To the editors:
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Patrick Griffin’s antismoking article [March 18] is a splendidly written and temperate piece, making it quite a change from the journalistic masturbation practiced incessantly on this topic–and the screeching of advice columnists who will tolerate any manner of sexual misbehavior as long as the participants refrain from lighting up a cigarette.
Also absent from Mr. Griffin’s argument is the question of why, since he admits that smoking is centuries old, it has been only in the last 40 years that hysterical outbursts condemning the practice have proliferated. Was the whole of the medical profession on witch doctor level between Hippocrates and Eisenhower? Or has there been a shortage of media bandwagons since bobby-soxers, Hula-Hoops, zoot suits, duffel coats, and crazy mixed-up kids departed the scene?
