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