A HEALTHY AURA

Sometimes on foggy evenings you can close your eyes and imagine yourself in a place and time that you never actually were. Like pre-war Canton, after enjoying some dimsum at a charming restaurant near the trainstation before the heat of the day. Smoking the very same cigarettes that Mei Lanfang (梅蘭芳 'mui laan fong') a famous Peking Opera performer, allegedly loved. Or some other popular brand. Fragrant. Delicate. Delightful.

I mention this because I was outside just now smoking Wu Ye Shen (五葉神 'ng yip saan'), a satelite brand to those same ciggies, created over ninety years later (1999). Mei Lanfang passed on in 1961. My dinner had been some dimsum that my landlady gave us.
The temperature in San Francisco at present is low fifties.
Which is bitterly cold. Horrid.
No opera.

It's near ninety degrees Fahrenheit in Guangzhou right now.

Near my easy chair are two jars of sweeties good for smokers which my apartment mate hates; Autumn Pear Balsam Candy (秋梨膏糖 'chau lei gou tong') and Lemon & Arhat-fruit Candy (檸檬羅漢果糖 'ning mung lo hon gwo tong'). They're mildly beneficial to the breathing aparatus. Sadly, my ability to perform Peking Opera like Mei Lanfang is slightly below zero.
Quite irrespective of smoking and herbal bonbons.

Today a gentleman mentioned Sherman's MCDs. A luxury cigarette now long gone (half a decade, a lifetime for some people), but which had been a necessity for the educated smoker for over forty years. Neither Nat Sherman International nor that type of cigarette exist any more, and sadly, pedestrian shite dominates the market. The splendid Turkish ciggies in which I occasionally indulged during college are also gone, and Virginia tobacco non-filter English cigarettes likwise seem to be non-existent now.


Back in the day, a smoke now and then was considered excellent for the digestion and the bodily humours. It's still probably far better than bicarb or pink-dyed bismuth subsalicylate liquid and strawberry passionfruit vape juice.

Also more effective for the measles than vitamin A and codliver oil.
What all those antivaxxers need is a dose of tobaco.
That will set them right.


Good for their chakras too.



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