Here in New Mexico they just enacted a smoking ban in bars early last month. As much as I think this should be regulated privately, I can say that it was nice to be in a bar and breathing clean air. Stepping outside for a smoke was only a minor inconvenience.
Siam Sam, are you me?
Quite apart from not being able to smoke in a pub there is another downside.
I went for lunch with my brother today, very nice pub, excellent food.
Today it was full of parents with sprogs, some of whom started to cry…loudly.
It’s just not fair…“sob”
Et tu, England? 
Eh, I’m pretty used to stepping outside by now. Our school pub banned smoking last fall. It sucks when it’s really cold/raining/windy outside, but c’est la vie.
Good. Smoking bad. I don’t want to smell the human-smokestacks when I’m out. It’d be different if it weren’t…oh…cancerous. Oh yeah, and if it didn’t smell like ass.
Seattle banned indoor smoking a while ago*. As a nonsmoker who goes out to clubs to see music a lot, on the whole this was a good thing–you no longer have to take a shower immediately after coming home to get the stench of smoke off you, and you don’t get the cough from all the secondhand smoke. On the other hand, while you’re in the club, you’re now exposed to the smells that were previously masked by the smoke: stale beer, body odor, farts…
*FTR, I voted against the smoking ban even though I don’t smoke.
Of course, now that smoking indoors is banned most places (not here in Virginia, yet), sidewalks have become Smoky Smokeopolis. Plus, those people always seem to be looking at you, like they’re vultures or something. I’m beginning to think it would be better to have them cordoned off indoors.
How does that work then? :dubious:
I’m quite looking forward to it. I had to stop going to the pub quiz because it was uncomfortably smoky, and I’m looking forward to being able to take my kids out for pub meals more often. It’s a good thing, as far as I’m concerned.
Oh, I know that’s a selfish POV, but isn’t everybody’s?
Orlando is non-smoking but you can in certain bars because of the Grandfather Clause. If the bar’s been around long enough, they get an exception. I guess they dont have that in England ><
Not quite. The bars that you can smoke in are the ones that get less than 15% of their revenue from food. 'Nowt to do with how long the bar has been around, I’m afraid.
As a former Briton, I’m stunned. The nation of not-the-nanny-state is joining the other nanny states. Making you go outside in a country where it rains 48 weeks a year is just barbaric…
On the other hand, I live in Florida now, so who gives a shit? 
Yaknow, at least the UK has socialized medicine. The government and the taxpayers have a vested interest in keeping you healthy, because you’re going to be dying on their dime.
As a smoker, I actually don’t mind smoking bans in restaurants and other places. But forcing bars to ban smoking just seems absurd. I can smoke in a bar and there’s a very very limited chance I am being detrimental to someone else’s health. But I can drink in a bar then drive home, and there’s a much higher chance I could end up being detrimental to someone’s life.
The town I live in has banned smoking as well (although the middle eastern hookah bars seem to have some sort of exemption) and when we go to somewhere that doesn’t have the ban it’s just odd to be able to smoke indoors.
“I am you and you are me and we are all together …” Whoops! I mean, almost. May 26 was the fifteenth anniversary of my last smoke. I was determined to be smoke-free as of the 27th, so there I was late at night on the 26th puffing away. Puff puff puff, look at my watch. 11:45pm. Puff puff puff. 11:48. Puff puff puff etc. At the stroke of midnight, I stopped for good.
Nicotine gum played a large part in my success, but I think equally important was making myself sick on my last-minute smokefest leading up to midnight.
yep…but one slight problem - drinking then driving has been illegal for how long again?
A school with a pub ? 
?
<MB>Excellent</MB> 
Yeah. Our school (UChicago) is in a very boring neighborhood (and is also a very boring school, socially speaking). The school runs a pub (no hard liquor sold there, just beer and cider and stuff) in the basement of one of our recreational activities buildings (with our student theater and dance hall) and there is just one other bar that students go to (in total there are maybe five bars in the entire neighborhood). The bar nearly closed down a few years ago but the school actually bought it and kept it open until a new owner came along. Apparently they were afraid the students would be pushed over the edge if their one escape from academia was taken away from them. (Considering our school also has a Suicide Prevention Day every quarter, I wouldn’t be surprised.)
[/hijack]
The University of Hawaii has an on-campus pub. I hear the U of Texas does, too, on the main campus in Austin.
Sounds neat, but I never did consider the one at U of Hawaii all that good a place to hang out.
I was thinking school = Junior High, not college :smack:
Most Canadian schools have bars / pubs on campus.