After his mother died from cancer, Dr. Robert Jackler of Stanford University worked through his grief by searching out print tobacco ads from the '20s through the '50s. Appearing in publications like Life and the Saturday Evening Post, the ads featured such cigarette-smoking luminaries as Rock Hudson, John Wayne, Joe DiMaggio, Ronald Reagan, and Santa Claus. And of course there were plenty of models hired to pose as doctors and dentists for ads with slogans......

Following in the tradition of showing one smoker's missing fingers and a smoker with a removed larynx, the Health Department continues with graphic images to scare smokers into quitting: New matchbooks show decaying gums and teeth (we've obscured the image, in case there are people eating... click here for full image). Other image include "ravaged lungs... painful tumors." Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Friedan said, “Throat cancer, gum disease, blackened lungs – these are the......

The Washington Square News details the sticker shock NYU students face while living in NYC and having vices like smoking and drinking. One student says, "I smoke up to two packs a day, which is probably $60 to $100 a week," while another says she buys them in bulk when she's back at home in Atlanta ($3.50/pack!). And one sophomore (underage, natch), says she tries to budget for her drinking, "For instance, if she’s planning......

For college kids heading back to school in New York this Fall, don't plan on pulling all-nighters whilst chain smoking--or covering up your pot smoke with a Marlboro, for that matter. The Bwog just got word of a legislation, which was signed by Gov. Paterson in July, that makes smoking illegal in all New York college dormitories. They add that "a pair of RAs also noted that at least for Columbia, the mere possession of......

That mayor Bloomberg has an answer for everything. Cabbies want a fuel surcharge to help cover gas costs? Let them drive hybrids. The MTA is promising another fare increase? Let the smokers pay for it. Hizzoner said yesterday that the cost of subway and bus rides won’t have to go up much at all if the state collects taxes on cigarettes sold on Indian reservations. "That just alone would replace one of those fare increases,"......

Recovering drug addicts can look forward to climbing even further up the walls starting tomorrow, when all drug treatment centers in New York State implement a smoking ban. Bryan Lapsker, a 21-year-old PCP addict, tells amNY he’s been dreading the change: "Nicotine helps (addicts) get through the day. Now you take the nicotine away from us, it's almost impossible to get through the day. Addiction is addiction, I understand that, but nicotine is a legal......

Sure, lung cancer is hellish, but nothing motivates smokers to quit like a cigarette price increase. The city’s health department says the calls to 311 from smokers seeking help tripled during the week the state implemented a cigarette tax hike of $1.25. At over $8 a pack, smoking in New York City costs more than anywhere else in America, setting the pack-a-day smoker back $3,000 a year. The city contends tax increases in 2002 contributed......

Get this woman a reality TV show! Christina Szele of Woodside, Queens created such a disturbance during a Jet Blue flight from JFK airport to San Francisco that pilots diverted the plane and landed in Denver, where federal authorities took her into custody. According to an affidavit obtained by the Smoking Gun, things started to go sideways after a flight attendant noticed Szele waiting on line for the bathroom with a book of matches and......

Photograph by Unlisted Sightings on Flickr But it might make them poor! Today, NY State has introduced an additional $1.25 tax--for a total $2.75 NY State tax--on cigarettes, which means a pack of smokes is likely to cost between $8.00 to $8.50 in NYC (NYC has a $1.25 tax). NY1 got some comments from smokers on the streets:"Wow, it's a lot of money," said one smoker. "Probably not enough to make me quit. I......

An additional $1.25-a-pack tax on cigarettes goes into effect Tuesday, meaning that a carton of name brand smokes will cost a staggering $85. If the average cost of a box of premium brand cigarettes rises to $8.50, 50% of that cost is directly related to taxes ($2.75 to the State, $1.50 to the City). The Center for a Tobacco Free New York hopes that the latest tax increase will cause another 6% of the state's......

A woman who was smoking out a Midtown apartment window fell four stories but somehow managed to survive. The Daily News reports that a 34-year-old woman from Delaware (she was visiting her brother) is in stable condition with head trauma. According to the FDNY, the woman "fell into a narrow alleyway between two buildings." A witness said she appeared to look all right, "She was apologizing to the EMTs." While the city hasn't outlawed smoking......

Smoking sports fans beware, Shea Stadium is cracking down on the nicotine set this season. While the Smoke-Free Air Act has been in effect for 13 years, security at the stadium has turned a blind eye to those lighting up -- but that's all changing. The Observer reports on one fan's encounter with the new guard:“A security guard told me I can’t smoke and then ripped off a piece of my ticket,” the 26-year-old fan......

Property owners are not holding their breath for a citywide ban on domestic smoking, like the ones barring lighting up in bars or restaurants, but non-smoking is increasingly becoming a requirement for renters in New York City. The Daily News reports that while the city's health department doesn't have hard numbers on the trend, more real estate companies are forbidding renters to smoke anywhere on the premises. It's not just rental properties either:Manhattan real estate......

Between the 2002 and 2004, New York City residents gained 10 million pounds, becoming Rubenesque at a rate nearly three times that of other Americans, according to a survey by city health officials. Obesity and diabetes rates in the city soared 17% between 2002 and 2004, compared to a 6% rise in obesity rates nationwide, where there was no marked increase in the rate of diabetes. The biggest obesity increases are seen in the city’s......

Considering that most smokers pick up the nasty habit during their impressionable adolescent years, it makes sense to put off exposing the tykes to the temptation until they're old enough to poison themselves. Riding that puff of thought, the State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines wrote an open letter earlier this month to film makers this week asking them to refrain from including smoking scenes in G, PG, and PG-13 rated movies. The (Health) Commish......

A married couple in the Upper West Side's Ansonia Building are suing their neighbor over her smoking. They claim her smoking is adversely affecting the hallway environment and the health of their four-year-old boy. Johnathan and Jenny Selbin are both lawyers and say their son Charlie's health is at risk due to Galila Huff's chain-smoking in her own apartment. Huff, who owns Caffe La Fenice just a couple blocks down Broadway, has lived at the......

We take this to be definitive proof that the video of a group of teen girls beating a man on an A train was not staged: The victim has emerged. Rafael Cruz, a 27-year-old Brooklyn resident who is a manager at a Midtown H&M, told the Post, "I'm trying to get over it. It happened a month ago." Cruz isn't sure if he will press charges, noting, "Teenagers are allowed to make mistakes, but......

After a video of a man being harassed and beaten by a group of teens was publicized by The Smoking Gun, some wonder if the tape is real. The main reason why most people suspect it could be staged is because the teen who filmed the incident is an aspiring filmmaker. Seventeen-year-old Kadejra Holmes told The Smoking Gun she didn't have anything to do with the attack and then took the video off YouTube. Her......

We always thought that Visine poisoning was an urban legend, but a crazy story from Long Island seems to suggest otherwise. Twenty-four year-old Kristine Anzalone has pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault and third-degree criminal mischief after being arrested for allegedly spiking her roommate's drink with Visine and then agitating his dogs to get into a fight. According to Newsday, Anzalone and her husband Christopher lived with a male roommate in a North Bellmore home......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual elevator rescue on Washington Ave. in Brooklyn, a pipe explosion on Richmond Terrace on Staten Island, and a person fatally struck by an A train at Van Siclen and Pitken Ave. in Brooklyn. NYC already has 91,000 practicing attorneys, but we can expect a lot more. Nearly 11,000 freshly minted JDs sat for the bar this summer and more than 70% of them passed. A 63-year-old man......

The unofficial first and second rules of sane subway rides might be "Do not talk to anyone" and "Don't look anyone in the eye." The Smoking Gun found a crazy video of an adult being beat up by a group of teenage girls on an A train. The adult, who is white, was somehow roped into a shouty exchange with the girls, who are black, and high school student Kadejra Holmes filmed the exchange,......

It's no shock that many drivers aren't totally on the ball when driving, but it turns out that one in three New York drivers multi-task in their cars. According to a Hunter College study (PDF) conducted at 50 intersections in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, of the over 3,000 drivers observed, 23% were talking on a cellphone, 5.7% were smoking, 4.5% were drinking, 3.1% were drinking, and 1.7% were grooming. Time to quote Rihanna:......

AMNY ruined elitist drinkers’ fun today by outing some “secret” watering holes around town. One of them, The Back Room, is no secret, just a pain to find for first-timers. The capacious bar is tucked away at 102 Norfolk Street two doors down from a "Lower East Side Toys" sign; pass through a gate and down some steps to a narrow alley that leads to an unmarked door. Or just look for the bouncer standing......

Lawyers for the families of Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia, the two firefighters who died in the August 18 Deutsche Bank fire, have filed notices of claim to sue city and state agencies for up to $180 million. The lawyers are claiming that the "reckless, willful and wanton actions and inactions" of the various agencies, including the FDNY, Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, caused the fatal response to the blaze. The Deutsche Bank,......

It appears the rumors of autumn's demise have been greatly exaggerated and you're going to have to start wearing a jacket outside after all. But the change of seasons is not without its perks; there are those hot winter drinks to look forward to, and a number of bars around town offer the perfect accompaniment for your hot toddy: a crackling fireplace. Below are some of New York's best places to chill out on a......

Linda Stein's daughter says that her mother had been recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and was, according to the Daily News, "taking medication that caused severe mood swings." Stein was found bludgeoned to death on October 30, and her personal assistant Natavia Lowery was arrested for her murder on Friday. Samantha Stein-Wells said, "My mother didn't deserve this.... They had just found a brain tumor a couple of weeks before she was killed. Everyone......

The Boston priest arrested for stalking "Late Night" talk-show host Conan O'Brien has been found fit for trial. A Manhattan judge declared the Reverend David Ajemian mentally fit for trial after a court-appointed psychologist examined him. Ajemian was arrested after issuing a number of threats to the host of the NBC talk show host and attempts to get into an O'Brien taping. Ajemian was relatively more unhinged than your average show biz stalker. He was......

The man who breached security at JFK Airport on Tuesday, after entering the restricted areas by walking through the exit lane near security screening and caused two terminals to be evacuated as the TSA and other authorities searched for him, was arrested yesterday in Albany. Authorities say that William Contreras Ramos, who managed to board his plane to the state capitol, had a 4-inch razor in his carry-on bag and was charged with carrying a......

Former FBI agent Roy Lindley DeVecchio has been on trial for four counts of murder, as prosecutors have accused him of being a mob informant. And the trial is being described as a "blockbuster" because it's "one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history." But DeVecchio wasn't centerstage yesterday - news about former Mayor - and former U.S. Attorney - Rudy Giuliani riveted the court. DeVecchio worked with mob informant Gregory Scarpa......

Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire investor who New York called an "International Moneyman of Mystery" back in 2002, may be set to plead guilty to having sex with underage girls in Florida, but now there are claims that he was preying on the young in the Big Apple. Maximilia Cordero is suing Epstein for "repeatedly" luring her to his East Side townhouse for sex back in 2000. At the time, Cordero was just 16 and hoping......