A new flavor kicked up sales sharply for a Marlboro brand of snuff and helped to boost profits at Altria Group Inc.

And as the tobacco giant’s aggressive push into noncigarette businesses starts paying off on the bottom line, directors yesterday voted to share more of future profits with stockholders.

Other Richmond corporate giants also reported profit gains yesterday for the end of one of the toughest years ever for American business.

At Henrico County-based Altria, parent company of Philip Morris USA, strong earnings led directors to decide they’ll pay about 80 percent of future profits as dividends, up from 75 percent now.

Altria’s profits rose despite a more than doubling in cigarette taxes that led some smokers to quit and others to switch to discount brands.

Though U.S. sales of all makers’ cigarettes fell about 8 percent, smokeless tobacco rose – a trend that many health advocates fear will keep Americans hooked on a deadly product.

For Altria, smokeless tobacco is starting to play an ever-moreimportant role in its business.

One big signal: a 15 percent jump in sales of Copenhagen snuff in the fourth quarter, to 77.9 million cans, mainly because of a new wintergreen-flavored variety launched toward the end of the quarter.

“When you look at the growth in Copenhagen it’s really strongly being driven now by Copenhagen long-cut wintergreen,” Altria Chairman and CEO Michael E. Szymanczyk said yesterday.

The wintergreen-flavored snuff was only the fifth product in Copenhagen’s 187-year history, but Altria Executive Vice President David R. Beran said yesterday that the company is introducing two more varieties early this year.

“Clearly, Cope’ wintergreen is off to a pretty good start,” Goldman Sachs analyst Judy Hong said.

Szymanczyk said Altria’s top brand, Marlboro, hung in strongly in a year that saw a 62-cents-a-pack federal tax increase as well as a 9-cent-a-pack price increase in the spring and a 6-cent-a-pack price increase in the fall.

“The loyalty factor remains high. It ended the year in pretty good shape,” Szymanczyk said. Marlboro’s market share slipped just 0.1 percentage point last year.

Beran said Marlboro’s menthol varieties were among the fastest-growing brands last year, largely because of the new Blend 54 version.

He said Marlboro will introduce two new nonmenthol varieties this year, both to be called “Special Blend” and both based on the Marlboro “Red” blend.

Cigarette price increases and what Szymanczyk called a “disciplined” approach to promotions – that is, not doing them as aggressively as some tobacco firms – meant the company’s net revenue per pack rose to $1.27 from $1.15 the previous year. The figure excludes federal taxes and various fees.

Altria’s earnings from continuing operations last year rose 4 percent to $3.2 billion, as revenue increased 21.7 percent to $23.6 billion.

Its shares rose 4 cents to close at $20.03.

The Obama administration may have eased federal policy on marijuana enforcement, but the experts are still debating whether the drug has all the medical properties that proponents claim.

Two new stories in the NYT and the WSJ lay out the basics:

In a nutshell, there’s not enough scientific evidence that pot’s medical uses are valid. Studies show that smoking marijuana can improve nausea in cancer patients and others suggest that it help patients with neurological problems such as multiple sclerosis, the NYT reports. However, the story goes on to say:

But there is no good evidence that legalizing the smoking of marijuana is needed to provide these effects. The Food and Drug Administration in 1985 approved Marinol, a prescription pill of marijuana’s active ingredient, T.H.C. Although a few small-scale studies done decades ago suggest that smoked marijuana may prove effective when Marinol does not, no conclusive research has confirmed this finding.

Access to marijuana is increasing nationwide. New Jersey’s governor just signed a medical marijuana bill into law on Monday, adding that state to 13 others with similar laws and down the road in Washington, there’s a bill to allow some dispensaries in the district.

Maryland has a strange setup with a little-known law that while forbids medical use, could open the door for it one day, advocates hope.

As long as there have been movies, there have been scolds who condemn the movies for glamorizing vice. And the scolds have generally been right: one of the great pleasures of movie watching is that it allows us to witness and vicariously take part in all kinds of behavior we wouldn’t dream of (or would only dream of) undertaking in our daily lives.

It’s also possible that what we see influences what we do, and that possibility has always been part of the justification for the various systems of censorship and classification that have existed for much of film history. Starting in the 1930s, the Hays Office and its successors promulgated a code limiting just what kind of naughtiness could be permitted on screen. Unmarried couples could not go to bed together, and even married couples were encouraged to sleep in twin beds. Punishment had to follow crime, and language had to be fit for Sunday school.

The movies hardly suffered under this regime. Indeed, they thrived. But that’s a subject for another, 100,000-word blog post. In the golden years between the repeal of Prohibition and the publication of the Surgeon General’s Report on smoking, two perfectly legal, highly profitable vices were allowed to flourish on screen. It did not hurt that the only thing that looks better in black and white than a highball glass is a plume of cigarette smoke. In the real world, smoking rarely looks cool, and usually smells pretty bad. But on film there is no smell, no desperate, compulsive puffing.

Now, of course, cigarette smoking in movies is an anachronism, and also the cause of the latest round of scolding. “Avatar” has attracted special attention because the movie is so popular and also, perhaps, because it dares to imply that the future may not be entirely smoke-free. I admit I was surprised to learn that, in 2154, a work place as tightly administered and protocol-governed as the Pandora earthling base would permit an employee to smoke on the job. Though I was equally surprised some years ago to discover, in Michael Bay’s “Pearl Harbor,” that the United States military in the 1940s was a smoke-free environment.

Tobacco use is part of history — of movie history in particular. And in the course of that history lighting up has acquired connotations of individualism, rebellion, sophistication and sex that will be hard to eradicate even as they become increasingly shrouded in nostalgia. This is certainly the case in “Nine,” by far the most obsessively smoke-filled movie in current release, and one whose failure to attract an audience should perhaps comfort the antismoking scolds.

The cigarettes are actually the best part of “Nine,” the only genuine vicarious pleasure that misbegotten movie is able to offer. And an on-screen smoke should remain an available pleasure, a signifier of the kind of romance only movies can deliver. What I’m trying to say, as a weak-willed former smoker and incurable addict, is this: by all means, let smoking become an obsolete, discredited real-life habit. Make it something akin to time travel, or slapstick, or a mad drive to the airport to stop the one you love from getting on that plane — something that only happens in the movies.

OKLAHOMA CITY – State Treasurer Scott Meacham says that earnings for the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund rose almost nine percent in the past year despite the recession.

Meacham, who chairs the trust fund’s board of investors, said Wednesday that through the third quarter of 2009, earnings on the $476 million fund were better than 89 percent of the nation’s endowment funds.

Meacham says earnings between Oct. 1, 2008, and Sept. 30 were $37.5 million. He credits the strong earnings to the trust’s conservative, consistent investment policy.

Oklahoma is the only state with a constitutionally protected endowment to fund programs that will reduce tobacco use and improve the health of residents.

Associated Press – November 18, 2009

Wirtz resident finds out first-hand what goes into making a fine cigar.

Where did you go?

We flew into Tegucigalpa, [Honduras] and then drove by van through Danli to El Paraiso. [Go to YouTube and look up flying into Tegucigalpa. There are some great videos. It's a tough airport to get to.] The purpose of the trip was to tour all the aspects of making Rocky Patel premium cigars. The tour was hosted by Rocky Patel employees. We toured a box-manufacturing plant, greenhouses, fields, curing houses, fermentation buildings and manufacturing plant. We stayed at a Rocky Patel compound in El Paraiso that had a pool, garden, many bedrooms, kitchen, dining room and basketball court.

Who went?

David Meyer (co-owner of Milan Tobacconists in Roanoke) and 12 customers.

When did you go?

March 22-25

How long were you there?

Three nights

How did you hear about your destination?

I heard about it at a Milan Tobacconist cigar function. Rocky Patel sponsors tours to his facilities in Honduras on a regular basis.

What did you like best about your trip?

I enjoyed learning about the premium cigar industry and all of the steps that go into making a great cigar. I would compare it to what goes into making great wine. The people were friendly and very hospitable. The food was incredibly fresh and flavorful. The terrain reminded me of western High Sierra. The valleys were lush.

What, if any, were the negatives?

We didn’t have the opportunity to really visit the area or get into the towns. It was a very compact trip.

What advice would you give to lake residents who are considering this destination?

If you plan to take a Rocky Patel trip, then try to plan to put a few days on one side or the other of the trip and see some of Honduras. There are Mayan ruins and the island of Roatan to visit.

What attractions should people make sure they visit?

If you like cigars, do the tour.

October 09, 2009 Smithmountainlake

Dan Griffin said he quit smoking a decade ago, but came to the pipe-smoking contest at the Gaslight Festival to compete anyway.

Fellow competitor Jonathan Kempf works at a school, but said he’d rather not say which one so as not to influence the children.

Judy Vetter came to the event to watch her boyfriend — but she hung back because she said she’s allergic to smoke.

So it was at the annual anachronism that is the Gaslight pipe-smoking contest as it got under way Sunday in Jeffersontown with six contestants.

Four younger men joined two old-timers in puffing and eyeing each other’s pipes under the columned portico that shelters Jeffersontown City Hall, each nursing 3.3 grams of tobacco, trying for the longest time on just one light.

Under the watchful eyes of a judge holding a stopwatch, the winner, Coy Howard, 37, coaxed his bowl of burley and vanilla-flavored Virginia tobacco to burn 71 minutes, 30 seconds. He snuffed out Gorden Vogel, age 71, who lasted 70 minutes, 45 seconds.

“I pray for two things,” said Howard, a factory worker from Springfield, Ky. “That mine does not go out and others’ do.”

Only two smokers claimed pipe smoking as a habit they still indulge in with regularity.

Once a fixture of festivals far and wide, pipe-smoking competitions have fallen from favor in recent years.

Souvenir pins from the old days studded the red tobacco pouch on the lap of Griffin, a competitive puffer since 1984.

His collection included pins from pipe-smoking marathons at the Ham Days celebration in Lebanon, Ky.; the Steamboat Days Festival in Jeffersonville, Ind.; and the Kentucky State Fair, which snuffed out the event in 2004.

“Politics,” grumbled Griffin, 67, of Jeffersonville. “It is not as big as it used to be. We used to have 15 contests locally. The season began in March in Springfield and crescendoed until the world championships in October.”

This year, the International Association of Pipe Smokers will hold its 61st world championships near its headquarters in Mount Pleasant, Mich.

The association’s Web site lists Internet links to seven pipe-smoking clubs nationwide, including the Kentuckiana Pipe Smokers Club based at Kremer’s Smoke Shoppe in downtown Louisville.

Before the contest began, the owner of Kremer’s shouted to be heard over the keyboard and drums of a six-man gospel combo playing for festival passers-by on Watterson Trail.

“We used to have 60 or 70 members in our club,” Gayle Sallee said. “Now we only have four or five.”

This was the second year Kempf, 27, who also works as a clerk at a liquor store on Bardstown Road, competed in the pipe-smoking contest with his friend Jordan Humbert, 26, a musician.

“I haven’t smoked a pipe since last year,” Kempf said. “I don’t need another bad habit.”

Nate Keller, 18, said he took up pipe smoking under a tree in his Jeffersontown backyard last year to ease nerves jangled by his job setting bowling pins at King Pin Lanes on Taylorsville Road.

“After you have had a harsh day, it puts you in a mellow mind,” Keller said. “There is not much pipe smoking out there. I like to be a member of a small group.”

Reporter Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669.

Effects of Marijuana Smoking on Pulmonary Function and Respiratory Complications
The relationship between marijuana smoking and pulmonary function or respiratory complications is poorly understood; therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the impact of marijuana smoking on pulmonary function and respiratory complications.

Methods: Studies that evaluated the effect of marijuana smoking on pulmonary function and respiratory complications were selected from the MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and EMBASE databases according to predefined criteria from January 1, 1966, to October 28, 2005. Two independent reviewers extracted data and evaluated study quality based on established criteria. Study results were critically appraised for clinical applicability and research methods.

Results: Thirty-four publications met selection criteria. Reports were classified as challenge studies if they examined the association between short-term marijuana use and airway response; other reports were classified as studies of long-term marijuana smoking and pulmonary function or respiratory complications. Eleven of 12 challenge studies found an association between short term marijuana administration and bronchodilation (eg, increases of 0.15-0.25 L in forced expiratory volume in 1 second). No consistent association was found between long-term marijuana smoking and airflow obstruction measures. All 14 studies that assessed long-term marijuana smoking and respiratory complications noted an association with increased respiratory symptoms, including cough, phlegm, and wheeze (eg, odds ratio, 2.00; 95% confidence interval, 1.32-3.01, for the association between marijuana smoking and cough). Studies were variable in their overall quality (eg, controlling for confounders, including tobacco smoking).

Conclusions: Short-term exposure to marijuana is associated with bronchodilation. Physiologic data were inconclusive regarding an association between long-term marijuana smoking and airflow obstruction measures. Long-term marijuana smoking is associated with increased respiratory symptoms suggestive of obstructive lung disease.
Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:221-228.

Marijuana remains the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, with 14.6 million people 12 years and older reporting current use. [ 1 ] The prevalence of marijuana abuse and dependence continues to increase and occurs in 18% of past-year marijuana users. [ 2 ] Given the persistently high prevalence of marijuana use, abuse, and dependence in the community, it is important to understand the potential adverse health outcomes that result from both short-term and long-term marijuana smoking.

Marijuana and tobacco smoke share many of the same compounds. Tobacco smoking is associated with numerous adverse pulmonary clinical outcomes, affecting both pulmonary function and respiratory complications. Some of the known tobacco smoking–related adverse effects include cough, chronic bronchitis, impairment of gas exchange, and airway obstruction that leads to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. [ 3,4 ] The adverse impact of marijuana smoking on pulmonary function and respiratory complications has not been systematically assessed.

The purpose of the current review is to determine the association between short-term marijuana smoking and airway response and the association between long-term marijuana smoking and pulmonary function or respiratory complications.

It’s been almost 12 years since Joe Camel retired. A legal settlement in 1998 prohibited the cool iconic cartoon character from being used in packaging and advertising. It turns out that Joe Camel was becoming as recognizable to kids as Mickey Mouse.

On Monday, President Obama signed into law sweeping legislation that puts the FDA in charge of the marketing and sale of tobacco products. The new law also gives the FDA the power to regulate what’s put in those products, including not only nicotine, but also candy and fruit flavorings marketed toward young people.

In 2006, R.J. Reynolds, the makers of Camel cigarettes, agreed to stop selling flavored cigarettes with names like “Twista Lime” and “Mocha Taboo.” Now, all tobacco companies will have to put an end to the subtle practice of luring new, mostly young smokers, with flavorings and fancy packaging. Keeping tobacco out of the hands of young people is the most important part of the new bill.

On Monday, when Obama signed the bill, he said: “The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of smoking has emerged victorious.” The most important issue in the new legislation, he said, is to reduce the number of new smokers in the future.

On Tuesday, however, in a White House press conference, Obama admitted that he was struggling with kicking the habit himself, saying “I’m 95% cured.” He was responding to a reporter’s question on the subject.

The reporter, Margaret Talev of McClatchy Newspapers, framed her question like this: “As a former smoker, I understand the frustration and the fear that comes with quitting. But with the new law that you signed … regulating the tobacco industry, I’d like to ask you a few questions … How many cigarettes a day do you smoke? Do you smoke alone or in the presence of other people?” She then went on to ask Obama if the new law that he signed on Monday “should help you quit. If so, why?”

Obama’s response: “The new law that was put in place is not about me. It’s about the next generation of kid’s coming up.”

The new law that gives the FDA the authority to ban all cigarettes from having candy and fruit flavors takes effect this October. The law will also put an end to marketing practices by tobacco companies such as sponsoring sporting and entertainment events using tobacco logos or brand names, or giving away clothing or promotional items bearing the logo or brand name of a tobacco company.”

Years ago, Camel had a T-shirt promotion. I still have the shirt with a giant picture of Joe Camel on the front. It was pretty cool at the time. President Obama, like Joe Camel, is a cool and iconic character. We don’t need images of him smoking. He’s a role model to kids, and it’s counterproductive. And yet, after yesterday’s news conference, in between talking about the economy, health care, nuclear proliferation and global warming, Obama was talking about his own nicotine habit.

He admitted that although he has backtracked on the smoking issue, he does so in private. So why bring it up in the first place? Most news sources, however, ran with the story. That seems fair. After all, once it was brought up, it was a legitimate news story. However, some Web sites ran photos of Obama smoking.

There’s the famous one from the Time magazine college photos of a young Obama looking cool with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Then there’s the undated one that ran as part of a story at Examiner.com, with the caption, “Obama takes a Presidential smoke break.”

Other photos have surfaced from the past, and although some are obviously photo-shopped, some are real. The one that popped up yesterday in the Examiner looks real and it looks recent. Is there really a good reason to run it? Images of the President smoking should not be made public.

Barack Obama is bigger than Joe Camel ever was. Maybe even bigger than Mickey Mouse.

© Tothecenter

Hot smoking, on the other hand, can be the simplest thing in the world, a re-creation of any Stone Age meal. An open fire will do. If you have a grill, you can throw a handful of sawdust or wood chips on the burning coals and cover it with a lid to concentrate the smoke.

A couple of years ago, we were filming a segment on smoking for an episode of my television series “New Scandinavian Cooking.” The location was a remote, road-less farm, and there was no room for the smoker in our helicopter; all we had was a camping stove, a pot and some wood shavings. By throwing those shavings into the bottom of the pot and hanging small river trout from the top, we managed to achieve the same perfectly cooked and smoked fish that our smoker would have produced. But I am afraid the pot will never be the same again.

The idea of smoking food indoors is intriguing but impractical; there is almost no way to flavor your food without also seasoning your home. Before you try, you might want to ask yourself how much you really hate being outdoors and whether you would allow a dozen people to smoke a pack of cigarettes in your kitchen if they promised to stand near the kitchen fan or window.

I have tested several indoor contraptions, and even though I quit smoking cigarettes 15 years ago, you would never guess it if you visited me the weeks after these experiments. Enough smoke managed to seep into my kitchen to give it a real pre-smoking-ban-dive-bar character.

But you can always cheat. If you do not want to smoke but want more or different flavor from what can be achieved by adding smoked salmon, bacon or smoked salt to a dish, liquid smoke is an alternative. I had always felt that the bottles of often-overpowering condensed smoke were the result of some sinister process, like the manufacture of artificial vanilla. But Kent Kirshenbaum, an associate professor in chemistry at New York University, tells me liquid smoke is completely natural, insofar as putting smoke into a bottle can be natural.

Kirshenbaum says he initially was repulsed by the product. But after researching it for a recent Experimental Cuisine Collective workshop in New York, he found it to be little more than carefully controlled smoking of water. The problem of liquid smoke is mostly one of scale; it is very easy to use too much, rendering food almost inedible.

And whereas all smoke, as we know, contains carcinogens, the controlled smoking plus an ensuing filtering process has removed if not all, then most of these compounds. So, at least from a health perspective, the best approach might be to pretend that you are smoking rather than to actually light up.

Down a long, narrow road lined with fishing ponds, small groups of fishermen ply the waters with their poles, which droop at an angle nearly parallel to their dangling cigarettes. Nestled in the countryside 20 minutes outside Taipei is Tsubaki, the type of small, upscale inn that in Japan is called a ryokan. Pass through the old wooden gate, and you might as well be in Kyoto.

Surrounded by a densely wooded hill, Tsubaki’s garden has just the right Japanese mix of burbling water, rocks and carefully tended shrubbery. Inside the ryokan rooms, the air is fragrant with the earthy scent of new tatami mats, and at night, futon mattresses and bean-filled pillows are carefully laid out in each room.

Taiwan has plenty of its own sights, sounds and tastes—the night markets of Taipei are famous for their endless variety of dumplings, noodle soups and sausages—yet many visitors don’t realize the island also offers some of the best Japanese food and service in all of Asia. It’s as authentic as any you’d find in Japan itself, but at far lower prices. Tsubaki might not have the same 300-year history and esteemed guest list as Tawaraya, a ryokan in Kyoto where princes of the Japanese royal family and foreign heads of state have stayed. But it’s just as comfortable, and at about $200 a night, including two meals, it’s one-fourth the price.

Much of what’s truly Japanese in Taiwan remains from its days as a colony of the Empire of the Sun. Japan occupied Taiwan and the nearby Pescadore Islands from 1895 to 1945, and during that time the Japanese turned Taiwan into one of Asia’s most modern and well-educated societies.

The Japanese built grand public buildings, turned the harbors of Kaohsiung and Keelung into key shipping ports, and laid a railroad that stretched along the western coast of the island. In Taipei, they tore down the old city walls and built a grid pattern for the city’s streets. Eventually, they extended primary education—in Japanese, of course—to ordinary Taiwanese, an effort to nurture literate workers.

After the Japanese defeat in World War II in 1945, the Chinese reclaimed the island. The ruling Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, set about erasing most traces of Japanese rule and renaming streets after Chinese Nationalist heroes and principles. Chokushi Kaido was renamed Zhongshan Road (after an honorary name for Sun Yat-sen) and Sansen Doro became Zhongxiao Road (meaning “loyalty and filial piety”), according to Tai Pao-tsun, a history professor at Taiwan’s National Central University. They also destroyed Shinto shrines and banned Japanese publications.

But the rebranding of Taiwan, which continued after the Nationalists fled the Chinese mainland in 1949, wasn’t entirely successful. There are many Japanophiles living in Taiwan, and many places offering tourists in Taipei a less-expensive alternative to a trip to Japan. The roots of Japanese culture are still on display in Taipei, in a warren of alleys that locals call “Little Tokyo,” just south of Nanjing Road.

Today, these alleys are virtually indistinguishable from Tokyo’s Kabuki-cho nightlife district, lined with brightly lit Japanese signs advertising countless tiny hostess bars hidden behind doors not quite thick enough to contain the warbling of off-key karaoke. At the bar, you’re likely to find groups of middle-aged salarymen similar to those you’d see in Tokyo, except the hostesses—sitting beside them and keeping the drinks and conversation flowing—speak Japanese with a Taiwanese accent.

The Japanese-style grilled eel at the restaurant Fei-qian-wu is far better than its bar-alley location would suggest. The smoky flavor of the eel counters the slightly sweet basting sauce, just as you’d expect in Tokyo’s finest unagi (grilled eel) restaurants.

As at most casual eateries in Japan, the menu at Fei-qian-wu hangs on plaques around the walls (laminated menus in Chinese and English are also available). Order in Japanese or Mandarin—the restaurant was founded 35 years ago by a Japanese-Taiwanese family. You won’t even find the ubiquitous Taiwan-brand beer here. Instead ale drinkers are expected to order Kirin. A regular size unajyu (grilled eel over rice served in a lacquered bento box) and a Kirin costs about $6, a small fraction of the several thousand yen you’d expect to pay at an eel restaurant in Tokyo.

It’s not just the physical manifestations of Japanese culture that survive. Taiwan is one of the few places that can successfully duplicate the tipsy camaraderie of an izakaya eatery, where Japanese kick back and relax over drinks and small dishes of food after a hard day at the office.

At Wa-ko, the specialty is fresh seafood, and it offers an excellent variety of sashimi and grilled fish, served in small portions to go with drinks. Like most izakaya joints, the restaurant has two rooms: one with tables and chairs, the other with pillows or low-benches around tables in sunken recesses—old-style Japanese. On a recent visit, the traditionally styled room was full of Taiwanese customers. Owner Asato Satoshi, 55 years old, hails from the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa, and opened Wa-ko nearly two decades ago. The most popular dish is an Okinawan xia jiu cai—tofu with small fish and lemon on top. Be sure to try the roast chicken wings and squid with tarako, a kind of fish roe.

Oden is so much a part of Japanese food culture that a steaming pot of the stuff can be found right next to the cash register in many Japanese convenience stores. A simple, lightly flavored broth with root vegetables, egg, tofu and fish paste, oden dates back hundreds of years. Besides the modern convenience-store variety, oden traditionally was consumed at sidewalk stalls, along with the requisite glass of sake or beer, as a late-night snack. Taiwan sports its own homegrown version of oden bars—called heilun in Mandarin—that date back to its occupation-era days, and it has some traditional Japanese versions as well.

At Tian-quan, Darryl Wang, 32, the gregarious Taiwanese host, might not speak much Japanese but everything else about his street-corner oden bar is authentic, down to the address plaque from Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya district on the building’s wall. Both street-facing sides of the bar are completely open, leaving customers at the L-shaped counter exposed to the nighttime Taipei air. The feel is much like the now mostly-lost open-air oden stalls that dotted Tokyo’s streets in the immediate post-War period.

Mr. Wang spends most evenings dishing out bowls of oden to a crowd of steady local regulars, who return the favor by pouring him an occasional glass from their sake bottle. Belly up to the bar and try his fishcakes in soup and pick what you want—vegetables, meat or even fruit—to add in. Or just point to what the locals are having. Grilled chicken and fish also are available.

For dessert, head to the Sanmeido pastry shop in Taipei’s Tienmu area, in the shadow of the Mitsukoshi department store. The imposing proprietress, a Taiwanese and fluent-Japanese speaker named Tsai Yin, supervises from behind a glass counter showcasing her traditional Japanese sweets. In her 70s, Mrs. Tsai is old enough to have attended Japanese schools during the occupation, and, in fact, she speaks only Taiwanese (the local dialect) and Japanese—no Mandarin. Her Japanese husband taught her how to make the desserts, which include homemade dango (chewy rice-flour sweets skewered on a bamboo stick for easy eating) and the shop’s specialty, strawberry mochi (sweet rice cakes).
© Wsj

In the past, cigarettes were more respected than today. Today they are considered the main cause of people’s deaths. For example in1950s America cigarette smoking was the abstract of cool and glamour.
Even screen beauties such as Audrey Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich made smoking look sensual and sophisticated. By the late 1950s around half of the population of industrialized nations smoked. Then the tobacco product was cheap, legal and socially acceptable.

Cigarettes were originally sold as expensive handmade luxury goods for the urban elite. It was not until mass-production methods coupled with aggressive marketing that the industry began to see off traditional pipe-smoking and tobacco-chewing habits, particularly in the United States.
In the past the most famous American Tobacco Firm was Philip Morris. The most important message of this company was this “For man’s flavor come to Marlboro Country.”
Other brands also sought to lessen fears of smoking. For example, Camel cigarette famously ran an advert saying: “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette”.
Still, for years, the tobacco industry appeared to be unconquerable. Then, in 1994, Diane Castano, whose husband died of lung cancer, sued the Tobacco Industry.
After that case Health Organizations started to protect non-smokers from being exposed to secondhand smoking. This led to the 1995 ban on smoking in most enclosed places of employment. By 2005 less than a quarter of the US population smoked cigarettes, and that is now falling.
Although the behaviors and attitudes of family and friends are the main influences on adolescent decisions to use tobacco, the media—films, television, and the Internet— also influence these decisions. And most tobacco use took place in enclosed areas, usually around nonsmokers.