smoke em if you got em.

I find it amusing that the plexiglass covers on the No Smoking signs in the elevators at work have been deliberately melted in an effort to obscure the $500.00 maximum fine.

***
January will mark 6 years since Victoria (and the surrounding municipalites) enacted a smoke-free bylaw for restaurants and bars. The Province followed suit in 2002, and after an initial adjustment I think most establishments have survived -- even Big Bad John's, Victoria's selfproclaimed Hillbilly Bar. Now public smoking bans are looming in areas of the UK and the USA, and the same old arguments ("It'll kill buisness!" and, "It's really not that dangerous!") are being raised all over the planet.

I really don't know what makes people start smoking, and I have no idea how people stop. This is not a political post, and I am no longer the anti-smoking zealot I once was. I can only tell you from a non-smoker's perspective that regardless of health concerns, having smoke waft across my plate has a negative impact on my enjoyment of a meal. On the other hand, clubbing is not the same without that constant haze drifting in the air... and bars no longer have that "bar smell" combo of smoke, booze and sweat. I remember coming home from a night of dancing and tossing my clothes out on the balcony so my bedroom wouldn't reek the next morning. Those were the days, eh?