those were the hey days of the smoker.
His poison of choice however used to crack us up, he loved to smoke menthol ,"Kools" guess that really made him extra Cool!
He had one always tucked behind his ear when he was working on a car or mowing the lawn.
Have a photo of my uncle Pete with a straw  hat on, the style all the kids are wearing these days, with the short brim, riding his new electric lawn mower with a cig tucked behind his ear.Beer can in his hand.
I guess I come from a long line of "cool smokers"
My great-auntie who was half Mohawk used to smoke asthma reliever brand cig from the pharmacy. They were legal pot cigs sold to relax the lungs of asthma sufferers. What a hoot that was, back in the 1930's, pot was legal if given a script for it.
My Mohawk great-granny smoked a actual "peace pipe" in the house, never on the street though. Mom said the minister would visit the house and her granny would run around with her apron trying to get the smoke smell out of the house before he entered.

Smoking, drinking and gambling go together like tea and biscuits.
I just won a free buffet meal at the Palms casino in Las Vegas!
Sent me a E-play game on line.
Hope I can use it next visit over... maybe not though.
They have just sold out the Palms to Station Casinos INC.
Redoing the whole place, sort of sad because we liked the Palms the way it was.
The Palms was owned by 2 brothers , think they were from Armenia , both ex- pro footballers.
They used to own the Fiesta casino in Vegas, sold that property and built the Palms.
Seems they sold out once again.
My son and his fellow co-workers were upset with the duo years ago when they sold out the Fiesta to Stations.
He was a games dealer then and when news came out they were about to sell, the workers started looking for new jobs. They lied to all the workers saying they had first dibs at working at the re sold property and they had no fear of losing their jobs.
Well no surprise, they lied through their teeth. Everyone was laid off because Stations had promised their own long time workers from other properties that they could transfer to the new and better casino.
I wonder what is going to happen to the old Palms crews.
It was fine the way it was, I worked myself for Stations properties.
OK in some ways but a bit too big and un personal overall.
Too many rules and too much corp. influence.
Life goes on, pretty soon Vegas will be owned by just 3 or 4  corps.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I was never a heavy smoker, maybe 2 to 4 a day, when I became pregnant at age 20, I stopped right then and there.

You"re what's known in the trade as a "chipper". It depends on the person, but below about five a day you don't get properly addicted to the nicotine. Much above that, you"ll get hooked.

The odd thing is the physical addiction to nicotine is as easy to get rid of as it is to acquire. About three days and you are no longer physically addicted. The habit of smoking is harder to get rid of. End of a meal, let"s have a cigarette... oh I don"t do that any more. Break from the computer screen, let"s go out and have a cigarette... oh I don"t do that any more. Get off the bus, or waiting for the bus, let"s have a cigarette... oh I don"t do that any more. So... what can I do? These kinda little gaps of time that are filled with cigarettes, what do I do now? Oh, just stand here I guess.

If you smoke, your whole kinda timetable becomes run by cigarettes. At least for me, if I am busy I don"t particularly want them. Idling writing on here at home, I have probably gone through fifteen writing these three or four posts, because they are just there and I can. The smoking bans have this peculiar side-effect that I smoke at almost every opportunity, when I wouldn"t have done when there were more opportunities. Must have a cigarette might not get one for another four hours.... bus is late.... have another cigarette. On a forty minute journey involving two buses and a tram you can guarantee that I will have at least six cigarettes. One before I get on, one as soon as I get off, etc.  It's one of those perverse incentives, I cannot be alone in doing that.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Smoking, drinking and gambling go together like tea and biscuits..

I like that in Vegas if you stay long enough at the table they offer you free beer. "Would you like a complimentary drink to impair your judgment?" "Thanks, I"ll have a Sam Adams. Nineteen? Twist."

I used to smoke a bit more on weekends at parties.
My husband was a heavy smoker and when I was with him on dates, I often lite one up and didn't really have the craving, just something to do.
Having a tiny baby doesn't give one time to even shower some days let alone relax with a cig.
It was super easy for me to quit, just thinking about all the poison I had put in my body and knowing I was going to have a baby was enough to stop me right away.
No drinking, smoking, smoking anything, gave up all red meat and took my vitamins.
Started yoga and daily lap swimming, was doing laps up until about 3 days before he was born, wanted to lap swim but my body was in slow motion, saving my energy for the big day I suppose. Natures way of keeping you strong, save energy for the big day , never so sleepy in my life those last few days before the "event".
The human body is amazing, it will recover from years of abuse within a year or so if things don't get too far out of hand first.
I worked in NYC for 2 weeks in a bar making cocktails and having to talk with drunks etc. I never smoked so much in my life as those 2 weeks, at least 2 packs a night! That job would of done me in if I didn't quit.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Smoking, drinking and gambling go together like tea and biscuits.

Can"t help thinking that simile is unbalanced, three on one side, two on the other. Like tea, biscuits and a nice sit down, perhaps.

SimonTrew wrote:

.....n practice gambling is a big British habit and most people don"t see much wrong with it providing it is for fun, you're not betting your house on it etc. Personally I think they've liberalised it a bit too much with online betting where you can use credit cards etc, at least when you went to the betting shop and had to pay cash you were betting with money you actually had. I'm not one much for regulation but I think it's too dangerous at that point to get people into trouble. Bet with cash you actually have.

After hearing some of the horror stories on the UK's FOBTs (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals), I'm glad they've reduced the stake down to £2.   People were losing 1000s per hour on those things.  I've never used one and never will.  Apparently just as addictive as smoking or something else on the reward centre of the brain.

BTW, is the stock market gambling?

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I worked in NYC for 2 weeks in a bar making cocktails and having to talk with drunks etc. I never smoked so much in my life as those 2 weeks, at least 2 packs a night! That job would of done me in if I didn't quit.

I worked evenings and weekends in pubs in the UK for about ten years to make a bit of extra. Again, didn't really smoke much. You weren't allowed to smoke behind the bar (this was local pubs, not nightclubs etc so steady trade but not rushed off your feet most of the time) so when there was a gap in service you would go in front to have a cigarette, maybe four a night. (No smoking behind the bar was for two reasons. First, presentation. Second, mouth-to-hand contamination. I take the cigarette from my lips, get your glass, transfer all my germs on to you. Of course we washed our hands etc but it is a fairly simple rule. My germs are all lovely nice germs of course, but I doubt you want them. For the same reason you never pick a glass up at the rim... a habit I still have, always at the bottom of the glass or stem of the glass. So if ever Officer Dibble finds my fingerprints on the rim of the murder weapon, a beer glass, I can assure you it will be a frame-up).

The UK laws (England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland do differ somewhat) are incredibly hypocritical I think as Orwell put it by in theory banning everything but in practice allowing everything to happen. I know the licencing laws very well from managing a number of pubs and being the temporary licencesee of a few i.e. while the regular licencee was away, so I am personally and criminally responsible for any naughtiness on the licenced premises. The betting, alcohol and other licences overlap and in some ways contradict each other. It's good fun really, running a pub. And you get so sick of the sight of alcohol in quantity that you never want a drink. (Well, a pint at the end of the night "for quality control". Publicans who drink on the job never last very long.)

SimonTrew wrote:

Strangely there seems very little evasion of the smoking ban in pubs in Hungary, which I had expected

Actually I went into a small shop the other day and the owner was smoking behind the counter, it wasn"t a food shop. So it does happen, but seems rather rarer than I had expected.

fluffy2560 wrote:

After hearing some of the horror stories on the UK's FOBTs (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals), I'm glad they've reduced the stake down to £2.   People were losing 1000s per hour on those things.  I've never used one and never will.  Apparently just as addictive as smoking or something else on the reward centre of the brain.

Yes I think you get dopamine released in a rush when you win. Since I only bet small stakes (fiver at the most), I don't win enough to get a rush. And that is on the gee gees generally where there are six or seven races a day, not god knows how quick those FOBTs work.

Again never used them or wanted to. Gambling against a machine at fixed odds, where would be the fun in that? The fun with gambling, for me, has got very little to do with the horses (or whatever).  I'm gambling against the bookmaker, i.e. I think these odds are longer than the real chance of this event happening.

A good bookmaker doesn"t set the prices according to his own notion of the likelihood of something winning (beyond setting the initial odds or getting them from the Racing Post), but of what he has to do to balance his book. If he gets his book right, keeps adjusting it right, then whatever horse wins he should get exactly the same amount of profit out of it., generally about 20% overround. Of course life is never perfect like that, because the (imperial) odds come in quanta so he can't offer 0.9836 or whatever his book tells him to lay, because other bookmakers are laying longer odds than his book is telling him to lay, because he has a lot on place bets etc at fixed fractions of the win book (rarely do you run a separate place book), because he has a nag with no bet on it that technically is a division by zero so is skewing his book, etc etc.

(I have tried to bet against there being a white christmas before, and nobody will lay that bet, even though in theory it should be at long odds because all the money is sitting on the other side of the book. The White Christmas book is run for publicity more than directly to make money. Even if it is a white christmas, the bookies get a lot of free publicity out of it.)

Anything that is just a fancy pseudo-random number generating machine has no particular interest to me. Quiz machines and other Amusement with Prizes machines can be all right, but again it is more the fun of playing with some mates than the fiver or whatever that you occasionally "win" after putting about a tenner into it.

fluffy2560 wrote:

is the stock market gambling?

That"s rather vague. Investing in indivdual stocks are lots of individual gambles. But since the stock market, in aggregate, goes up in the long term, what you are doing is betting that your stock  in biodegradable fish finger futures will increase faster than, say, house prices or gold or porn or whatever else anyone tries to make a corner in. It's not a zero-sum game in the way that bookmaking is (if you include the  bookies hankie in the sum,. i.e. the book ALWAYS balances to zero, by definition.)

The stock market doesn't ever balance to zero, there is not some fixed amount of wealth to be spread around. The stock market is just a barometer of confidence. But "investing" in individual stocks, commodities, etc is definitely gambling, the way I see it. You"re not gambling whether the stock will go up. You"re gambling whether it would have gone up more or less than something else you could have invested in. (Your investment has an opportunity cost, in other words, you can't spend the same money twice.)

I don"t see really how a stockbroker selling short is fundamentally different from a bookmaker laying off. To me they are fundamentally the same thing. The main difference is that the bookmaker is operating on what for his purposes is a commodity, i.e. that the pound he takes on a bet is the same pound that he pays out, that it doesn't magically change to be a pound and sixpence between the two events. But of course on the stock market that happens all the time, moving from the imaginary value of sterling to the illusory value of gold to the dodgy value of forints to the cost of a barrel of oil or how much Facebook is worth, there is kinda no fixed value at all, whereas at least to a bookmaker, for the duration of his book, a pound is still a pound.

For years on and off I have been trying to find out who invented or patented Penny Falls machines. You would think that would be easy but despite some patent office searches and contacting places like the British Toy Museum etc I have never found out. The archivist at Bally didn't know, perhaps I should embark on a quest for the source of the Penny Falls. I wouldn"t be surprised to find that they are an American import (to the UK) but they seem a very British thing, although Japan has a variation.

I mean they are simple enough to make, but give me ever so many idle moments I would not think "what the world needs is a machine with a sliding shelf on an eccentric cam  or piston, places to insert coins that tumble over pins like a bagatelle and drop, thence to another shelf, at the sides of which are slides to collect the coins for the house, the rest to build up and tantalise until falling into a hopper for collection by the player". You could give me a lifetime on a desert island and I would never have come up with that.

SimonTrew wrote:

[Gambling against a machine at fixed odds, where would be the fun in that?

Now gambling that anything electrical or electronic in my house will do what it is told or says it will do, that is quite good fun, because the odds are by no means fixed. The chances of the washing machine completing a sixty-minute cycle in sixty minutes are close to zero, but there is a long tail curve on the distribution. The vacuum cleaner (how dirty can vacua get that they need cleaning? Hoover is the word you need) will randomly tell me it is full when it patently is not. The fridge-freezer's twin DC inertial motors (whatever they are) will make a startling KLANG some time between 3am and 4am. The computer will randomly attempt to connect wirelessly to almost anyone else's router except the one sitting right next to it and wired into the bloody thing. One of the three outside lamps switches on some time after dawn and off shortly before dusk, and for an hour or so can"t make its mind up about ten times a second. I have enough random machines in my house without needing actively to seek them out.

Some people do have serious gambling addictions.
Seen it with my own 2 ( far sighted) eyes.
I often wondered why a person would gamble and lose, lose , lose then ask for a casino ,"comp" for a free pizza. Blew me away watching them toss out anther few hundred to thousand US bucks waiting for the floor person to do the paperwork for their free pizza.
Yes, the Pizza in the Place Station casino was rather good but seriously doubt it was worth $2,000 or more to get a take home box.
I can't even think about some of the crazy stuff i saw just working my job on good old "normal" day shift in a Vegas casino.
No one would even believe I was for real.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

is the stock market gambling?

That"s rather vague. Investing in indivdual stocks are lots of individual gambles. But since the stock market, in aggregate, goes up in the long term, what you are doing is betting that your stock  in biodegradable fish finger futures will increase faster than, say, house prices or gold or porn or whatever else anyone tries to make a corner in. It's not a zero-sum game in the way that bookmaking is (if you include the  bookies hankie in the sum,. i.e. the book ALWAYS balances to zero, by definition.)

The stock market doesn't ever balance to zero, there is not some fixed amount of wealth to be spread around. The stock market is just a barometer of confidence. But "investing" in individual stocks, commodities, etc is definitely gambling, the way I see it. You"re not gambling whether the stock will go up. You"re gambling whether it would have gone up more or less than something else you could have invested in. (Your investment has an opportunity cost, in other words, you can't spend the same money twice.)

I don"t see really how a stockbroker selling short is fundamentally different from a bookmaker laying off. To me they are fundamentally the same thing. The main difference is that the bookmaker is operating on what for his purposes is a commodity, i.e. that the pound he takes on a bet is the same pound that he pays out, that it doesn't magically change to be a pound and sixpence between the two events. But of course on the stock market that happens all the time, moving from the imaginary value of sterling to the illusory value of gold to the dodgy value of forints to the cost of a barrel of oil or how much Facebook is worth, there is kinda no fixed value at all, whereas at least to a bookmaker, for the duration of his book, a pound is still a pound.

There's a lot of sense there but I could throw in a bunch of other stuff.

I don't really see the horses as something you can win on except luck - the nag could drop dead or break a leg.   There's also no asset behind the horse either on a bet.  It's not like your getting any share of those assets which makes it a bit pointless.   

I agree FB has nothing serious behind it other than perhaps "goodwill" and a database of info.  But that's pretty saleable. To drag out the analogy,  I suppose we could say FB has multiple horses and one with a broken a leg with the Cambridge Analytics scandal (so they shot it).

I don't think I can agree that the stock market is not a zero sum game at least in some ways. It's double entry bookeeping and it still has to balance. At any particular time point, there's an asset swap or in a longer time period, people win and people lose equally in their trading of the company shares,  money is balanced out (no magic money production) so the equilibrium at least in cash and assets is maintained.  Same with purchasing goods produced by the business, the asset is transferred to you and the value paid is split between the cost of manufacture and profit, then that is distributed to shareholders. It still  balances out.

Note! There is ONE circumstance I can think of where magic money appears.  Central banks print money and therefore create value from the cost of printing the currency and the face value.  That's one way central banks operate to finance their operations.  It's called  Seigniorage.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I don't really see the horses as something you can win on except luck

Oh cointreau,  you can make money by betting on the horses if you can time your bets right etc etc. You can do arbitrage exactly as arbitrageurs do on the stock market, but like arbitrage there, you have to bet a lot of money to make a small fraction. You can do it but it is a full time job with very low margins. The people who do it successfully sell their perfectly valid systems as a sideline to make up for the fact that while mathematically sound they don't make a fortune out of it.

But the surefire way for winning at bets on the horses is to make sure that you are the bookmaker.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I agree FB has nothing serious behind it other than perhaps "goodwill" and a database of info.  But that's pretty saleable.

Goodwill is indeed usually accountable in exact figures on the balance sheet, and is all those things. Call it confidence if you want. If people have confidence in you, your shares go up. If not, they go down. People are confident in Bitcoin, shares soar. People find out they can't spend it anywhere, everyone will turn up with virtual wheelbarrows full of BitCoin on SimCity hoping to change them into hard currency so that they can pay the leccy bill. I think BitCoin is a bubble waiting to burst, but then I thought the UK housing market was a bubble waiting to burst twenty years ago, so what do I know?

fluffy2560 wrote:

To drag out the analogy,  I suppose we could say FB has multiple horses and one with a broken a leg with the Cambridge Analytics scandal (so they shot it).

It has stretched the analogy too far. If all the horses in the race have the same owner, the only person who wins is the bookmaker.

I was just using FB as an example of course. FB is worth what someone will pay for it, just like anything else. At least you can sell the dead horse to Pedigree Petfoods, or the French. It is still an asset.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I don't think I can agree that the stock market is not a zero sum game at least in some ways. It's double entry bookeeping and it still has to balance.

Sure, the books have to balance just like a bookmaker"s have to. (Bookmaking is a bit more complicated than double entry but I get the point.) Totally agreed in that way.

fluffy2560 wrote:

There is ONE circumstance I can think of where magic money appears.  Central banks print money and therefore create value from the cost of printing the currency and the face value.  That's one way central banks operate to finance their operations.  It's called seniorage.

No, they print money which does not create value. It just creates money. When you print money, there is lots more money, that is, you have reduced the scarcity of money, you have increased the money supply. The demand will do the usual thing to match the supply, and lo and behold, all the money is worth less. Think the Hungarian filler, think the Continental dollar, think  the ruble when Russia woke up to find it had thirteen independent central banks on its doorstep all capable of printing rubles, think the Euro in Greece and Spain and Italy, bailed out by Germany but for how long? Think "that does not mean that the pound in your pocket, or your wallet or your purse, is worth less" (Prime Minister Harold Wilson on devaluation in 1967 was it?). What was it called last time? Quantitive easing i.e. devaluation. You can make cash by counterfeiting it, but you can't make money by printing it. It just makes all the money worth less.

Inflation is a tax on the prudent, who see their savings vanish. It is a tax on those on fixed incomes, pensioners and stuff. Devaluation just accelerates inflation, and that is exactly where we are heading now. I heard the term "in real terms" the other day. That is always a worrying early marker for "higher inflation is coming". In Europe we are so used to low inflation we have forgotten what it was like. There is a whole generation of Fluffiettes who have never experienced high inflation, but it is coming soon, at a country near you, I think. But then I am as foolish as the next guy when it comes to deciding where to put my money. To me investments seem like pure luck but the people who won seem to think they were especially clever and prudent and it had nothing to do with luck at all.