2155 Nix It

E-Cigarettes are catching on pretty fast. So fast that when I was in a regular old coffee shop recently I noticed they had a significant amount of counter space devoted to an E-Cigarette display.

Cig-nificant indeed. 

Not only that, the display also offered a mini-USB charger for your E-Cig device. Which conjured up an interesting image in my mind. A wired twenty-something, espresso with a soda back nearby, sucking on an E-Cig plugged into his laptop. An E-oral fixation worthy of Freud.

E-Cigs are still new enough that a common name has yet to emerge on what to call them and the whole vapor ingesting process. Cigarettes themselves have had similar name variety. From cigs, to butts, to the ever-popular coffin nails. 

A couple of name contenders are Vapes and E-Vapes. Trying to lose the negative cigarette baggage and create a whole new non-Marlboro Brand. Therefore you see places called Vapor Cafes, to highlight the fact that it isn't tobacco smoke, it's nicotined water vapor.

The types of E-Vapes these folks suck look a little more like slimmed down pipes than cigarettes. More like tiny oboes than tiny clarinets. One problem I see with the name E-Vape is it seems short for evaporation, a passive process, which E-sucking isn't.

Then there's the folks who are okay with the cigarette approach. Their E-Cigs are more cigarette looking, with slimmer cylindrical bodies and artificially glowing tips. I've heard them called Cigaletrics. 

My suggestion is not to focus on the delivery method but what's actually delivered. The drug package, not the water vapor carrier. Nicotine. 

Plus, I'm getting sick of E-things. So let's call them NicoStix. Or since they help you quit, or nix, smoking, how about just Nix? 

Dude, could I bum a drag off your Nix?

America, ya gotta love it.