10/15-10/21: The Virtues of Vices

Do vices have virtues? Do you drink coffee, smoke, live the high life, wear high heels, get high? Do you let the grass grow high or go to bed without brushing your teeth? What's your vice and how would you defend it?

Here's what Tripod members had to say:

Syndie: Hmmmm only one vice? I have so many! :) well I suppose it would have to be my smoking. I love my cigarettes, (Camel Lights), and no one can take them away from me. I'm in college carrying 18 credits, work a part-time job, pledging a sorority, and have a fiancee to worry about. I'm busy so I don't get time to eat -- they work there (smokes are an apatite suppressent). They ease my multitudes of stress, espically my sexual tension (since I'm so busy there is no sex in my life). And anyway do people really think at 21 that I don't know that smoking is bad? I'm so sick of people coming up to me, COMPLETE STRANGERS, and saying something like "Thoes can kill you." I KNOW IT ALREADY I CAN READ THE SIDE OF A BOX!!! Anyway do they think I'm going to say "OH MY GOD I didn't know that, I'll put these away right now..." Get real! I love my smokes and they love me!

Kimmy: I am terribly messy, but, recently I read this: (sorry, source unknown) "A recent survey of top corporations reveals what poets have always known: A modicum of chaos can increase your productivity; there's a link between untidiness and creativity. According to the study, the companies that grew the fastest last year also happened to have the most executives with messy desks. On the other hand, businesses dominated by neatniks suffered declines. Wild minds boost the bottom line."

PhoenixElaine: When does an indulgence become a vice? I smoke maybe a pack a year (which my doctor dismissed as not smoking), have beer or wine or liquor maybe once a week on average, and wouldn't begin to think of these as vices. So, perhaps it's more the frequency and whether the behavior interferes with what you want at some level? In that case, I suppose my vice would be TV: Hercules, Xena, Bab5, Star Trek (in any incarnation), XFiles, The Highlander, um, I think I'll stop there. It is mind-numbing and fun, definitely helps me escape some of the g'zillion things on my mind. Yet, it eats away the time i would want to use for more important things to me. But it's FUN and RELAXING. I guess I haven't quite defended my vice to myself yet. Anyone convinced????

Colestock: Vices. I smoke cigars (maybe 5-8 a year), occasional cigarettes, usually one or two cigarettes out of a new pack and throw the pack away. All told, I probably smoke 20-30 cigarettes a year at most. I drink a bottle of wine a week and maybe two beers. I never drink more than one beer in a sitting, nor a whole bottle of wine at a sitting. My most pronounced vice that I fight with myself over is coffee drinking. I am usually able to kick the caffeine habit totally in late spring early summer and begin to get it back toward the end of fall. Through the winter months I usually get up to two pots of coffee daily! I know it's bad for me at that level of consumption but I need the pick me up in winter months to think sharply and on my feet at work, and sit through marathon meetings without day dreaming or dozing. I think I have a mild case of Seasonal Affective Disorder that the coffee helps me live with. Anyway, I've noticed no bad side affects other than a concerned glance from my doctor.

Slake: My Vice is....well I'm like a second part of my computer, the keyboard might as well be attached to my finger tips and the monitor hooked to my eyes. But, who cares it's people like me who are making the internet a fun place for everybody. After all I may not have a life now, but someday everybody will answer to me!?!?

SereneMe: My vice is junk food and the caffeine in cold sodas. At this very moment my stomach is "killing" me, because of eating granola bars, cake, and sodas all day long. And to top that off, I went to Aqua aerobics and my stomach is now in one big cramping knot. Other vices are sleeping and procrastinating.

jlin: I smoke cigarettes, drink coffee,take zoloft and anxiety medication, boy how much better can life get.It is my private right to choose my life.I cannot tolerate non-smokers and their holier than thou attitude.I had a friend who was a non-smoker and she used to get on my case about smoking.So I asked her what vices she had and she said getting loaded on weed or alcohol.Most non-smokers have a vice that is worse than tobacco.I see them as emotionaly, sexually, socially mixed up people. They don't like the smell of my cigarette,but yet I have to tolerate their perfumes, colognes or body odor.I am 44 and worked very hard to get my vices.

mszippy: I have my vices alright. I smoked for for nearly 25 years and then quit for 10 years. Quitting was a real trauma. I was working as a card dealer in a casino in Gardena, CA. It didn't take long until I replaced the smoking habit with cocaine. After giving up cocaine, about 6 years ago, I found myself smoking again. I'm really unhappy that I have this horrible habit which is harder to break than using drugs.

I feel that I'm a person who needs a nervous habit. I took the smoking route because it was legal, and I felt the least offensive of the alternatives (like drinking). Now I've become a second class citizen and have the government telling me what I can and can't do at home, in public and at places of business. I don't blame this on the tobacco companies at all. Any smoker has always known how addicting nicotine is, so whether or not a tobacco company lies about it, really makes no difference. I would tend to blame the government for allowing tobacco to ever have been legal. Now, the government which allowed me to get addicted wants to punish me and pass the blame to others. If there is such a great concern about the health hazards of smoking, you'd think that all the time, money and energy going into stigmatizing the smokers and the manufacturers would go toward a program to help people quit smoking.

I am also a compulsive gambler. Not big bucks, but more than I ever could afford. Any time I have any cash at all, (or credit) I run to Stateline NV and gamble non-stop like a maniac until it's gone (although once in a while I actually win and come home with it). First, many years ago I got addicted to the card game Pan. Even became a dealer. I never went home. Work, play, work, play. I ran up every credit card I had until I was penniless...even though I made more money dealing than any other job could possibly ever pay. I don't see how I could ever get cured of this compulsion. I also don't see me having the will power or energy to quit smoking in the near future. I don't get high, drink alcohol or coffee, wear high heels, etc.

I can't defend doing either of these 2 things, but I really don't see how it's anyone else's business since both are legal activities. And yes, there are several times that I go to bed without brushing my teeth first. I won't go to sleep leaving dishes in the sink though, although I'm far from a meticulous housekeeper. As you can tell, I could go on and on, so I'll end here...Bottom line? We probably need a vice to survive.

LarAlex: SereneMe and I must be twins separated at birth because junk food, coca colas, sleeping late and procrastination are vices I will never be able to conquer. My other vice is working too much. My boyfriend gets so mad at me but I love my two jobs and have to schedule him in. Smoking is a disgusting habit I'm glad to not have. My smoking friends are polite and always smoke outside so I don't have to smell like an ashtray too.

mstefanova: Besides smoking 10 cigarettes on the average I am also a heavy drinker. I can go as far as to have 400g of liquor per day (night) and I do that at least twice a week. And I do not get nasty drunk, which according to some people is an indicator of becoming an alcoholic. I can't do without that, especially now that I'm a newcomer to the States and have some problems accommodating. I love my music which in most cases drives the neighbors crazy (unless they grew up with LedZep and Ozzy). I put a skirt on about twice a month, and I sleep till 1:00 or later every day. So far, so good.

vicpic: "You don't have to ask me if I want more coffee before twelve, and you don't have to ask me if I want another beer *after* twelve!" On weekends I really watch the clock and *live* by this motto! Throw in a lot of PC work (teaching computers both day & night) and you've about summed it up. Oh yes, there's the occasional cigar (Swisher Sweets) that gets puffed, not *inhaled*. In a nutshell: coffee, pc, beer, pc, coffee, pc, beer, pc, coffee, pc, beer, cigar, beer, repeat ...

Ploop: One of my GREATEST joys in this life is to feel the PERFECTION of CAMEL cigarettes along with a good cup of turkish coffee. For me, this is exactly as listening to a great song, this feeling that makes you think -- I am alive, and makes you appreciate this fact. Well, maybe I will die 10 years earlier due to this cigarettes, Frank Zappa died yound, but WHAT LIFE!, what achievements. Stravinsky smoked, Peter Hammill smokes, and besides, I leave in (fu...ng) Israel, and who knows, tommorow I might be blown to tiny pieces, or some groovy fanatic can start another world war the next day, there are no guaranties about this life, so if NOW I enjoy something, I do it. Enjoy existing!

TJanes: Do vices have virtues? You bet! Why would we continue to engage in an activity if it didn't serve us in one form or another. People smoke because on some level it calms them down, drinking can help numb us to things we aren't ready to deal with etc. I think a truelly nasty vice is trying to fix other people. Fucking with other peoples vices is the nastiest vice of all. People who try to get others to stop smoking should be force fed nicorette until they become addicted and then cut off cold turkey during a big family holiday. This is different however than not having smoking in public places etc. A different issue altogether. I don't even smoke but I think that people who say "That's bad for your health you know" should be forced to take a colorectal exam if they are so goddamned concerned about health. I don't personally believe that anything is a vice. If you don't want to do something don't, if you do, have at it. I go to sex clubs and parties on a regular basis. I call it a good time. Why look at it as a vice? If someone has a problem then they don't need to go. Well that's the rant Thanks for listening. I think that being impolite is a horrible vice.

physh: I am not sure if my biggest vice is caffiene or my incessant use of my computer on the net... Well, actually, I don't think of either of them as vices really... Addictions maybe, but not vices. I am almost constantly using my computer for one thing or another and it is the caffiene that keeps me alive through those late nights on the net. Now that I have started a small business on the side doing web site design and consultation and custom graphics I am getting less sleep, using the pc more and need caffiene more than ever!!!

DanielleP: My vice is probably my junkfood! I LOVE candy, chocolate, cakes, ect. I'm one of the luckey ones though, I don't get fat. Probably cause I have such a VERY skinny build. But that's one of my peeves though. hmmmm maybe that could be a survey in the future!

decatur: Well, I don't smoke, drink or play around (happily married) but I have a habit of always living in the past (I am 72). Been to all my high school reunions. Wish I could tell all the young people to appreciate life -- I mean really appreciate it!!! It slips by so fast and before you know it you have a bad back, diabetes, bad eyes and legs and a host of other things .And one final thought....save, save, save, save. If you put it off you will wake up one day and have next to nothing.

PamWhite: All I know is this -- without my coffee and cigarettes, I'm about useless. One of these days I might give up the cigarettes, but the coffee is here to stay!!! And yes, I occasionally go to bed without brushing my teeth.

mohamedally: My greatest vice is that when I see an ass, I tell him that he is an ass; and thus make an absolute ass of myself! I just cannot seem to break this habit despite career setbacks and broken relationships. Am I addicted or what!

Patio: Coffee, I love Coffee, Caffeine. Before I go to work I drink a Cappucino. I carry a bag of candy around with me at work. I drink energy drinks when I go out.

Nicole_S: Somepeople can say that there are certain virtues to their vice but mine is the other way round. As a Non - smoker/ drinker / drug user, I often feel left out at parties and night clubs. While others are raging and having a "good time" I just sit and laugh at them because they dont realise how stupid they are acting. I don't fit in with my friends when they are drunk. But that's cool cos at least I have NEVER lost my license -- that's one thing they can never say!!

Slater_Son: My vice would have to be smoking as well. And I must also agree with just about every other smoker on the planet: "WE SMOKERS KNOW IT'S BAD FOR US!" I am a student at an ultra-conservative university, and invariably at least 20, yes 20 people will give me condemning looks, tell me I'm going to Hell (that one made me laugh), or tell me that I should quit. Heh. I know I should quit, but I just simply do not want to. When I want to quit, I will. If I die before I quit, so what. The after-life's much better than the one I'm in now. Oh well, I ramble. Basically, we have rights too. We (smokers) don't romp around telling people that their clothes don't match or that they eat too much. Both of which, incidentally are also bad for you. Heh. In short, my vices make me who I am, and I wouldn't change them for anything short of a direct order from God.

Rollinsh: What do you mean -- not mowing the lawn is a vice ??? I have a 3-foot high wild flower and weed patch most of the year, with sunflowers and morning glories choking the weeds. I've just burned out the engine of the lawn mower trying to give it its semi-annual trim, so I'm going to leave the rest as winter bird food. We have the most ecological house on the block :-)