I called a casual friend to let him know SensibleSmoker.com had been launched and get his opinion.
“You smoke, right?” I said, guilelessly.
“Err…yes,” he said, sounding – if such a thing is possible — like a deer caught in headlights. “Err… recreationally.”
Now part of his reaction might have been due to my high local profile as a professional smoker – that is, unrepentantly addicted. But I got the distinct feeling that I had unintentionally outed my friend.
Another of my friends, a tobacco-tolerant former smoker, is dating online, Tolerant, schmolerant, she’s dating a smoker right now!
So many of the personal ads say things like “MWF looking for kicks with art-loving non-smoking Adonis,” or “GLM and GBF seeking a confused bi-curious non-smoker, race not important.”
Smoking seems to be a major issue in the dating scene, so shouldn’t – at least – a professional smoker do the awkward social “admission” right in text of the personal ad? “DWM, smoker, loves kids, pets, walks on the beach, seeks same or same-ish.” Separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak? Keep away the riffraff?
What kind of responses would that ad get?