From people, Frail singer Amy Winehouse is still battling her serious lung condition – but that didn't stop her from rehearsing for an upcoming gig or smoking!
The 24-year-old checked out of her London hospital for a few hours Monday to practice for her performance at Nelson Mandela's birthday celebration this Friday. (She also found time to shop for a new pair of her trademark ballet shoes.)
Despite her father Mitch's previous claims, reps now say Winehouse is not suffering from emphysema. It's a "scarring of the lungs which could lead to emphysema", says spokesman Chris Goodman. "If she keeps doing the wrong things, then it could lead to it. If she does the right things, it won't."
Doctors have warned that smoking is one of those "don'ts." But the troubled singer was seen with a lit cigarette during her furlough from the clinic.
Still, concert organizers were happy with Winehouse's rehearsal, Goodman says. "Doctors have to give it the final sign off, but it went well," he adds. "She will really enjoy
51 comments:
Not only does she have the "crazy" eyes, but she's the un-sexiest smoker ever.
I just keep expecting someone to catch a shot of an insect or small animal crawling out of that ass-ugly hair...blah.
Cigarettes (and their manufacturers) are the evilest scum on the planet.
Of course she smoked when she got out of the hospital. (I did the same thing, in 1985, after being briefly hospitalized, back when I smoked cigs.) She's addicted to nicotine. It's the strongest addiction there is, and it's artificially increased by tobacco companies that use chemical processes to enhance the addictive properties of the tobacco they process.
Tobacco could turn anyone into a Marxist. It's capitalism at its most morally repugnant: big companies trick you into becoming chemically dependent on a useless product that kills you after you spend a fortune buying it. Then they use chemical science to make it more addictive, and spend their victims' "death tax" money on lawyers and lobbying money in order to successfully cover their crimes.
Before cigarettes kill you, they do a million other bad things to you, your friends, your pets, your computers, your apartment, etc. etc. while costing you a small fortune for an utterly useless product that costs pennies to make. I can't think of anything worse.
I smoked my final cigarette thirteen years and five weeks ago. (I remember it vividly.) Quitting was hellish agony, but I'm grateful every day that I managed to do it.
I pity Amy Winehouse, because she's young and doesn't have much will power, and probably romanticizes her addictions, as many artists do. But she's toast. When you're up against your own bloodstream, you lose.
Jordan I quit smoking after many years and I owe you some gratitude. One of your old Horrorthon comments struck me really hard. You were talking about identifying triggers such as a martini on a balcony and how you had to keep the "been there done that" mindset. So thanks.
It suddenly occurred to me that I'm too smart (and good looking) to be spending absurd amounts of money on something that I'm well aware does no good, in fact only bad for me. Once I was able to see that clearly, quitting was easy and the thought of lighting up disgusts me.
I used to run smoking cessation groups at the Boston VA.
I didn't know you ever worked at a VA hospital JPX...from one of 'em, thanks.
Quitting smoking is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I feared everyday that I would be a smoker for life because I lacked the will power, but today I’m fourteen months smoke free. It’s funny how I quit. I had tried more than a hundred times using various methods, but always failed. I finally quit when my roommate decided she would because she was having oral surgery and wouldn’t be able to smoke for a week (not the roommate I live with now, but the vile, deceitful, backstabbing snake I used to room with.) I decided I would quit the same day, and I stuck to it. JPX was beyond surprised. I think it worked partly because there was no pressure for me to quit, and it’s awful, but I take joy in knowing that my viper ex-roommate started smoking again. It so pleases me to know she’s still killing herself with cancer sticks. Now may I burn in hell for saying it.
Every time cigarettes went up in price, I would almost have a heart attack, and I swore that I would quit after I finished my pack, but once it was gone I still wanted a cigarette so I would buy one more pack, of course swearing it was my last. I continued this inner dialogue until I was used to paying the new price and then cigarettes would go up again and the cycle would repeat. I would have paid ten or fifteen dollars a pack if I had to. Now I couldn’t imagine spending money like that. Smoking is such a vile, expensive habit, but its so addicting that you don’t care. I’m so enraged that I have smokers in my building (1st and 2nd floor). My hallways stink. I worked damn hard to quit smoking, and I don’t want to have to smell it where I live. I guess one good thing is they make me want to remain smoke free.
That Amy Winehouse has some of the creepiest "creepy" eyes I've ever seen.
Yeah. The thing I wish all smokers (who are considering quitting) (because all smokers are "considering" quitting) would realize is, you're addicted.
Like, capital "A" addicted. it's like booze or heroin, only worse. The withdrawal symptoms are physiological; I know, because I remember May 25 1995 (and the miserable week of agony that followed) vividly.
As I wrote above, cigarettes are the only substance in the world that have been engineered in a lab to increase their addictive properties. Vodka, wine, heroin, cocaine etc. are what they are, for various reasons and due to various toxins and alkaloids and narcotics. But cigarettes are artificially potent. The tobacco companies spent billions defending themselves against enormous class action lawsuits over this (and came close to putting CBS news out of business); it's the only major litigation they lost (except for the "Joe Camel" ads case that R. J. Reynolds lost). These are evil, evil motherfuckers, and they want you enslaved to nicotine addiction so you'll keep buying their foul product.
But every time I see someone saying "I'm a social smoker" or "I can quit any time" or "I'll just have another pack" or whatever the fuck it is, I want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them. "You don't get it," I want to scream. "You have a serious problem! You are in the grip of a serious, serious addiction that is nearly impossible to break away from because of what it does to your body chemistry!"
People genuinely believe they're facing a "habit" like eating too much or watching too much television, because that's what it seems like. That's how addictions work. Your brain tells itself anything it needs to tell itself in order to get another fix. You can fool yourself for years and smoke thousands of cigarettes if you're not careful. It's horrible.
My point is just that, as I wrote above, smokers are at war with their own bloodstream, which is demanding nicotine as fervently (or, actually, more fervently) than it's demanding food and water. The only thing you "need" more than nicotine is oxygen and sleep.
I could never have quit without nicotine patches (which you needed a prescription for, back then). And I was still shaking and throwing up and getting dizzy and crying myself to sleep for days and days. Even if it was just the addiction and the cost (and they were as harmless as sips of water) it would still be a scourge.
like jpx i did my internship at a va hospital and remember vividly the medically ill veterans clustered around the smoking area in their hospital pjs with their portable oxygen carts. sometimes the psychiatrically ill and/or homeless veterans would refuse a bed for the night specifically because they weren't allowed to smoke cigarettes inside.
Well then thanks to you as well AC.
I will add to what Jordan said in one way, it is not just the Tobacco Companies, but also our Govt on all levels that are benefiting from Cigs. Remember, most of the cost, and virtually every increase in price comes from taxes put on the product. In a world where fucking trans-fats are too dangerous to be in your fries, cigs are too big a cash cow for the government to do away with. They are the perfect foil for, local, state AND federal taxes. Non-smokers love that they are being taxed, and smokers are gonna pay for them no matter how expensive they are. I am not normally one to rail against the government nor capitalism, but if I have to wear my seatbelt, can't eat trans-fats in restaurants, can't smoke pot, what could the possible reason be that a product that does NOTHING but cause addiction is allowed to be legal? Money.
To add to the fond memories of addiction, I remember crawling from my bed with the flu, not for water or medicine, but to smoke a cigarette. Charming...
(I quit BTW when Amelia was born, couldn't see holding something that beautiful smelling like smoke)
Yeah, miko, good point. Don't forget the farm subsidies, too. Conservatives hate "welfare" in all situations when it could actually help the underprivileged but love it when it helps big industry.
One of the best movies I ever saw, ever, ever, ever, is The Insider (1999), Michael Mann's masterpiece about Brown and Williamson chemist and whistleblower Jeffrey Wygand (Russell Crowe) and "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino).
If you haven't seen it, I couldn't recommend it more highly. It's the kind of movie I admire the most: uncompromisingly serious, beautifully made, and touching on every theme there is, working on a vast intricate canvas like a Tolstoy novel. I also find it incredibly moving. It's
good.
The truth is Jordan, I am probably the most "conservative" person on the blog. I believe in Capitalism, but we have a society that loves to tell us what to do, and loves to take care of us. If that is the "norm" then there is no excuse for cigarettes. They could never be passed by the FDA, USDA, etc, they exist only because they produce too much tax revenue. What then is the "moral high ground" for restricting drugs, guns, food additives, or anything else. You should not be able to have it both ways. The problem with both liberals and conservatives is that ideology is too easily influenced by economics.
My brother has been trying to get me to see The Insider for years, I will try to check it out for both of you soon.
BTW: Whirly, your posts make me laugh. I dig angry chicks (no sexism meant).
Jordan, should we start a Blog called "Jordan and Miko Rant into the Night"? This seems to be becoming a habit...
LOL.
I'll debate politics with you all day and all night. I have a track record of turning conservatives around. I paint them on the side of my fighter plane, one by one!
Conservatives go from describing me as "one of the few liberals who makes sense" to "a guy who actually makes some good points" to, eventually (and grudgingly) "the person who got me to see things clearly enough to abandon conservatism." Tall order, I know, but I can do it.
The fact that you have a fighter plane shows you are internally a little conservative...
Also, you're too late. I have been an Independent since 1996, and I don't think a conservative nor liberal could even tell me what the hell their side stands for anymore. I like "common-sense" people who are willing to listen to alternate viewpoints from those they believe themselves. The "believe themselves" point is the big one, to believe because you have thought about an issue, maybe even (god willing) researched it a little rather than believe because a party leader or candidate tells you to believe.
While there are traditional liberal issues I don't always agree with, I like the sentiment behind them. I think doing something because it might help others has a nobility and honor to it that supersedes its faults.
(But, what the hell do I know, I didn't finish college, was a cop in the military, and work for one of the 5 largest corporations in the world, that's three strikes isn't it? lol)
It would be three strikes if I was as prone to applying labels as the people you're complaining about.
The first thing is to draw a distinction between party affiliation and political philosophy. I have a good friend who is extremely Conservative (capital "c") but is emphatically not a Republican.
Similarly, I have nothing but contempt for most Democratic elected officials, even though I describe myself as a fervent, far-left Liberal. (Or "Progressive," to use the word that we use because the Right has successfully tarnished the word "Liberal" so that it conjures up nothing but bad associations for many Americans.)
Once you draw this crucial distinction, it frees you to discuss the mechanics of politics (candidates, elected officials, party affiliations, parlimentary procedures) from the theory of politics (What works; what doesn't; what it's all for; who owes what to whom). This is the first step in having a productive conversation.
To begin with, "Fighter plane" = "conservative" is an inaccurate cliché. Conservatives love to paint Liberals as pacifists. This is not necessarily a willful distortion, but it's still correct.
Identifying Conservatism with "patriotism" and "self-reliance" (and equating Liberalism with "pacifism" and "moral relativism") are rhetorical slight-of-hand that don't hold up under scrutiny.
It's still INcorrect
Liberalism at its core is about willfully correcting natural imbalances.
We correct natural imbalances (e.g. inequitable force relations that exist in a State of Nature) because that's what Civilization is for. Over the centuries, science, medicine, philosophy, and politics follow a progressive arc, because that's the essence of the project of Civilization. Nature favors the strong, obliterates the weak and doesn't care about the individual. Human society is an artificial creation, developed over hundreds of years, that upholds abstract values and morals by actively reversing this natural trend. Modern-day politics is a distillation of this trend into a dynamic equation, and Liberalism (in its pure form) is (I believe and argue) the correct side of the equation to be on.
Damn, I had a whole other post that described why I had to go to bed, but I will answer that last post. Yes, I was being obstinate with the fighter plane comment...my thing is being a wiseass, I can't let those kinds of digs go.
I think patriotism is the most misunderstood, and misused trait in politics today. I DO NOT believe that pacifism, nor discussion of use of force means someone is not a patriot. I also, however, do not believe that because someone supports the military and flies the flag means they are a naive, uneducated buffoon that is somehow being tricked. We have all been manipulated into fighting each other, like the gladiator games in ancient Rome, the battles are meant to distract from the rot from within...
Why has it become that a disagreement on ideology, or even verbage, means we cannot find any common ground at all? I can disagree with someone, and still call them friend...yet, this is what our leaders would like to discourage.
Am I rambling?
That's interesting Jordan. (I do not mean this in a sarcastic way, just in case you were wondering). If I agree with your theory, it would explain why Liberalism has such a difficult time of it...it is fighting against "the natural state of things". Like a city built on the sea, it can stand, but suffers constant damage, and requires perpetual upkeep. Hmmm.
My my, this went a long way without me.
Cigarettes bad! A thing about me is that I don't tend to acquire tastes -- if a thing tastes bad the first time, I don't go back. Wine was my only exception until a few years ago when I started enjoying the occasional shot of Jameson (the Berkeley party years, May 2005 to July 2007, very much over now).
That means that beer, coffee and cigarettes have always been off the list. For about two weeks in college I would occasionally try a cig, but I had to be a few vodkas in to even think about it. After the third night coming home feeling like crap and thinking I drank too much, I realized I was feeling a completely different (and worse) kind of crap and that it was the cigs. Never went back.
Based on my immediate assessment, Jordan's Liberalism vs. State of Nature schematic would seem to dovetail nicely with unchecked Conservative capatalism going along with the state of nature, i.e. "crush the weak." Kind of a sloppy tie-in, but there you have it.
"Crush the weak" also being the slogan of the Harvard debate tournament. Remember those days, Miko? Trudging around Cambridge getting snow in our loafers?
from amy winehouse to political philosophy: this is why i love the blog.
i irritate husband (a good liberal) by a. hesitating to comment on political issues until i feel i understand them and b. refusing to let any party or ideology dictate what to think or how to feel about any issue and c. believing that my "reason" for almost any political opinion is probably a rationalization at some level.
ergo, we rarely talk politics in my family.
I'm going to move back to AC's comment about the vets refusing hospital beds so they could smoke cigarettes. That comment made me think of my father that sadly is highly addicted to cigarettes. He has not been to a movie theater since 1970 because he can't make it through the length of a movie without smoking at least ten cigarettes. He said he would miss more than half the movie smoking so it would be pointless to try.
He wants to quit, but he has this superstitious notion in his head that if he quits he'll end up with cancer, which you see so often. A person smokes most their life, finally quits, is diagnosed with cancer, and then dies. Logically, he knows quitting smoking isn't going to give him cancer. I think he feels he's too old to bother trying, and he's pretty much convinced himself that he's going to die soon. He says that sometimes, and I'll ask why he says things like that, and his answer is always that he has smoked most of his life. Even though he hasn't been diagnosed with cancer, he believes that someday he will. He’s convinced that all his years of smoking have caused permanent damage. I still try and encourage him to quit every time I see him, but as I know, you can talk until you are blue in the face, but a smoker will never quit until they’re ready. It’s so easy to block out what you don’t want to hear.
I tried to comment last night about the whole smoking thing but blogger wasn't letting me, so I missed all this.
Cigarettes suck. I did manage to quit a bunch of years ago, but hubby has been unable to do so successfully. I oscillate between laying off him and hounding him about it. Realistically I know what I say is not going to make him quit. He hasn't even been able to do it for the kids, and he would do anything in the world for them. So, yeah - cigarettes suck.
My wife's father has less than a year to live, lung cancer, smoked like a bastard his entire life.
I frankly have trouble sympathizing. I have no doubt that Jordan is right about the tobacco industry genetically engineering addictive qualities to their products but come the fuck on. Nobody has the right to use the excuse that they didn't know it was bad for them. There is more than enough information out there, everywhere you look, loudly and very succinctly describing the horrors and dangers of smoking. For the last couple of decades you can't even get on a subway without seeing the revolting picture of a smoker's lung, black and filled with tar. Yes, you are fighting your bloodstream. But at what point is one expected to take personal responsibility? If you don't respect yourself then why should I or anyone else respect you?
I'm sorry DCD, I wrote that before I read your comment. I didn't know your husband smoked..
And yes it's easy for me to sit back and judge others now that I got over the habit. I'm well aware that it's much easier said than done.
Smoking sucks. Sometimes I think it's a form of self-punishment.
Nobody has the right to use the excuse that they didn't know it was bad for them. There is more than enough information out there, everywhere you look, loudly and very succinctly describing the horrors and dangers of smoking.
Do you know how long it took, how much litigation was involved, and how hard the tobacco industry fought against those warning labels on cigarette packs?
Do you know about the active campaigns in the PR and advertising departments of tobacco companies who work to figure out ways to get teenagers and children interested in smoking?
Do you know how much money was spent on lobbying and legal defense to prevent Washington from learning the truth about harmful cigarette additives, manufacturing techniques, and the aforementioned chemical processes designed to increase the addictive properties of cigarettes?
Do you know how hard public advocacy groups have fought, with only moderate success, to get anti-smoking messages and PSAs into schools, communities and advertising?
Do you know how long it took, and how much struggle was involved, to get cigarette ads off of television and out of magazines? (And have you ever seen vintage ads that show Fred Flintstone, for example, smoking cigarettes?)
Do you realize that a mere twenty-five years ago it was nearly impossible to see a major hollywood film without the charismatic lead actors and actresses smoking through the entire movie?
Do you know how difficult it is to find a photograph of Rod Serling, Humphrey Bogart, or Frank Sinatra without a cigarette?
Wow, try top address it all...
AC, I love that approach!! I think making your own decisions is the only way to go about politics. Liberal for the sake of Liberal or Conserva....oh you know what I mean. I like it.
Octo, I DO remember Harvard, how funny that the nerdiest of nerds came up with "crush the weak"...perhaps they should have re-thought that in regards to the rest of their lives...
Whirly, sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't just let older folks do what they're gonna do, the guilt of not being able to accomplish it must suck...not that I advocate giving up...but…
D, I cannot recommend the "Commit" lozenges enough!!!! I tried Zyban, Patches, Inhalers, Gum, Will-power (yeah right) then I tried the lozenges. The mint tastes good, they sit in the mouth (for the oral fixation) and are almost instantaneous in the nicotine delivery. Sure, they recommend them for 12 weeks and I was on them for two years, but they worked!!!
JSP, sorry about the father-in-law.
I never know how much to share on a public blog, but we just found out yesterday my ole’ man has Esophageal cancer , probably due to smoking and drinking for the 1st 45 years of his life. Yep, cigarettes suck…
(The worst part is he doesn't yet have the lake house paid off...(srry, couldn't resist some gallows humor))
Nothing for me? What am I -- chopped liver?
Jordan I understand what you're saying but I don't see the point. Yes it was a long, hard battle but wasn't the battle won? Now every man, woman and child is well informed that smoking is a killer. Does that not make the habit inexcusable?
Miko - I'm really sorry to hear about your dad.
Group Horrorthon cyber-hug everybody?
Jordan, I am actually wiping tears from my eyes that made me laugh so hard!
(You didn't respond to my last posts from last night, so perhaps it was spiteful vengeance)
Jordan, you kicked ass with your last comment. It's dead on!
JSP, it's true that many people are now informed, but people like mine and Mikos father were not. Sure you could say that after they found out how bad it was they could have quit, but the problem is that cigarettes are highly addictive, especially after years of heavy smoking. Smokers just keep making excuses for themselves. I know I did it. You tell yourself that you haven’t been smoking that long, and you still have time to quit, but then ten or fifteen years goes by and you find yourself still saying that.
I was better informed then my father’s generation was about the dangers of smoking, but I was still far from being informed. I knew smoking was bad, but at the same time I really didn't. I have a younger sister who is sixteen, and she knows how foul cigarettes are and would never pick one up. I'm so glad that her generation is being educated. This education was not around when I started smoking at fifteen. I should have never been smoking at fifteen years old, or ever.
I had no idea Fred Flintstone was a smoker but I guess I can't blame him. It must have been very stressful working for Mr. Slate, living in constant fear of losing your job.
It makes me wonder how he managed to kick the habit. Perhaps a small patch-like dinosaur sucked the nicotine out of his bloodstream.
I hear you Whirlygirl.
DCD, I recommend the gum. I tried the patch years ago and it made me sick, but the gum rocked. I loved the pepper taste. I was actually concerned I might have to start chewing gum sprinkled with pepper to get off the nicorette. The huge appeal for me was being able to chew the gum anywhere and anytime I wanted. I'd be walking in the store chewing my gum and thinking, "look at me; I'm like having a cigarette in a store." I actually ended up getting off the gum fairly quickly. I think I chewed it for about a month and then I got deathly ill with the flu and couldn’t stomach chewing it.
Oh Whirlygirl, you and that gum! For months all I heard was how much you liked the pepper taste. The pepper, the pepper!
Our cousin Judi threatened her husband with divorce last summer because he was a chain-smoker and her kids developed asthma. Amazingly this tough love approach worked and he went cold turkey. Oddly enough the guy lost a ton of weight afterwards and now looks like a million bucks. Meanwhile Judi continues to grow larger and she suffered a minor heart attack recently (at age 39). Go figure.
The patch did it for me. It gave me crazy dreams, though.
Way to spill the family beans JPX.
I'd like to see more of these kinds of discussions. How does everyone feel about abortion? (Just kidding..)
To make my point more clearly, JSP:
Fine, let's assume you're correct and there's no excuse for starting smoking, because everyone knows how bad it is.
On the other hand, look at these 42 comments. The Horrorthoners and their families: how many smokers? How many recovering smokers? How many trying and failing to quit?
The point is, you try it. You're a teenager; you think it's cool; you're hanging with people who smoke; there's a girl/guy whom you like who smokes, etc., etc., etc. and then you try it.
You may be fully aware of how dangerous it is. (Even though I believe that a person under 20 doesn't really understand disease and mortality at all.) But you have no fucking idea what a snakepit of addiction you've just walked into. That's the point I was emphasizing above: it's like ten times more addictive than anyone realizes. And that's what trumps everyone's knowledge, everyone's ability to "know better."
Don't believe me? Read over these comments. We've all been there.
Except for octopunk, who's addicted to Lego.
JPX is clean-as-a-whistle too, the sonovabitch... But someday I hope to get some dirt on him and when I do you'll all be the first to know!
Point taken Jordan. Sigh, you're right again... When I was 21 I assured myself I would stop at 25. When I turned 25 I said "well I said I'd quit at 25 so I'll wait until the day before my 26th birthday. Makes sense, right? When I turned 26 I figured, well what's the point of quitting at 26? As long as I quit by 30 - no harm, no foul. And so forth. You're right, the human brain will accept any half-baked rationalization or logic as long as the end result feeds the addiction. I apologize for coming across as arrogant or insensitive but surely you're all used to that by now, right?
Jordan, I had insane nightmares too on the patch. One night my body jolted out of a bed like a...a, screw it, you know what I mean. My body was drenched in sweat and shaky. I ripped the patch off and went back to bed,and in the morning woke up with intense nicotine cravings.
JSP, I'll give you some dirt on JPX. I'll whisper it.
...did you hear me?
JPX did take a drag of my cigarette once. He coughed for days after. I was very pleased that he didn't like it.
miko, i am so sorry to hear about your dad. that is just awful news. and johnny, i am sorry to hear about rf's dad. :(
jpx tried a cigarette? that is astonishing. whirlygirl, thank you for making my day! jpx, no worries, i won't disclose your secret. i am giggling over here just trying to picture it....
and johnny sweatpants, thank you for cracking me up with your "family beans" comment.
what are the limits to disclosures on the blog anyway? i would hate to be the one to cross the line.
Damn, this is one crazy post! You are right Jordan, it is interesting to see how many people here alone have been affected.
Miko, so sorry to hear about your Dad...keep me posted.
Whirly - Rick has used the gum a few times and seems to think that it what is going to do it for him eventually. He's tried Wellbutrin, patch and hypnosis, to no avail. I'll suggest the lozenges, there was a new drug out I wanted him to try until I heard it can bring on psychotic episodes. Not so much into that idea!!
Thanks ladies, it is terrible news, we had hoped he would own the vacation home free and clear before he died...now who knows?
(guess we can hang out in hell Whirly)
AC, don't worry, if anyone is going to inappropriately post too much personal info, I'm sure it will be me....
I can feel the flames already
Post a Comment