Writer's Block: In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue

[campylobacter]

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I wanna visit FIRST NATIONS DAY, bitch.

Get in a boat, land on an island, deny that it's not the "New World" but India you landed on, abduct some locals to use as slaves back home, and leave behind deadly diseases that wipe out a significant portion of the population AND GET A HOLIDAY NAMED AFTER YOU & CREDIT FOR DISCOVERING AMERICA 500 years after Leif Ericson established L'Anse aux Meadows.

Just... What even? Cristoforo Columbo Colombo doesn't deserve a US holiday named after him.

Comments

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

Of my kid's grandparents, 3 smoked when they were young (my father, my mother, my father-in-law). All three of them were able to quit, my mother in her very early 20's, my father-in-law in his late twenties, and my dad went from a pipe daily to a cigar perhaps 5 or 6 times a year for special occasions, before quitting in his 30's. My mom was saved by the economics of it, because when she was in college and I was little she chose to feed me rather than buy cigarettes when we didn't have enough money to eat properly. My father-in-law decided it was an addiction, and he didn't like that, so he made himself chew gum (an activity he loathed) every time he wanted a smoke, and never got through the first pack of gum. My dad didn't like what it did to his endurance (he's a committed runner), and so he cut way back before reluctantly stopping because he didn't like the health risks. By some fluke, given that addictive personalities run rampant on all sides of our families, they all had a relatively easy time of it, but I have known people for whom it has been a long, terrible, and ultimately futile battle.

It takes grit, courage, and determination to quit, and so Mr. Campy gets major hero points from me for his success.