Word: hookah
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...INDIA: In war-torn Kashmir, Gulmarg has the world's highest golf course, at 2,650 m, and one of the world's highest lifts, at 4,138 m. It may also be the cheapest: $6 a day covers lift rides and equipment rental, but not the chairlift hookah pictured here...
...centuries, men in the Middle East have gathered around hookahs to puff fruit-scented smoke, talk and pass the time. In the West, however, the water pipe became synonymous with drug culture in the 1960s, an association that lingers. But in the past couple of years, the hookah has been resurrected in youth-oriented coffeehouses, restaurants and bars, supplanting the cigar as the tobacco fad of the moment. "It's a social thing to do. You can get a hookah and hang out," says Rothe, passing the hose to his friends at the Parisian-style Gypsy Cafe. "It's really...
Young patrons of the lounges agree that part of the hookah's charm lies in its illicit associations. "It looks illegal," says Gypsy customer Armen Piskoulian, 18, with a grin, sucking on his hookah with the insouciance of the blue caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, "but it's not." Others say it's not just stoner chic that has made the hookah a hit with the collegiate crowd. Post-9/11 headlines have also played a part. "They're hearing about Middle East this and Middle East that," says the Habibi's Mickey Fathi. "They can come here...
Danny McGoldrick, research director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, thinks such claims are just blowing smoke. "There is no safe form of tobacco," he says. "There is a danger that young people will see a hookah as something that is fun, yet develop a nicotine addiction." Hoping that the pipe is a passing fad, McGoldrick says the campaign has not done any antihookah outreach thus far. Nor have UCLA health officials, who say tobacco is not a major problem on campus...
Health concerns certainly haven't kept the pipe's young converts away. Passing around a hookah with friends has become so popular at UCLA that there are now two hookah lounges a stone's throw from the campus. Patrons can play board games on sidewalk tables outside the Gypsy or sip coffee and relax in the dark, smoky interior of the Habibi Cafe across the street...