I've been taking snuff more often, in equal parts because I enjoy it, because I smoke less, and because I shaved off my moustache for a Halloween and have an easier access to my nose. And I've rather fallen for an English snuff, Hedges L260, a/k/a "The Snuff."

Anecdote has it that the enduring popularity of Hedges springs from its tactical-nuke levels of menthol, making it a favourite amongst coal miners who wanted to expel what got into their sinuses "down the bloody pit." And indeed, it is bracing in that respect, a tobacco-laced Vick's Vapo-Rub applied mere inches from the brainstem. It is an acquired taste and a blistering end to congestion.

I mention all this because I realized I was sipping a Newcastle and taking a pinch of Hedges... I am a pickaxe and a canary away from being a miner. ("It's the black lung, Pop!")

How green is my valley; how brown is my hanky.

Trivia fun:
Q. What would you have if the following five people were seated together?

Henry Kissinger, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Hope, Nelson Mandela, and Pope John Paul II.
( click for the answer )