I decided to put this here seen as though this thread has smoking in its roots, and so I thought I'd put it here.
This guy is the oldest man in the world. He's 115. He smoked for 76 years, giving up when he was 90. And yet he's still around! He puts it down to never drinking alcahol. Sure, he's almost deaf, he's blind and can't walk, but he's still alive!
World's Oldest Man, Emiliano Mercado del Toro
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller