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Friday, December 21st, 2007

Ah, Memories…

Over at Defective Yeti, there’s a post about things you hate to see in the movies. One person complained:

Certain actors use smoking as a way to eeeeeeeeee-mote and show that their character is either edgy or stressed out or both. But [...] you can tell they don’t know the first thing about smoking. They fling the cigarette around like a crazy person

Maybe they were coached by my philosophy professor. Seriously.

This guy was an old, self-absorbed, chain-smoking codger. I never saw him without a cigarette in his hand. He was very animated…and he always talked with his hands, even while lecturing.

So every morning, he’d pace around the classroom, making his argument and waving this cigarette around like–well, like a crazy person, actually, flinging sparks and bits of ash onto your desk. Everyone ducked as he walked by. He’d go on for fifteen or twenty minutes without ever touching the cigarette to his mouth once.

As he built up to his finale, he jabbed the cigarette at the front row, punctuating every point with a startled gasp from the closest student. He’d mark his conclusion by (finally!) putting the cigarette in his mouth and taking the deepest, most desperate draw you’ve ever heard (like he was getting his first breath oxygen after 3 minutes under water…or bogarting a joint).

At first we thought he was trying to keep us awake (8:30 am Metaphysics class, you know), but then we noticed he had the exact same mannerisms while playing chess.

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