Thank You For Smoking: I spy a sequel

There was a long and mostly positive feature about e-cigarettes in yesterday's Guardian.

Sublimely written by Will Storr – a former smoker who took up vaping whilst researching his article – there were times however when it bordered on satire to the extent that I was reminded of Christopher Buckley's exquisite Thank You For Smoking.

Who knew, for example, that "The range of flavours has expanded to more than 8,000 and now includes roast beef, unicorn milk and vagina mist."

Or that exhaling vapour through your nose and the sides of the mouth is called "the dragon".

Or that vapers known as "cloud chasers" compete to see who can create the largest amount of vapour.

Adding to the fun were comments from Michael Clapper of e-cigarette company Vapestick who Storr described as "part boardroom, part boxer".

Being the Guardian, of course, there had to be sting in the tail and having described, vividly and in some detail, what happened when coach driver John Walter's e-cigarette exploded (he and his family are now living in a Premier Inn).

If Buckley doesn't write a sequel Storr should. He's done the research and the title is obvious - Thank You For Vaping.

Nick Naylor is now an e-cig lobbyist and, well, I'll leave you to fill in the blanks.

But first, read Storr's article: E-cigarettes: is vaping any safer than old-fashioned smoke? (Guardian). Entertaining and informative.

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

The dragon? As in chasing the dragon?? These vapers should be very careful of the language they use or they'll shoot themselves in the foot for giving Nanny Public Health an opportunity to label them as the worst kind of drug addict who must be controlled http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chasing+the+dragon

[david]

Oh dear, an almost literal example of spitting one's dummy out of the pram...