I recall my father's cigarette packets from the 1940s -
de Reschke (sp?), named after an opera singer...
Max
On 13/11/07 11:03 AM, "Kenneth Wolman" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> M. Borges Accardi wrote:
>> Worst/best was a brand called Spartus, strong tobacco, blue box, no filter.?
>> Sold in Prague.? There were only two brands when I smoked--I forget the
>> other. Miserable, wonderful habit.? I quit when I could not smoke on the
>> plane. I saw the end was near. . .and could not face those long flights
>> "jonesing" a cigarette.
>>
>
>
> Before 6th Avenue in Manhattan upscaled into Avenue of the Americas,
> there were lots of tobacco shops that also hid the condoms behind the
> counter, hawked straight and gay porn both, and those
> cigarettes...oy...an Austrian brand called Amneris after the mezzo
> character in Verdi's *Aida*: just awful. I picked up some Russian brand
> for a play I was in; like the ones Frederick described, they came with a
> long cardboard tube and tobacco that could knock the wind out of you.
>
> Smoking was my really great guilty pleasure because I didn't feel guilty
> about it back when everyone smoked. Even as late as the late '90s I'd
> stand outside Morgan Stanley with other smokers. One of them, a
> statuesque brunette at whom I was making occhi di pesce, said "I really
> should NOT be doing this." "None of us should," I said. "So what's
> your excuse?" "I'm an opera singer," she replied, "dramatic soprano. I
> sing at the Met." I checked a program. She really did. And smoked.
> Then again...so did Caruso, Vickers, several others not as well known.
>
> Filthy smelly habit. Miss it!
>
> Ken
>
> ------------------
> Kenneth Wolman rainermaria.typepad.com
>
> "I agree with the Chekhov character who, when in a crisis, he is
> reminded that 'this, too, shall pass,' responds 'Nothing
> passes.'"--Philip Roth
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