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Tobacco is a Dirty Weed -- Graham Lee Hemminger

Thans to readers Bob Williams and Tim Reynolds for pointing out that Adams was
riffing off the following Graham Lee Hemminger poem:
(Poem #1915) Tobacco is a Dirty Weed
 Tobacco is a dirty weed,
 I like it.
 It satisfies no normal need,
 I like it.
 It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
 It takes the hair right off your bean.
 It's the worst darn stuff I've ever seen.
 I like it.
-- Graham Lee Hemminger
Hemminger in turn seems to have been poking fun at the far more solemn (and, as
far as I can find out, anonymous) verse:

 Tobacco is a filthy weed
 That from the devil doth proceed,
 That drains your purse,
 That burns your clothes,
 That makes a chimney of your nose.

However I still feel that while Hemminger's poem was merely an amusing parody,
Adams's had some undefinable element to it that lent it a touch of steel, and
which makes it far more trenchant than it appears at first glance.

martin

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