So, a few months ago, I had a polite conversation with my next-door neighbor. Our apartments share a small foyer just off the landing. This neighbor is a chain smoker and, evidently, his wife doesn’t permit him to smoke in the apartment. So, his choice was to hang out in the foyer and stink it up and thus also stink up my apartment. Well, when we had the polite conversation, he agreed to not smoke in the foyer.
So, I was out of town for a month. The very night I’m back, I see cigarette butts on the foyer floor and the foyer–along with my apartment–have the tobacco stench. I knocked on neighbor’s door but nobody was home.
This morning on my way to the Internet Cafe, I talk to him. It starts out politely, but deterioates rapidly, as follows:
I: Do you still smoke?
He: Yes, want one?
I: No, remember when we talked about your smoking? Well, I still don’t smoke and I don’t appreciate your smoking in the foyer.
H: I don’t smoke in the foyer.
I: Look! Tobacco stinks. You make the foyer stink. You are making my apartment stink.
H: What do you mean it stinks?
I: It stinks of tobacco! You agreed to not smoke there so keep your promise!
H: Oh, I never smoke there. I smoke in the bathroom. It must be coming through your bathroom window.
I: I guess you’re going to the bathroom in the foyer, huh? Look, admit it. You’re stinking up the place. I don’t want my place to stink. Smoke in your own home. Don’t stink up mine!
H: But I’m not smoking there.
I: Yes, you are. Let me talk to the manager because, after all, the building ruless are “no smoking in the foyer, on the landings, on the stairs, and in the laundry room.”
H: {Puzzled look; he’s stunned anyone actually expects him to follow the rules.}
Look, I understand the moron is addicted to that trash. But why can’t he just admit that he’s smoking in the foyer?
Man, I can’t wait until Korea jacks up the price of a pack of cigarettes beyoned a buck fifty.
You sure it’s not someone else? (I’m just making sure that’s not a possibility).
But even if he is smoking in the bathroom- aren’t the bathroom ventilation systems in buildings usually hooked together? So him smoking in his would result in yours stinking too?
If they are the only ones who share the foyer, right? And we already know his wife won’t let him smoke in the apartment, AND there are butts in the foyer. So it’s either this guy or his guests. He knew Monty was away, so he figured he’d take advantage.
I’d be pissed too, Monty. I hate it when people look you right in the eye and then lie in your face. So disrespectful, and since you don’t have a video tape, and you don’t want a fist fight, you just have to suck it up. But you can hate them a little. Fuckers.
This reminds me of when I lived in Army barracks and one of the sergeants had a no tolerance policy about cigarette butts on the ground. All the smokers were very conscientious about policing their butts so that they could continue to be allowed to smoke in the barracks. But the sergeant kept finding butts on the ground right outside the doors. Turned out it was the pizza delivery man who would toss his butt on the ground right outside the doors when he was making a delivery.
You haven’t given a physical description of yourself or your neighbor. It could be that he finds you physically intimidating and is afraid you will get violent with him. Usually when I’m very boldly proclaiming someone else to be a coward because she won’t confront me, she’s somebody smaller, weaker, younger and much less confrontational than I am.
I’d install a small but very loud smoke detector in the foyer, one that isn’t instantly recognizable as such until IT STARTS BLASTING AT 185 DECIBELS ITS ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THE FILTHY FOUL SMOKER IS DEBASING HIMSELF UPON THE NICOTINE ALTAR WITH THE DEMONS OF HELL DANCING ABOUT HIM IN THEIR SATANIC CHEER OF HIS SURRENDER TO THEM OF HIS IMMORTAL SOUL!
At the very least, it should make for an interesting evening.
Sometimes they are. However, bathroom ventilation systems are typically exhausts — they pull the air out, and exhaust it to the outdoors. If systems are tied together, there is generally a rooftop fan, and it sucks the air from the bathrooms. There wouldn’t be a process pushing the stinky air from one space into a different space.
I think you’re thinking of a general ventilation system, where there is mixing of the return air from different areas. You then typically mix the return air with some outdoor air, heat or cool it to the desired temperature, and then distribute it to the spaces. If you had a shared return from different apartments, and he had a smelly apartment, then everyone could be treated to a diluted version of his apartment’s smelliness.
Just to be the devil’s advocate - Is it possible those are old butts that he never cleaned up? You get used to tobacco smell even if you don’t realize it - maybe a month of being away got your nostrils clear and now you’re smelling old smells. It does linger, especially if the butts haven’t been removed.
That said, I bet he’s been smoking on the foyer. I agree with the smoke detector idea.
I don’t know Korean domestic architecture, but as you imply, other east Asian places I’ve lived have no such sophistication - no central air, a/c units are window-mounted, and if there is an extractor fan on the bathroom (which isn’t usual), it’s likely just to be a window fan.
Monty, even as one of those ghastly smokers, I sympathise. It’s disgusting, and his prevarication does indeed appear cowardly.
But it might all be down to the ‘face’ thing: no way would he be able to admit to it once you implied he was lying. At that point his choice suddenly became “appear to be an obtuse butthead” or “lose face by admitting to being a liar”, and no way is he going to take the latter choice.
Read the OP again. The way Monty describes it, his neighbor was denying smoking in the foyer repeatedly before Monty called him on it, and FWIW Monty never used the words “lying” or “liar”.
That’s right. I actually didn’t tell the lying scum that he’s lying. Here in South Korea, smokers display the most stunning show of selfishness I’ve ever encountered in my entire life. It’s really amazing. Actually, I’m stunned hospitals aren’t exploding in flame with the number of smokers I see standing there, holding onto their oxygen tanks and masks.
Anyway, there’s no ventilation system for general ventilation, unless you count the apartment windows. I keep mine closed for obvious reasons. The bathroom fan is, of course, only an exhaust fan.
The biggest question, though, I have about Korean smokers is this: why do almost all of the men smoke those lady’s cigs? We ferriners here get a big laugh out of that, seeing how homophobic this society is (discounting the Gay and Transgendered pop stars, whom almost everyone loves).
As it happens, I ran into the building owner/manager on my way downtown this afternoon. He let me know that the smoking neighbor is moving out at the end of this month. That’s cool for two reasons: (1) Over the last year, the usual tenant moving into a vacant apartment on this block is college co-ed, and (2) most of them don’t smoke!
I am not sure that Monty’s neighbor is lying, but it is damn straight that smokers really can’t “get” that us non-smokers can tell they have been smoking. They can’t smell it!
I used to go out with this woman who would smoke but swear that she wasn’t. :rolleyes: We would be at a restaurant and she’d disappear for 5 minutes “to go to the rest room” coming back like she had smoked a whole fucking pack.
TP: “You were just smoking”
Ex GF: “No, the rest room smelled a little.”
TP: “Your breath stinks.”
Ex GF: “No, you just can’t tell.” :dubious:
It only lasted until I got tired of fucking her, but I don’t guess that wouldn’t be the same problem you have.
I wasn’t attempting to make any implication about Asian architecture and construction practices. I was responding to the earlier question “aren’t the bathroom ventilation systems in buildings usually hooked together?” My attempted response was that no, if the building is of the level of sophistication that it provides bathroom ventilation (beyond a window or window unit), the air removed would not then be returned or shared with the rest of the building, and would therefore not be the source of the smell.