We have all heard those clever explanations of how each cigarette takes seven minutes
off your life.  
Translation: As long as I die before I retire, that means I'm cutting my working hours
down by at least 140 minutes EACH WEEK!

I'm now going to explain the smoking phenomenon, for those who just can't seem to
grasp why people would do this to themselves:

In exchange for the damage they do, cigarettes provide very little high, very little payoff.  
Once you're a pack into the habit, you can't even get a buzz off of one.  For all the
health risks, time and money spent, you'd actually be much better served smoking raw
opium.

Q: So why cancer-sticks?

A: The original go-to answer is correct: It just looks bad-ass.  But why?
It's simple.  Smoking fries your lungs, smells like overcooked shit, and smashes your
looks.  
When a person is leaning up against a wall and inhaling burnt fumes on purpose, that
person is showing a tremendous amount of disregard for life in general, and as
everybody knows:

Disregard always looks cool.  

A lot of people, myself included, are simply not going anywhere.  Is it such a tragedy to
also look the part?