Spit killed the cigar!

Cigars used to be the cool thing for men to smoke. But back in the 1920s, the cigar industry ran into a problem: Spit!

You see, many fine cigars were hand-rolled by men like the guy above. And to get the cigar to hold together, they ran a bit of spit along the edge of the paper. This history lays it out:

The cigar industry faced a crisis when American Tobacco began promoting new, machine-rolled cigars. Its advertising asked: "Why run the risk of cigars made by dirty yellowed fingers and tipped in spit?" The image proved disastrous for the cigar industry . . . cigar sales plunged through the 1930s [and never recovered.]" (Thanks to Weird Universe for the tip!)

Smoking is GROSS. Just ask the FDA!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is going to require cigarettes to be sold with graphic warnings about how disgusting and dangerous smoking is.

And trust me, some of the messages are pretty harsh, even grisly. But it's for an important cause, so I'll share some here! (They get worse as you go.)

You know, to see the next ones, click on the "Read more" below... and even then, I'm going to leave the worst one out. (It shows a smoker's mouth, and it's HORRIBLE.)