My favorite burger joint, W&M Bar-B-Q Burger in Kaimuki, is now selling homemade almond and chocolate chip cookies baked by owner Joy Kunimitsu.
Have you seen the surveillance video that shows a woman who, while texting on her smartphone, fell into a fountain in a Pennsylvania mall?
Well, now that woman — Cathy Cruz Marrero — is considering legal action, saying the video, which was seen by more than 2 million people, isn’t funny.
Oh, it’s funny — but more than that, it’s proving the dangers (and possibly humiliation) of texting and walking.
And this doesn’t bode well for me, a chronic text-walker.
A proposal to ban crossing the street while holding a mobile electronic device — cell phone, video game, laptop or even cameras — advanced today, making the bill in the City Council a step closer to final passage.
I’m in so much trouble.
The 2009 law that stopped drivers from texting — and using other electronic devices — was hard enough. Now I won’t be able to browse Google maps or shoot an email while crossing the street. In fact, under Bill 43, I couldn’t even just hold an electronic device, much less use it.
Lawmakers in other states — Arkansas and New York, most recently — are cracking down on distracted pedestrians, too.
But is this really a solution? Should it matter that a pedestrian — namely me — wants to text while crossing the street? And why just crossing the street? That woman who fell into the fountain wouldn’t have been fined. Just publicly humiliated on YouTube. But that’s OK, right?
The other day I overheard some teenage girls chatting at the mall about a boy one of their other friends was hanging out with.
And they weren’t happy about it.
Not because the boy was a jerk or he was practically failing out of high school.
No.
They didn’t like him because he smoked.
“Ew,” one teen said, scrunching up her face. “That’s just disgusting.”
We’ve come along way from the days when smoking was considered cool. In fact, smoking rates are down from a generation ago, thanks to awareness about the health risks, a ban on tobacco ads broadcast on TV and government-mandated restrictions of smoking in public spaces.
According to Dr. Cynthia J. Goto, spokesperson for the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline, smoking has decreased dramatically over the past decade.
But despite what seems like common knowledge that smoking is bad for you — heck, it’s even printed on the packaging! — there are still an estimated 24.8 million men and 21.1 million women in the United States who smoke, according to the American Heart Association.
In Hawaii alone, tobacco use is the state’s No. 1 cause of preventable death and it costs the state $104 million a year in health care costs to treat just female smokers suffering from tobacco-related illnesses. And that’s despite a statewide ban of smoking in all public places, enacted in November 2006.
So why do people still smoke?
Well, most times people start when they’re young — and dumb. Nearly 80 percent of all adult smokers became regular smokers by the age of 18, reported the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, with 90 percent doing so before exiting their teen years.
According to folks who responded to my callout on Facebook and Twitter, some said they smoke when they’re stressed, others when they’re bored and a lot — more than I had expected — when they’re drinking. (Something about a buzz.) I know one person who used to smoke when he drove home late a night just to keep him awake. Go figure.
But in all, no one really wants to smoke. They may miss it — as many of my friends who quit do — but they know it’s better to stay away from the cancer sticks.
Not that’s it’s that easy to quit.
Some used the patch; others tried to quit cold turkey. I know a few who tried using electric cigarettes to no avail.
The hardest part about quitting smoking, said Goto, is changing your routine.
“For some people, they hardest part may be being around other smokers,” she said. “For others, it’s hard to do activities that they did while smoking. For example, some smokers are used to drinking coffee and smoking early in the morning. For both of these, it would be best if, for the first few weeks, you change your routine. The cravings are the hardest for the first two to four weeks, so it would be best if you can stay away from things that trigger your cravings for smoking.”
But there’s no point in smoking. Really. It can lead to various cancers and diseases, including heart disease and stroke, not to mention it’s just plain foul.
And let’s not forget death. That’s an unsurprising result of smoking, too.
“I used to smoke when I was stressed. It may be in my head but it did calm me,” said friend Lena Hanson via Facebook. “My dad died last year from emphysema and smoking for 40-plus years. It’s a horrible, long process. It’s not easy watching someone die slowly.”
Makes me glad I never started.
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CALL TO ACTION
This week is National Women’s Health Week, a week-long health observance that empowers women to make their health a top priority and encourages them to take simple steps for a longer, healthier, and happier life.
And one of those things is to quit smoking. Here are some tips, courtesy of the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline:
• Throw out the cigarettes: Having them around is a temptation you just don’t need.
• Know your smoking triggers: Your mind is conditioned to want a cigarette in certain places, at specific events, when you’re with particular people, or when you’re feeling a certain emotion. As you’re in the process of quitting, take the time to recondition your mind to deal with these people, places and things without a puff.
• Drink lots of water: Cigarettes contain thousands of toxins. While you’re quitting, take the opportunity to flush some of the poisons out with water,
For more resources or for help, contact the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline, (800) QUIT-NOW or (800) 784-8669.
