Posted 8:41 AM by Scoobie Davis

Smoking Deaths Way Down This Year
Only 864 Americans have died of smoking-related causes this year so far. Actually not. Due to the citywide power outrage in LA yesterday, one of the consequences is that an anti-smoking electric billboard in Westwood went off; it's one of those signs that tallies the smoking deaths for the year (kind of like the national debt billboard). Every minute or so, another death is added to the tally. So when the power came back on yesterday afternoon, the tally started at one for 2005. So by the time I returned my DVD at Cinefile last night, the smoking death count for the year was 864.

On the topic of smoking, last night on the way to Cinefile, a guy asked me for a light. I gave him one and he gave me six dollars. I refused but he insisted.