Dumb is the New Cool

Don't call it a comeback! Why such a long pause? Not sure, call it writer's block or maybe I just found myself venting on the same issues all the time such as traffic or people's uncanny ability to be self-absorbed.

Since I'm on the subject, there was this one this one person I came across today that was so caught up in her own little world that she hadn't a care in the world and was oblivious to the chaos she was causing around her. First off, she was on the phone (not hands free) so she decided to pull over. Admirable, right? Would have been if it wasn't for the fact that she pulled over to a curb where there was NO PARKING ANYTIME...and for good reason. She was parked in the middle of a driving lane. But she just proceeded to laugh and enjoy her conversation and cigarette as drivers behind her had to come to a quick halt from around the corner and end up dodging traffic in the opposing lane to get around her little red mini Coop. This type of thing unconscious behavior angers me. I gave her a dirty stare which she noticed a few times but not enough for her to say "what the f*** you looking at?" but probably enough for her to tell the party on the other line of my creepy glare. Then she moved up a notch on my list of despicable people by flicking her cigarette on out the window! Yuck! Not only is it a horrible, dirty habit, but many smokers feel they not only have to share their smoke with non-smokers by blowing it in their direction, but there going to flick dirty ashes out car windows and flick their dirty butts on the ground? What is up with that? I felt like going over, picking it up and handing it back to her. "Did you drop this?" Which brings me to a question...why do people still smoke?

Now, I can understand people who smoked for years who were brought up in a generation that thought smoking made you look cool, but why is today's youth still smoking? In a time when smokers have been pretty much cast out to their tiny little designated areas, kicked out of bars and restaurants and must be so many feet from buildings almost like a person with a restraining order against them. I can (almost)understand back in the day when it was promoted as cool with iconic actors like Bogart, James Dean or Bette Davis looking sophisticated puffing away, but in today's world with all the ugliness against the big tobacco companies and the overwhelming data of how detrimental it is to the health of the person smoking and the people and children around them...young persons smoking no longer looks cool. They look dumb. And three times as dumb when they are smoking, blocking traffic and littering. All in the name of self-absorption. I guess dumb is the new cool?