Hand in Pocket

Problem: How to get non-smokers to understand what it feels like to have a regular tobacco habit and not be able to smoke.

Please Note: The following demonstration is for non-smokers only. Smokers, please step 25-feet from this building to indulge your nasty habit, while I and the other adults discuss important grown-up business.

Let’s start with some place everybody’s been – the movies!

Okay, so non-smokers, step right up to the Concession Stand and get your popcorn and pop or Pop-Rocks, whatever you like. Set yourself all up in your theater seat in a way that you can get at everything you need using just one hand, your dominant hand.

Now, take your non-dominant hand (usually your left hand) and place your hand in your left pocket.

And just leave your hand there.

Watch the movie, have some popcorn, make sarcastic remarks to your friend, but make sure to leave your non-dominant hand in your pocket. That’s it! Oh, yeah. You can’t take your hand out of your pocket unless you leave the building. Take that hand outside or pay a $50 fine!

For the first 30 minutes or so, you’ll probably be thinking, “Well, this is not so bad. Those whining smokers – they’re always complaining.” You’ll enjoy the movie, nibble some p’corn and quaff carbonated caramel-colored corn syrup.

But for the next 30 minutes, you may not be able to enjoy the movie so much. Your arm is starting to get stiff and your hand is getting sweaty. You’ll probably think, “This is a ridiculous exercise.”

The third-act climax of the movie may take up a bit of your fidgetiness in the last 30 minutes of this (mercifully short) 90-minute film. Still you’re looking forward to reading the EXIT sign more than you are in scanning the credits. This was a good movie, but you’re ready for it to be over. So you can take your sweaty paw out of your pocket and stretch your cramped arm.

That’s as close as I can come to an explanation. Think non-smokers would get it?

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3 Responses to Hand in Pocket

  1. Isaac Nutall says:

    my God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insght at the end there, not leave it with leave it to you to decide?

    • sensiblesmoker says:

      I must be sheepish and admit I have not enlisted a non-smoker to be the subject of my proposed experiment.

  2. Irvin Auxier says:

    Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Thanks.

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