January 2008 Archives

What is the point of a second to last cigarette? It has no iconography; no special relationship with the condemned man and his final request; no smoker wondered when their second last would be. The second last cigarette fails to be first or last: it is a non-cigarette; something that you never look forward to with hope or fear or excitement or intrepid fascination. No-one cheered on the second to last guy. Who was one better than Eddy "the Eagle" Edwards in Calgary 1988? Who came second last when Equatorial Guinea's Eric Moussambani swam to fame in the 2000 Sydney Olympics? Who knows.