Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for February 14, 1993

Transcript:

Mr. Butts: (You're lookin' at the future, Buttsie...I just hope they have the same opportunities I had!) Good night, little Buttlets! Little Buttlets: Aw, Uncle Buttsie, one more bedtime story! Puh-leeze! Just one? Mr. Butts: Okay, last one! Once upon a time, way back in 1919, a medical student named Alton Ochsner observed the autopsy of a patient who had died of lung cancer... Buttlets: Ooh! Mr. Butts: The disease was so rare, he didn't see it in a patient again until 1936, when he saw nine cases! Can you explain that? Buttlets: There must have been a war! Mr. Butts: Right! World War I! Before that time, cigarette smoking wasn't that common! So the tobacco companies rushed millions of free cigarettes to the front, hooking a whole generation! The result showed up in Dr. Ochsner's patients 17 years later! Since that time, free cigarettes have been part of every war! And today there are over 400,000 smoking-related deaths every year! Buttlets: Wow... Mr. Butts: Okay, that's it! Sweet dreams! Buttlets: (500,000! 1,000,000!)