What is your socially unacceptable guilty indulgence?
Mine is plain/lightly salted Doritos/tortilla chips dipped/scraped in unsalted butter.
I'm now wondering whether this is a little too specific of a question and I just really needed somewhere to get this off my chest...
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Cigars. It's a common topic of judgement, as if I don't know it's an expensive hobby with increased risk of cancer. I just love them, and the rituals involved.
I'm an academic who no longer smokes (thanks grad school...) You meet a huge variety of folks in smoker's pits. The folks a university relies on a hell of a lot more than at least half of faculty. I'm thankful for the daily, sometimes hourly, rituals that taught me that.
I knew a very smart manager who quit smoking but still used to go hang out in the smoking area just to stay in touch with everything. I’ve learn more in 10 minute conversations while smoking with coworkers than entire week long seminars.
I quit smoking years ago but smoked for a long time. If I ever go back to smoking I think it would be a pipe. I did it once or twice and it was extremely relaxing.
I recently picked up a pipe. It has all the rituals and escapism of a cigar, without the hour-long commitment.
That being said, sometimes being”occupied” for an hour is part of the appeal. Each has their place ime.
Everything I have found says that one or two cigars a week has a fairly minimal impact on cancer risk. Daily or multiple a day is probably bad though.
Before Covid, I was at about one a week, now maybe one a month during the winter and a bit more often in the summer. I usually only buy cigars when I'm on a trip to somewhere that's cheaper than Canada, and I'll stock up there. Fortunately, being Canadian, I can go to Cuba as well as to the US to get cigars, so my humidors have a nice combination of Cubans and new world (I have one for strictly Cubans and the second for new world). Otherwise, cigars here are stupid expensive and I'd probably only have a few a year tops (a $5 USD cigar in the states is often $20CAD or more here).