inhalers

Months after quitting smoking, I get to see interesting items relating to tobacco.  In a trip to Bicol in November, I find myself in my cousin’s sari-sari store which is stocked with a cigarette named “Winnsboro” which appears to be a hybrid of two famous cigarette brands.

I have no idea just how much the Philip Morris – Fortune Tobacco merger influenced the name.  But based on the green color, I’m pretty sure this one’s menthol.

Upon further research, well, googling, I found that Winnsboro is the name of at least three cities located in three different states (South Carolina, Louisiana and Texas) in the United States.  So it may just be possible that the cigarette was named after these cities much in the same way that the Winston and Salem brands were derived from the city of Winston – Salem.

Up next is a calendar issued by a tobacco company:

The calendar is unique since unlike the usual ones given out by tobacco and alcohol manufacturers which feature a half-naked female, it instead features someone praying to a representation of the Virgin Mary.  Quite accurate considering that after developing emphysema or some other respiratory condition, you will find solace in prayer and not in pictures of half-naked women.

Opening

Being the luddite that I am, I have belatedly embraced the blogging culture.  This is explains why I created my own blog about a decade after I signed up for my first email account in 2000 (which was discarded after the provider decided to discontinue its free service a few months after I signed up). 

As a tribute to the decade past, here is a scanned photo of me and my classmates in law school taken in October 2000 with my trusty 35 mm canon camera;

and a picture of some members of the same group taken during the recent UP Law Alumni Homecoming in November 2010