The journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence reported in September on a survey of the smoking habits among college freshman at a large Midwestern university. Smoking was “stigmatized” on an everyday level, the researchers found. But things were quite different indeed at parties, where, it seems, smoking was considered “socially acceptable” and “served multiple utility functions for this population,” including:
• Facilitating social interaction across gender
• Allowing one to structure time and space at a party
• Enabling “party” smokers to smoke with fewer negative side effects, and
(Insert drum roll here …)
• Helping to calm one down when drunk.
And That’s Exactly Why We Never Read It
From Stuart Elden’s “Place Symbolism and Land Politics in Beowulf” in a recent issue of Cultural Geographies: “The key question is the role of place or site in the poem in general terms, and the more specific issue of land. The article first analyzes three significant sites in the narrative — the locations of the battles between Beowulf and Grendel, Grendel’s mother and the dragon. Each of these places — the hall, the mere, and the burial mound — are shot through with powerful emotive, elemental, symbolic and material geographies. … “
And Finally … You Had Me at the Word “Cinemusicaliterary”
The paper “A cinemusicaliterary analysis of the American dream as represented by biographical jazz comedepictions in the golden age of Hollywood biopics: Blow, Horatio, Blow; O, Jakie, O; Go, Tommy, Go; No, Artie, No” by Columbia University’s Morris B. Holbrook appeared in the December issue of Marketing Theory.
The Cocktail Napkin appears at the back page of each issue of Miller-McCune magazine, highlighting current research that merits a raised eyebrow or a painful grin.
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