G.E. Veith notes the film industry will further ruin the movie rating system by raising the ratings for smoking. Commenter Organshoes said characters in some of the old films smoked a lot. “Cigarettes were offered to guests like coffee to Lutherans.”
Does the movie rating system help you when choosing something to watch?
I remember a schoolteacher noting that offering someone a cigarette was considered the friendliest possible social act, back in the 60s.
Perhaps the decline in smoking is directly related to the decline in civility. Without cigarettes to offer people, we have lost a valuable social pacifier and defuser.
I don’t think cigarettes were ever that common in my neck of the woods.
I was going to feign outrage for this, but I’ll tell it straight. On Saturday, my kids watched a classic cartoon online in which Sylvester the Cat takes the role of Grandma to catch Little Red Rodent Hood. Sylvester runs to Grandma’s room and goes to hop in her bed, but several other cats are already there. He shoos them away, hops in bed, and finds a little cat under his pillow. The little cat giggles fiercely and offers him cigarettes. That must be a reference to the social offering you’re talking about. I was a little surprised. It seems so random to me.