Weighing Smoke
Item
Title
Weighing Smoke
Is Part Of
Philosophy
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Fine Art
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Physics
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Human Biology
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Film & Media Studies
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English
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Description
PAUL
That’s the man. Well, Raleigh was the person
who introduced tobacco in England, and since he
was a favourite of the Queen’s – Queen Bess, he
used to call her – smoking caught on as a
fashion at court. I’m sure Old Bess must have
shared a stogie or two with Sir Walter. Once,
he made a bet with her that he could measure
the weight of smoke.
DENNIS
You mean, weigh smoke?
PAUL
Exactly. Weigh smoke.
TOMMY
You can’t do that. It’s like weighing air.
PAUL
I admit it’s strange. Almost like weighing
someone’s soul. But Sir Walter was a clever
guy. First, he took an unsmoked cigar and put
it on a balance and weighed it. Then he lit up
and smoked the cigar, carefully tapping the
ashes into the balance pan. When he was
finished, he put the butt into the pan along
with the ashes and weighed what was there.
Then he subtracted that number from the
original weight of the unsmoked cigar. The
difference was the weight of the smoke.
TOMMY
Not bad. That’s the kind of guy we need to take
over the Mets.
PAUL
Oh, he was smart, all right. But not so smart
that he didn’t wind up having his head chopped
off twenty years later.
(Pause)
But that’s another story.
That’s the man. Well, Raleigh was the person
who introduced tobacco in England, and since he
was a favourite of the Queen’s – Queen Bess, he
used to call her – smoking caught on as a
fashion at court. I’m sure Old Bess must have
shared a stogie or two with Sir Walter. Once,
he made a bet with her that he could measure
the weight of smoke.
DENNIS
You mean, weigh smoke?
PAUL
Exactly. Weigh smoke.
TOMMY
You can’t do that. It’s like weighing air.
PAUL
I admit it’s strange. Almost like weighing
someone’s soul. But Sir Walter was a clever
guy. First, he took an unsmoked cigar and put
it on a balance and weighed it. Then he lit up
and smoked the cigar, carefully tapping the
ashes into the balance pan. When he was
finished, he put the butt into the pan along
with the ashes and weighed what was there.
Then he subtracted that number from the
original weight of the unsmoked cigar. The
difference was the weight of the smoke.
TOMMY
Not bad. That’s the kind of guy we need to take
over the Mets.
PAUL
Oh, he was smart, all right. But not so smart
that he didn’t wind up having his head chopped
off twenty years later.
(Pause)
But that’s another story.
Creator
Paul Auster
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Wayne Wang
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Date Created
1995
Source
Auster, A. & Wang, W. 1995. Smoke. United States: Miramax Films.
Resonances
Paul Auster
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fiction
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experiment
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physics
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educate
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instrument
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laboratory
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listening
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medicine chest
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student
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curricula
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England
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balance
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William Hurt
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fashion
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measure
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Type
Youtube clip
