Damn, another unpleasant reminder that I and many of my cohorts are getting old.

By today's standards, 58 is not old. Take it as a reminder that smoking will probably kill you before you get old.

In 1962, two years before the surgeon general's report, Dave Van Ronk recorded the "Talking Cancer Blues," a song that listed the various cancers that were already attributable to smoking. Tragically, Dave did not pay attention to the words that he himself was singing.