Quit Smoking, Get Devoured by Giant Eagle

At least one Seattlest contributor quit smoking over ten years ago not just for the obvious health reasons but also because of all the really creepy stuff that went down between the tobacco companies and the media; Michael Mann would go on to make a little movie about it five years later, which would effectively capture said creepiness of the aforementioned tobacco/corporate media weirdness.

Fast forward to 2006 and you have a Seattle Times graphic designer (known to his friends as "The Belgian") coming up with a special graphic design formula to help Seattle smokers quit: ascend the Space Needle by the number of cigarettes you don't smoke. From the article in question:

I'm a graphic artist, so what I needed was a graphic way to monitor my progress during these early days. What better benchmark to pick than the Space Needle? As of today, I'm 180 feet up the Space Needle, measured in all the cigarettes I didn't smoke, and should be to the top of the flagpole by July 12.

July 12th? That should be just enough time for the giant eagle's eggs to hatch. If there's one thing baby giant eagles hate, its second hand smoke. Good work, Belgian! (This Seattlest post has been brought to you by Phillip Morris.)