Latest news with #MiaWallace
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Have you noticed smoking is making a comeback? I hate that. I love that.
The sight of snuffed cigarette butts in an ashtray might feel jarringly anachronistic these days, given successful efforts to curtail the smelly act for decades. Nonetheless, we're edging toward a resurgence, at least in popular culture, of the classic combustion of an old-school cigarette, even if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assures us rates aren't yet increasing. Unfortunately, I've fallen into the quiet resurgence. I'm a 46-year-old diabetic who tries to be healthy, yet after quitting 20 years ago, I find myself back in the alley occasionally (always shamefully) puffing as I hold pleasure and consequence in the same breath. My friends call it nostalgia. I think it's deeper – a defiant exhale of the angst and authenticity I crave in an uncertain world. Smoking was eradicated. Now it's creeping back into the mainstream. The historical canon of smoking is well-documented from early 20th century glamour and association with sophistication, rebellion and artistic freedom – see flappers, film noir, World War II soldiers, the Beat Generation, the Marlboro Man and Bob Dylan. I grew up in the haze of the 1990s when smoking wasn't just a habit, it was a personality – raw and rebellious – butts smeared with Courtney Love's red lipstick, the thrift-store fantasy of "Reality Bites," the sultry detachment of Mia Wallace in "Pulp Fiction." But smoking fell out of favor over the past several decades, transforming the cigarette from an emblem of cool into a symbol of a bygone era, fraught with undeniable health consequences. Increased spending on public health campaigns successfully shifted public perception in the 1990s and early 2000s as tobacco control media campaigns vilified the act. Opinion: Is it Alzheimer's or am I just getting old? Here's how to find an answer. In 1998, federal law prohibited paid smoking product placement on TV and in the movies, and subsequent smoking bans made it difficult to light up where secondhand smoke might blow. Taxes made cigarettes pricey, and in 2007, the Motion Picture Association of America began considering cigarette use as a factor in film ratings. Meanwhile, I managed to quit smoking while navigating my career and a second marriage, as anti-smoking campaigns gained traction and thankfully weakened tobacco's power. Decades later, the old-school act of combusting nicotine is back in the zeitgeist. The New York Times recently reported on the aesthetic resurgence of smoking, and even the Republican Party brought the act back to the U.S. Capitol in 2023. Eight in 10 of the 2025 Oscar best picture nominees featured tobacco imagery. In the new Netflix show 'Too Much,' the character Felix practically begs you to tell him smoking isn't cool, as he puffs between his nail-polished fingers and we swoon. Mistrust of institutions and our angst are why smoking is back This cultural phenomenon unfolds against a backdrop of deep and precipitous institutional distrust in the U.S. government and a decline in trust across various sectors from 2021 to 2024, including pharmacies, hospitals, social service agencies, fire departments, universities, police departments and public health departments. Concurrent to these visual cues of lighting up, global anti-smoking efforts are quietly being defunded in favor of even bigger world problems. Without dedicated efforts to keep smokers focused on the undeniable health consequences, are we soon to face an even bigger health crisis? Recent legislation will surely compromise health care for 17 million Americans in the near term. Opinion: I'm taking a stand against jacked-up airline fees by taking the middle seat This rebirth points to a deeper longing for control. This stance was well-spun by Kurt Vonnegut when he said, 'The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide.' In this chosen ritual, however infrequent, I signal a visceral middle finger to ambient anxieties and constant demands for optimization. I scroll my phone anxiously as I'm bombarded by news that's not immediately credible, often a polarized take on fleeting democratic norms. Smoking is terrible for my health. But it helps feed my need to rebel. Smoking offers a palpable pause, a singular moment of physical presence in an existence mediated by the ever-present pressure of political machinations. And when those threats feel ambient and involuntary, smoking is a sensory language all its own, where the health consequences almost fade to black (like my lungs) as I relish each tantalizing feature of personal agency. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. If I asked my therapist why I returned to a pack of Kool 100 Milds as a way to subconsciously control the world's chaos, she'd likely say it's like thumb sucking, a childish habit that I need to eradicate – immediately. I can't disagree. Smoking is awful for my health. Still, the choice to engage with a known threat paradoxically feels safer than the chaos beyond my control, where fundamental freedoms, like the right to bodily autonomy, are increasingly debated and denied. It speaks to my desire for imperfection, a reclaiming of agency over my body, and deliberate choices in defiance of a societal narrative that often conflates moral virtue with absolute health. For those, like me, who sometimes justify with a 'one or two won't kill me,' it's important to remember all the reasons we quit in the first place. In addition to the risk of lung cancer or worse, I remind myself of the absurdity of Botoxing my forehead wrinkles and injecting Ozempic if I'm willing to suck on a cancer stick. I put saccharine, bubble-gum flavored vapes and nicotine pouches in this category, too – they're all really bad for our health. There's no dispute on that, whether or not we fully demonize smoking. And maybe the fact that we all know how bad it is is the problem. Smoking is Chapter 1 of the original anti-authority playbook, creeping back into consciousness the minute we look away. Akin to slipping on my classic black leather jacket, it will never truly go out of style. Society, it seems, once again sanctions both as my potent symbols of defiance in a world rife with involuntary consequences. Andrea Javor is a freelance writer and marketing executive based in Chicago. She spends her free time playing poker and working on her memoir. Connect with her on Instagram: @AndreaEJavor You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is smoking coming back? Cigarettes still hold power over us | Opinion Solve the daily Crossword
Scottish Sun
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Original Star Wars poster from 1977 to fetch a whopping £5,000 at auction – do you have one in your attic?
Another poster features one of the most iconic pictures of all time EMPIRE CASH BACK Original Star Wars poster from 1977 to fetch a whopping £5,000 at auction – do you have one in your attic? AN ORIGINAL Star Wars poster from 1977 is set to fetch a whopping £5,000 at auction. Sc-fi nuts have the chance to own a piece of movie history with a poster depicting the first ever Jedi film. Advertisement 5 A poster showing Uma Thurman's iconic character Mia Wallace is on sale at the auction Credit: Jam Press/Ewbanks 5 A legendary Star Wars poster is expected to sell for up to £5,000 Credit: Jam Press/Ewbanks 5 The image on the Jaws poster is one of the most famous pictures of all time Credit: Jam Press/Ewbanks Originally titled 'Star Wars', the film was renamed in 1981 'Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope' when more films were made. The poster features iconic characters including Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker and Harrison Ford's maverick hero Han Solo. Princess Leia, portrayed by the late actress Carrie Fisher, is also featured on the poster with her iconic sci-fi hairdo. The 30 by 40 inch poster was designed by Tom Chantrell for George Lucas' iconic film franchise and is now being sold at the Ewbank's vintage poster auction. Advertisement The sale ends on 19 May and is taking place in Woking, Surrey. Movie fans can also get their hands on a poster for the 1967 horror classic 'Frankenstein Created Woman'. Star Wars icon Peter Cushing - who played the villain in a New Hope - can be seen on the poster starring as Victor Frankenstein. The piece of movie history has an estimated value of £4,000. Advertisement Quentin Tarantino's cult classic 'Pulp Fiction' is next on the sales list with a lucky strike style poster. The poster, featuring the Uma Thurman's iconic character Mia Wallace on the cover, is expected to go for £2,500. A poster of Steven Spielberg's shark thriller Jaws poster is also heading under the hammer with the poster being one of the most iconic film pictures of all time. The poster from the 1975 film, which is widely considered the first ever summer blockbuster movie, has an estimated value of £1,500. Advertisement A £1,200 priced 'Dial M for Murder' poster from the 1954 mystery thriller, is also featuring in the auction. The whodunit featured Grace Kelly - better known as Grace of Monaco - and Welsh-American actor Ray Milland. Finally, a poster for Kurt Russel's 1986 action comedy 'Big Trouble in Little China' is set to fetch £800. Big Trouble in Little China was released in 1986 and was directed by John Carpenter - the man behind Halloween and Escape from New York. Advertisement It also featured Sex and the City actress Kim Cattrall and has become a cult classic. Rare posters regularly sell for up to £5000 as fans race to take home a piece of music or cinema history. Posters for events such as the Isle of Wight festival in 1970 and The Bath Festivals of 1960 and 1970 are especially popular, thanks to performances from bands including Fleetwood Mac. One James Bond fan announced his plan to sell his huge collection of 007 memorabilia, which experts valued at £1 million. Advertisement Steve Oxenrider owned over 32,000 items related to the British secret agent, including a Dr No poster which was valued at £15,000. 5 Dial M for Murder starred the Hollywood legend Grace Kelly Credit: Jam Press/Ewbanks
