About the Author

Christopher Buckley is the
author of eleven books,
many of them national
bestsellers, including
THANK YOU FOR
SMOKING, GOD IS MY
BROKER, LITTLE GREEN
MEN, NO WAY TO TREAT
A FIRST LADY,
WASHINGTON
SCHLEPPED HERE and
FLORENCE OF ARABIA.
About the Author

Christopher Buckley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Buckley was born in New York in 1952. He graduated with honors from
Yale University, shipped out with the Merchant Marine and was
managing editor of ESQUIRE magazine at the age of 24. At age 29, he
published his first best seller, STEAMING TO BAMBOOLA: THE
WORLD OF A TRAMP FREIGHTER and became chief speechwriter to
the Vice President of the United States, George H.W. Bush.

In 1989, the late Malcolm Forbes hired him to start a new magazine,
FORBES FYI. He has been editor of chief of the publication since then.
Buckley has written for most national newspapers and magazines,
including THE NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL,
WASHINGTON POST, TIME, THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY,
SMITHSONIAN, US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, VANITY FAIR,
VOGUE, CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER. He has published over 50 comic
essays in THE NEW YORKER magazine. In 2002, Buckley received the
Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence.
Prologue- The Symposium



Naylor made his living by defending the
tobacco industry which is responsible for
killing 1200 people a day.
“We need not more confrontation, but more
consultation.” Steal from the Jesse Jackson
School of Meaningless but Rhymed Oratory.
He told the tale of Turkish Sultan Murad IV’s
anti-smoking hysteria. Murad IV beheaded
people for breaking his anti-smoking ban.
Chapter 1

Nick Naylor’s office, the
Academy of Tobacco
Studies, is on K Street
in Washington, D.C.

K Street is known as
the location of many
lobbyists.
Chapter 1

At one point he mentions the 'Nuremberg
Defense‘- “I vas only paying ze mortgage”
Nuremberg Trials
Chapter 1

Tobacco has been under government attack
at least since 1964 when Surgeon General
Luther Terry issued his famous report SGR
Reducing the Health Consequences of
Smoking.
The Surgeon General of the United States is
the nation's leading spokesman on matters of
public health.
Chapter 1
We meet Jeannette “the very picture of a
Yuppie dominatrix”
Chapter 2


Nick has lunch with the Mod
Squad at Bert’s
MOD= Merchants of Death,
not The Mod Squad, a
1960s cop show
Like Hollywood joke writers,
only developing sound bites
to deemphasize the lethality
of their products
Chapter 2

Polly was happy that the Michigan Supreme Court
had ruled that sobriety check lane were
unconstitutional, even though the US Supreme
Court had said they were constitutional. [Sobriety
checklanes involve the seizure of the vehicle without
suspicion, and therefore violate the state
constitution. Sitz v MSP 443 M 744 (1993)]
Understanding Federal and State Courts Educational Outreach
Chapter 2G. Gordon Liddy
Bobby Joe developed
an advertising piece
with a little old lady who
could have stopped a
church shooting if only
her state legislature
had authorized carrying
a weapon, from a story
he heard on G. Gordon
Liddy's radio show
Chapter 3


Most of Nick’s $105K goes
to pay the mortgage on the
suburban home where Joey
lives with his mother
During the weekend
visitation, Dad and Joey
end up watching the video
Sands of Iwo Jima
When Dad lights up a
cigarette, Joey gets him to
go outside to smoke
Chapter 4
Early talking films
glamorized the notion of
smoking (Bogart in
Casablanca)
Chapter 4
Popular Documents: Smoking in Movies
Chapter 4-
Chapter 5
Joe Camel
Survey says, 90% of 6
year olds recognize Joe
Camel and understand
what he represents.
Chapter 6
Naylor tells the Captain he was born in 1952,
a year in which the Captain was killing
Chinese in the Korean War. Now the Chinese
are the tobacco industry’s best customers
(70% of Chinese adult males smoke.)
Chapter 6
The Captain regales Nick with certain
historical facts about smoking



Rodrigo de Jerez – the first European smoker and
first tobacco spokesperson
Edwin Proon- put in the stock in the
Massachusetts Bay colony in the early 1600s for
smoking
Lucy Page Gaston- founder of the Anti-Smoking
League, died of lung cancer(“It proves there is a
God,” says the Captain.)
Chapter 6Lucy Page Gaston
Chapter 8
Nick received an
invitation to appear on
Larry King Live
Chapter 8
The Tumbleweed Man, Lorne Lutch had been
the macho cowboy image for smoking for
years, but now he had throat cancer, spoke
through a Stoma , and spoke out against the
dangers of smoking
Chapter 8

The Lutch character is
based on the real
Marlboro Man, in
particular Wayne
McLaren. McLaren
testified for antismoking
legislation before dying
of lung cancer.
NPR : The Marlboro
Man, Present at the
Creation
Chapter 9
The Washington Moon is a
fictitious news paper. However,
as the alternative to the
Washington Post, the Moon
reference is to Washington’s
other paper, the The
Washington Times. The Times
was founded in 1982 by Sun
Myung Moon, leader of the
Unification Church and the
Family Federation for World
Peace and Unification, to be a
conservative alternative to the
larger Washington Post. The
Times is widely perceived as
maintaining a right-leaning
editorial stance.
Chapter 9
The United States Secret Service is mandated by statute and
executive order to carry out two significant missions: protection
and criminal investigations. The Secret Service protects the
President and Vice President, their families, heads of state, and
other designated individuals; investigates threats against these
protectees; protects the White House, Vice President’s
Residence, Foreign Missions, and other buildings within
Washington, D.C.; and plans and implements security designs for
designated National Special Security Events. The Secret Service
also investigates violations of laws relating to counterfeiting of
obligations and securities of the United States; financial crimes
that include, but are not limited to, access device fraud, financial
institution fraud, identity theft, computer fraud; and computerbased attacks on our nation’s financial, banking, and
telecommunications infrastructure. Secret Service Codenames
for protected individuals are real, but also are fodder for fiction
writers (Rover in this case).
Chapter 10


In 1604, King James I of
England wrote The
Counterblaste to Tobacco, the
first governmental attack on
the evils of tobacco.
But by 1612, the Treasury was
full with revenues from taxing
tobacco, and James never
addressed the subject again.
The US government, like Capt.
Renaud, is shocked by the ill
effects of smoking while its
international trade
representative push tobacco
on foreign markets.
Chapter 10From Casablanca
RICK: How can you close me
up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I'm shocked,
shocked to find that gambling
is going on in here!
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: Oh, thank
you very much.
Captain Renault: Everybody
out at once!
Chapter 11

Nick is kidnapped—he
refers to the kidnapper
as Peter Lorre
He was a popular
character actor in the
1940s & 1950s and
shown here with
Humphrey Bogart
Chapter 12
Nick tells his doctor jokes about J. Edgar
Hoover wearing tutus. (See The Secret Life
of J. Edgar Hoover for the bizarre side of the
famous FBI Director.)
Chapter 12

Katie Couric of the
Today show interviewed
Nick in the hospital.
She is now a news
anchor on CBS
Chapter 13-
Chapter 16
Lady Bent is modeled
after Margaret
Thatcher, former British
Prime Minister known
as the Iron Lady.
Chapter 17
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial: Struggle with
Disability- FDR’s disability was generally not
displayed in public and was a well kept secret.
Chapter 20


The Mod Squad tried to help Nick address
the skull and crossbones proposal.
They discuss getting dirt on Senator
Finisterre. “Don’t forget his video rental
records. Remember what those swine did to
poor Judge Thomas.”
The reference is to Clarence Thomas now a
US Supreme Court Justice.
Chapter 20

Justice Thomas’ Senate
confirmation hearings reached
an all time low in bad taste
(until exceeded by the Clinton
impeaxhment mess!)
The content of the hearings,
particularly Senator Orrin
Hatch's questions "[D]id you
ever say in words or substance
something like there is a pubic
hair in my Coke?" and "Did you
ever use the term Long Dong
Silver in conversation with
Professor Hill?" rapidly
became fodder for the nation's
comedians.
Chapter 20
Nick appears on the ABC news show, Night Line
with Ted Koppel. This show was on the air for many
years.
Chapter 20

Nick notes that
Koppel’s characteristic
pause is reminiscent of
Edward R. Murrow the
pioneering radio and
television journalist.
Murrow was also a
prominent smoker. He
died of lung cancer at
age 57 in 1965.
Chapter 20
Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report of The
Surgeon General - Warning Label - Fact
Sheets discusses tobacco label warnings.
Chapter 22

Nick sat through a day long Senate hearing
on the labeling proposal, listening to repeated
attacks on tobacco.
Nick described the committee members:
“over 2000 bounced checks between them, a
seducer of underage Senate pages, 3 DUIs,
one income-tax evader, a wife beater… and a
case of plagiarism, from, of all sources, a
campaign speech of Benito Moussolini.”
Chapter 22

The page reference calls to mind the Mark Foley affair of 2006, and the
earlier House page scandal in the 1980s.
The plagiarism issues recalls then Senator Joseph Biden (now Vice
President)


Biden was forced to withdraw from the 1988 Democratic Presidential
nominations when it was alleged that he had failed a 1965 introductory law
school course on legal methodology due to plagiarism. "Senator Joseph R.
Biden Jr., fighting to salvage his Presidential campaign . . . acknowledged 'a
mistake' in his youth, when he plagiarized a law review article for a paper he
wrote in his first year at law school. Mr. Biden insisted, however, that he had
done nothing 'malevolent,' that he had simply misunderstood the need to cite
sources carefully." Biden withdrew from the race September 23, 1987, and
reported the law school incident to the Delaware Supreme Court. The court's
Board of Professional Responsibility cleared him of any allegations.
Biden was also accused of plagiarizing portions of his speeches, and that he
had copied several campaign speeches, notably those of British Labour
leader Neil Kinnock and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He denied those
charges. "And he asserted that another controversy, concerning recent
reports of his using material from others' speeches without attribution, was
'much ado about nothing.'“
Chapter 23
Hamlet with Yorick’s skull

Sven shows Nick the
focus group info on the
skull and bones. A Mr.
Rogers like skull looked
almost friendly. (The
program Kciroy- Yorick
spelled backwardsproduces it.)
Chapter 24

Nick imagines himself being
carried out of the office to
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital by
the men in white coats
where his roommate is John
Hinckley, Jr.
Hinckley shot President
Reagan in 1981, was
acquitted on an insanity
defense and is still a mental
patient at St. Elizabeth’s
St. Elizabeth’s Main Building
John Hinkley following
assassination attempt
Chapter 25
Nick convinces a Muslim
cab driver to elude the
agents following him by
telling the driver the FBI
wants to deport him
because of the World
Trade Center Bombing in
1994. Nick tells him he
may get to meet Sheik
Omar Abdel-Rahman in
prison
Chapter 25

The Captain was in the
hospital when Nick
arrived. Nick claimed
to be his grandson in
order to see him using
his best Butterfly
McQueen voice
Prissy’s famous line:
Lawzy, we got to have
a doctor. I don't know
nothin' 'bout birthin'
babies!
Butterfly McQueen in Gone
With the Wind
Chapter 25
There is a brief reference to gunmen on the
grassy knoll in Dallas (a conspiracy theory
about the John Kennedy assassination).
Chapter 26-
Robert Stack as Eliot Ness


Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness
The FBI agents confront Nick about going to
Winston Salem
Nick thinks of them as The Untouchables
Chapter 27

Marquess of Queensberry,


John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of
Queensberry was a Scottish nobleman,
remembered for lending his name to the
"Marquess of Queensberry rules" that formed the
basis of modern boxing
Gomez calls the hit squad Team B to which Nick
responds “the Presidential Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board”
Chapter 28



The MOD Squad became public knowledge Only Bert was happy
because his restaurant was put on the Scandal Tour itinerary
The Tidal Basin is where Fanne Foxe, girl friend of powerful
Congressman Wilbur Mills took a late night swim, got caught and
exposed her tryst with Mills to the world
Marion Berry is a former DC mayor arrested in a cocaine sting
washingtonpost.com: Barry Arrested on Cocaine Charges in
Undercover FBI, Police Operation
Chapter 28

Polly was upset to hear
about Nick and
Jeannette, but Nick
could not see Polly’s
look because she was
wearing her Jackie O
sunglasses (a
reference to former first
lady Jackie Kennedy)
Chapter 28



Nick wakes up in Arlington
National Cemetery with the
taste of Slivovitz (plum
brandy) in his mouth
He had come to commit
suicide
When he sees a bum light a
cigarette on the Eternal
Flame at JFK’s gravesite he
had an epiphany and
changed his mind
Epilogue
Bobby Jay is active with the Christian Prison
Fellowship which was founded by Charles
Colson , who was former counsel to
President Nixon and who did prison time for a
Watergate related conviction