One brief programming note:
The final episode of HBO's Sex and the City (don't read any further if you don't want the ending given away!) featured our protagonist, Carrie, experiencing distress and confusion during a jaunt to Paris reflected in part in her taking up smoking, though she says at one point "they're killing me." A snobbish Frenchwoman even mocks Carrie for hailing from a country where smoking is not as acceptable as it is in France. But Carrie overcomes her angst, heads back to the U.S., and, it seems likely, will find happiness there without a life-threatening cigarette habit. Nice to see cigarettes used more as a symbol of bad judgment and unease than as a symbol of sophistication and it would be nice if everyone could kick the habit as easily as a sitcom character resolves an emotional dilemma.
