If there's anyone who should know about the dangers of smoking, you'd figure a Gillette oncologist would probably be as close to a primary source as anyone.

And Philp McMahill has a simple message for anyone who might be needing his services:

He wants to help you save your life.

And he's doing it in an unconventional way. Put simply, if you use tobacco products during his treatment, he'll terminate his services to you.

"I'm a health care professional," he told the Gillette News-Record for its Oct. 29 edition. McMahill's prediction for those who use tobacco products is dire.

"The choice of using tobacco is a choice to die earlier," he told the paper.

Apparently, McMahill's employers at Campbell County Memorial Hospital are supporting him fully, even if some wonder if it's right for a doc to be dictating how someone should live their lives.

Smoker Mark Branson told the paper that smoking, even if one is diagnosed with a form of cancer cause by it, "may be the only comfort a guy gets. I would find another doctor," he told the paper. "I don't think he should be a judge and that's what this doctor is doing."

Judge for yourself, but the doc appears to be sticking to his principles.

Another vice bites the dust

Further south, the (Riverton) Ranger reports that another blacklist of sorts could be taking shape.

The paper reports in its Oct. 29 edition that the city is considering assembling a list of habitual alcohol offenders that would be presented to those who sell alcohol. The city would still have to define what a "habitual drunkard" was and still if taverns and liquor stores would comply with such a measure.

Oh dear, where's my deer?

You'd think there'd be enough of these to go around this hunting season. Apparently for one East Jackson resident, there aren't enough heads of trophy deer for public consumption.

And that's too bad for Nate Cole, who lost the head of a deer he killed last month, the Jackson Hole News and Guide reported Nov. 1.

Cole, 28, left the head of the ungulate outside his house overnight on Oct. 23 and the next day, only to return from work and find it gone. Cole thinks a dog might be the culprit.

The incident was especially tough for Cole. The deer was the first one he'd ever bagged, after snagging several elk over the years. The deer, the News and Guide reported, was one with a four-point racks on each antler, with a 26-inch spread between them. "I'd really like to have it back," Cole said. "Hunting, to a lot of people, (is) one of the reasons they live here."

Taxidermist Norris Brown told the paper Cole just made a rookie mistake.

"It was an opportunity, and (the dog) is an opportunity, and the dog is an opportunist. If you left a cookie out there or a deer head, they'd both be gone," Brown told the paper.

To be honest, Cole doesn't know if the thief had two legs or four.

Snowbound hot rod

It scores a cool 300 horsepower under the hood, sucks nitrous oxide through its tailpipes, and most likely will blow the fiberglass off any snowmobile you'd drive.

Just try a guided snowmobile expedition in Yellowstone with this baby.

The Pinedale Roundup reported in its Oct. 26 edition about Clark Dyess, Sr. and his Polaris snow machine.

It's considered a high end "mean racing machine," was recently named at an Idaho snowmobile show as a "Most Magnificent Mod" (modified) sled.

The snowmobile is worth upwards of $25,000, Dyess told the newspaper. Dyess figures he'll take it to the Wyoming Range when the white stuff's really deep.

"It's kinda neat to take these ideas you get and start from scratch and see the end result. It kinda makes you feel good."

Night editor David Mirhadi can be reached at (307) 266-0616 or david.mirhadi@casperstartribune.net