Last night...

[lsanderson]

After getting to Walgreen's after the pharmacy closed, I hit Panorama video to take back the previous batch and picked up Shrek2 and the Chronicles of Riddick. I enjoyed 'em both.  I had very low expectations for the Chronicles, and I think it exceeded them. I did not look for a complicated plot or other things I might in a good movie. I just wanted to sit back, watch the action and watch Vin Diesel. Less clothes might have been nice.

The NY Times has a big piece on the smoking ban in New York City bars and restaurants. Many of the prophets of doom have announced that they like the new policy and have not seen business drop. It's worth reading. One caveat, I don't think we're as fashionable here in the miniapple and so won't see the savings from decreased dry cleaning bills.

Comments

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Who would wear something that needs to be dry-cleaned into a smoky bar? I've been known to leave my coat in the car, even in winter, to avoid having to clean it. Now I own a washable coat. And bars here are non-smoking unless they have a closed-off room.

New Yolkers

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

They have a slightly different fashion sense there than your city or mine.

[dlacey.livejournal.com]

Here in Ontario I think they've finally banned smoking in bars and restaurants in every municipality. I believe Toronto was the last hold-out and they stopped it last June. In every single case the bar owners association whined that small businesses would fail and in every single case after an initial drop off business improved.

I'm still taken by surprise when I go to the US and find people smoking in restaurants.

The sturm und drang

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Minneapolis has a ban scheduled to go into effect in early March. Dire results are forecast -- not quite The End of the World or At Least Western Civilisation, but amazingly close. Certainly many dire prognostications of closings and other dire consequences as yet not fully fathomed. (Massive traffic fatalities from the extra drive to Wisconsin for example.) At least it's nothing as catastrophic as Gay Marriage!!!

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

I don't understand these prognosticators, I really don't. These laws have been instituted all over the US with great success and no dire results. Are they completely unaware of that? Willfully ignoring it? And if so why? I'm just boggled.

MKK

[birdfigment.livejournal.com]

Not having read the NY Times piece, I will say that when in NY last weekend, I really enjoyed the no-smoking in bars/clubs policy. It did not seem to be affecting the establishments' patronage much in a bad way. And it meant I could stay out much later, since my contacts weren't being coated in smoke.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I think results may vary. The bar I was in on Friday night with cuteteenboy was almost deserted, whereas the bar I usually frequent down the street has become crowded enough to induce panic attacks.

Re: The sturm und drang

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

At least it's nothing as catastrophic as Gay Marriage!!!

Gay married couples don't make me cough, my eyes hurt, or my clothes smell. Unless, of course, they were to smoke in my presence. :)

Actually, gay marriage is not that controversial here compared to some places.

I can sorta see the argument that bar owners invested in owning their business, and worry about their livlihoods. I haven't seen any closed former bars since the law took effect, though, so I'm hoping that smokers just go outside the same way they have to go outside everywhere else.

People probably made a fuss when they first outlawed spitting into spittoons, but civilization somehow managed to muddle through it.

Re: New Yolkers

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, I seem to recall that even the people in hotbeds of non-fashion sense wore leather coats into bars. They didn't seem to clean them though; I use the expression "third-hand smoke" for the reek on the clothes of a non-smoker after s/he leaves a bar. I used to make my brother take his clothes downstairs instead of leaving them in the hamper, or the whole bathroom would reek by morning.