Despite our disappointment at the number and quality of sightings during our semi-annual Las Vegas trip, we did have a few gems to report.
Our favorite was a well-dressed, 20-ish, middle-eastern woman with long black hair, olive skin and wide eyes; she sat down on a bench in an upscale shopping area and eagerly pulled out a hard pack of Marlboro 100s. She expertly lit up with a match, and then as her regular style took what we’d describe as textbook cheek-hollowing drags, with her two cheeks almost touching and her eyes briefly closing as she inhaled deeply. Her mouth opened briefly to show a slight snap, and then she took a second, shorter drag, again showing a slight snap. She held the smoke in for several seconds, and then slowly exhaled luxurious streams from her mouth and nose. But she didn’t exhale all the smoke; within a few seconds, she was beginning the sequence all over again, with tendrils of smoke still drifting from her nose as she double dragged again. She finished her cigarette, and looked like she was about to get up – but then reached back into her purse and had another cigarette, smoking it exactly the same way. Outstanding.
Our second-favorite sighting (and it was second-favorite only because of the brand) was two sisters, sitting at a blackjack table (we knew they were sisters because we sat down at the table and gambled a bit there, to get a better view and to hear them talk). They were casually dressed with light makeup, both with dirty blonde hair; one was 24 and the other had just turned 21 and was on her first trip to Vegas. They each had several Marlboro Lights, sharing the same pack, with nice inhales and thick cone exhales; what elevated this sighting is that while we were sitting there and they were both smoking, their mother (who apparently was playing the slots) came over to see how they were doing, and asked the younger one if she could have a cigarette. The girl gave her a cigarette and a light, while the older one said in a somewhat disapproving tone, “MOM!” The mother exhaled, shrugged and said “It’s Vegas, I’m allowed to slip once in a while.”
Number three on the list was a Japanese woman who appeared to be in her teens (but obviously had to be older, in order to gamble) who was chaining Salem 100s at a slot machine; she was completely focused on her machine, and dangled her cigarettes as she played, only taking them out of her lips to ash – as she smoked hands-free, her cigarette was deep in her mouth, and when she dragged, it glowed bright orange showing how deep her inhales were; her exhales seeped from her mouth and nose very slowly, enveloping her in a huge cloud of smoke. We watched her chain four in a row, before she lost all of her money in the machine and left.
(And one other note we didn’t mention yesterday – the heaviest and best younger smokers that we saw in Vegas, were almost all from other countries. We like seeing exotic smokers, but were saddened that the American smokers most definitely couldn’t compare.)