Every single box of cigars I buy warns me that smoking kills, and in large lettering, but to no avail. I keep buying them. What is worse, I keep smoking them with abandon. The warning only annoys me, for it spoils the design of the box. It is but a question of law regulating the tobacco market, of course. The warning is so ineffective, however, that I wonder about the legal scaffolding behind it. How come it is still around? Why are the lawmakers oblivious to its failure after so many years? For the cigars keep coming my way without let or hindrance. The only reason that crosses my mind is that people still buy a wide variety of tobacco products in the hope that smoking indeed kills. In the hope, that is, that they are committing a slow but painless suicide, minus the short and nasty bit in a cancer ward at the very end. Returning to my own disregard of the warning, is this why I keep smoking cigars myself? Am I trying to rush sweet death along? The best I can say at the moment is that I cannot provide an unequivocal answer to this straightforward question. Surprise, what surprise?