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A Cigar (or Ten) a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Posted: Tuesday, July 29, 2008
By Andrew Nagy
Jack Priestly says he has smoked 153,000 cigars since 1966, or roughly 10 a day.
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Jack Priestly celebrated his 100th birthday on July 18 like any other day—by firing up a cigar and drinking a shot of whiskey mixed with his morning tea. Then he ate breakfast.
“I love my cigars,” Priestly recently told The Telegraph newspaper of Britain. “ I wouldn’t be without them. I don’t care about the brand—a cigar is a cigar. But I’m not a fan of the small ones. The bigger, the better.”
Priestly started smoking cigarettes at the age of nine before switching to cigars for good in 1966. (A doctor advised him they were “healthier.”) He says he has smoked 153,000 cigars and 715,400 cigarettes. The cigar consumption amounts to about 10 cigars a day for the past 42 years.
The whiskey habit, learned from his mother-in-law, didn’t start until the age of 24.
Despite his smoking and alcohol indulgence, Priestly says he has suffered no serious related health problems.
“I’ve been operated on from toe to head but I’ve still got a good set of lungs. There’s nothing wrong with them,” Priestly said.
Priestly, of Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire, England, is not only a grandfather, but also has six great-grandchildren.
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