Burning issues…

Igave up smoking a million years ago, and every day I’m grateful and glad that I managed to do it. But even so, there’s something about it that I miss, and it’s got everything to do with what features ed Liesl Robertson describes in her excellent piece on page 44: it’s about gossip.

When I first started working in magazines, for the first six months my desk was in the passage, which I thought was the height of glamour. Everyone smoked then, and everyone smoked at their desks. Which I was happily doing one day when I noticed that my rubbish bin was on fire. The vice-president of the company happened to be walking past and he chivalrously tried to stamp it out, getting his expensively shod foot caught in the bin in the process. While I tried to save him and he tried to save my bin, we became friends. He was vice-president and I was so low on the ladder that I didn’t even have a title, let alone a proper desk. And we would probably never have spoken had I not been burning down his business.

When they banned smoking in buildings and we all had to gather on the street outside, it was even better: you never knew who you were going to stand around bumming lights from – anyone from the political editor to the lift operator to the financial grand wizard (I’m bad with titles, but you know who I mean. That guy). And everyone talked while they smoked, because there were no cellphones to distract us… it was that long ago. Those gatherings were completely democratic in a way that nothing has ever been since: a cross-pollination of casual comments, information and insights that often resulted in some really innovative ideas. In other words, we were gossiping, and I think it was an essential part of our success.

I’m not sure what replaced that when we all came to our senses and gave up the gaspers for good, but whatever it is, I haven’t found it. Have you? If so, share!

Happy (smoke-free) and gossipy November to you! Love, Suzy