How nicotine addiction is passed to the next generation

The think-tank here at Falling Downs always has the betterment of public health as a top priority, which is why we've had to chastise Glamorous Glen Sather for firing up those stogies on national TV. Not only is he stinking up the place; he's endangering the lives of 20,000 hockey fans who are trapped in the Madison Square Garden inhaling his second hand smoke.



But that's not the worst of it! No, what is truly insidious is the effect that Glen's bad example has on impressionable youth.

Like this guy, for example;




What the hell IS that thing hanging out of Gretzky's face? When he's not smoking it, he can use it for a walking stick!

And guess where The Great One picked up that deadly habit?... Well, I don't have any PROOF proof, but the fact that Wayne got exposed to Sather's addiction when he was but an impressionable youth himself would seem to suggest the answer.

And now millions of impressionable youth of yet another generation see the greatest hockey player of all time smoking, and figure it's OK for them too!

And the deadly cycle of nicotine addiction claims another generation...

Ranger's GM Sather flouts NYC smoking laws with impunity

I used to put Glamorous Glen Sather right up there with Brian Burke as one of the worst General Managers in the hockey business. Now that his Rangers are in the second round I guess I could just shut up. At least as far as comparing him to the hapless Burke is concerned.

After all, you're not seeing Burke's Leafs in the second round, are you?.. or the first, come to think of it.

But lucky for me I've found a new quibble with Sather, the GM who has milked his association with Wayne Gretzky for more than anyone ever imagined possible.

After all, it was The Great One who brought those Stanleys to Edmonton.

It wasn't Glen.

But Glen is sitting fat and happy in New York City. When I see him on the TV, he's usually sitting in his suite at the Madison Square Garden.

Fat, happy, infinitely pleased with himself as always, and puffing on a jumbo stogie.

Wait a minute! He's smoking a cigar in Madison Square Garden?

Isn't that against the law?

Doesn't New York City boast some of the most progressive anti-smoking legislation in the land?

Last I heard you can't light up a Marlboro within ten blocks of a playground for fear that the juvenile delinquents setting the playground equipment on fire might get the idea that it's OK to smoke.

Bloomberg is dead set against that sort of contamination of juvenile minds.

But tune in the latest Rangers game and there's the Supreme Leader puffing on his Cuban cigar (and there's a whole 'nother blog-post; is Sather a secret commie symp?) with utterly no repercussions whatsoever!

Wake up, Mayor Bloomberg! This man is sending millions of impressionable young hockey fans down the road of nicotine addiction, and you're not doing a damned thing about it?

Send those by-law enforcement officers into the MSG tonight.

I'll be watching.