Smoke Gets in Your Tummy
Why do we smoke and not eat or drink tobacco?
———- from Virginia Slim ofNewport News, Va.
It would seem to be a case of natural selection. In truth, many ancient cultures decided to eat, drink and even wear tobacco but somehow only the few surviving smokers have made it to the near-Millenium. Archaeologists, ironically, have found evidence of a large tobacco-eating culture in ancient North Carolina. This culture ? known as the Helmsmen — possessed a religion based on suicide and a government that demanded universal abstinence from sex. The culture flourished for a generation and then mysteriously disappeared (though sightings of human dinosaurs from the era are reported from time to time in the Washington, D.C. area). For us, it simply leaves us another mystery to ponder as we scientists sit back and munch on an after-dinner cigarette.
It would seem to be a case of natural selection. In truth, many ancient cultures decided to eat, drink and even wear tobacco but somehow only the few surviving smokers have made it to the near-Millenium. Archaeologists, ironically, have found evidence of a large tobacco-eating culture in ancient North Carolina. This culture ? known as the Helmsmen — possessed a religion based on suicide and a government that demanded universal abstinence from sex. The culture flourished for a generation and then mysteriously disappeared (though sightings of human dinosaurs from the era are reported from time to time in the Washington, D.C. area). For us, it simply leaves us another mystery to ponder as we scientists sit back and munch on an after-dinner cigarette. 