Old Smoky

‘PURVEYORS of the finest mackerel and kippers have long championed the benefits of smoking.

Add ten parts gin to one part water

Others, and one thinks of Roy Castle, Bill Clinton and successive health ministers, have not.

But today’s news is heartening for those among us who would prefer to smoke freely wherever we choose.

The Mail has it that the world’s oldest man, Cambodian Sek Yi, lived to be 122 years old because he liked a good toke on the noxious weed.

Sadly, Yi is no longer with us, having recently crumbled into a pile of ash and smouldering embers, but his healthy smoking plan is ready to set the world alight.

In an interview her gave a few days before he burnt out, the man tells us how he took up smoking to be more manly. And, as any 14-year-old with a pack of ten Silk Cut knows, it works.

Yi also prayed a lot and hunted tigers.

The prayer thing is of interest, and suggests that the pious – and one thinks of Tony Blair, who has been closer than ever to his maker of late – will live long.

But for the full benefits, the supplicant must smoke – if the hands raised up to the heavens should hold a lit fag, so much the better.

And then there are those tigers. Such beasts are notoriously difficult to come by, but it’s encouraging to note that you do not actually have to catch them, just hunt them.

Next week we will spotlight the world’s oldest woman, who remained alive in a large house off London’s Mall, courtesy of a pickling process involving ten parts gin to one part water.

She hunted on horseback.’

Posted: 21st, October 2003 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink