Cigarette man! Cigarette man!

"There's something about the icecream truck that makes kids lose it. And they can hear that shit from ten blocks away. They don't hear their mothers calling but they hear that motherfucking icecream truck. " ~Eddie Murphy~

Yes, kids in the hood love the ice-cream man. It's not like they have shit else to look forward to from day to day. Anyway, apparently one corporation figured this out. But, instead of the ice cream man, it's the cigarette man they allegedly went pushing on the kids from the hood.

"BOSTON (AP) — Leslie Adamson said the white truck that stopped at the Boston housing project she grew up in brought adults and children running, much like a visit from the ice cream man.

But instead of sweets, the truck brought free cigarette samples.

The cigarette giveaways are a central issue in a lawsuit brought against Lorillard Tobacco Co. by a man who claims his mother was introduced to smoking as a child through the free samples and became so addicted that she was unable to quit and eventually died of lung cancer. Lorillard denies that anyone from the company gave out cigarettes to children.

Willie Evans, the son of Marie Evans, alleges in his lawsuit that Lorillard gave away Newport cigarettes in urban neighborhoods in an effort to hook black children and teenagers on cigarettes. Marie Evans died in 2002 at the age of 54 after smoking for four decades.

Adamson, Marie Evans’ younger sister, was the first witness to testify as the trial opened in Suffolk Superior Court on Friday. She said she first began getting free cigarettes in packs of 4 when she was about 7 or 8 years old in the Orchard Park housing project.

“It looked like a Frosty truck,” Adamson said. “I just remember people clamoring and cigarettes being handed out.”' [Full story]

WTF? The "Frosty truck" pushing Newport? "Oh come on now field, you know you black folks love your Newport cigarettes. So this company is trying to start them out a little young, what's the difference? We all know that they are going to end up smoking the damn things." Yes, black folks do love their menthols. Maybe some smart company can develop ice cream with nicotine in it. That way they can kill two birds with one stone. Or, one ice cream truck.

Finally, as if the poor post office isn't having enough problems. Now you have white folks taking out their frustrations on postal carriers of color; all because they happen to be the messengers. "Don't shoot the messenger", or, call the messenger the "N" word. I wonder who the certified letter to this frustrated woman was from? I am guessing it was the committee to re-elect Barack Obama.