For the most part, I have noticed that smokers will go out of their way to make sure they don’t make others uncomfortable. The vast majority of my friends smoke, but nobody ever complains about being inconvienienced when there are “special rules”.
I smoke, and though I rarely do so at home, we don’t allow smoking in the house. We go outside. We have a lot of smokers there, they know it and go outside. Nobody cares.
We have a young baby. Our friends always take care to smoke in another room or near a window when she is around.
When I am at a bar or restaurant, I will gladly wait until everyone nearby is finished eating - whether at the table or at the bar - before I pull out a cig, and even then, if it’s cramped, I’ll ask if they mind first.
'Course, I’m not one of those 3-pack-a-day types, so I don’t go crazy from lack of nicotine. (I’m a 1-pack-in-4-days type)
Nor I. With the shrinking size of smoking sections, the wait is often longer for a smoking table than non-smoking (at our local Hops, there are only a few tables and booths around the bar).
Hostess: Smoking or non?
Stofsky: What’s the wait?
H: X minutes for smoking, X-Y minutes for non.
S: (decides–how badly do I want to smoke with dinner) First available?
H: We’ll call you.
Now, if I get, by (bad) luck of the draw, non-smoking, I will not smoke. Nor will I bitch about it, say, by taking deep breaths and saying loudly, “My Lord, this air is not polluted enough. Our state’s economy depends on smokers and you sanctimonious assholes aren’t doing your part!” No, rather, if the nic fit gets too much, I’ll go to the bar or stand outside for a smoke with no comment.
Why, oh why, do the non-smokers consider themselves above the rules and think that they can insist that tobacco not be burned in the smoking section? Either wait for a table in the uncontaminated part of the restaurant or shut yer piehole. To recoin a phrase, if you can’t stand the smoke, stay out of the smoking section.
Oh, and Honey, maybe I’m selfish, but I don’t really give a habenero-hot shit about my smoke bothering someone else when I’m in the smoking section. Then again, I’ve never had anyone notice the pack of cigarettes in my shirt pocket or on the table when I’m sitting in non-smoking and say, “Go ahead and light up. I share the world with you and I’d like to make it nice for you.”
Another former smoker chiming in. If you decide to sit in a non-smoking section you really have no right to complain about someone smoking nearby. If it is going to piss you off that much wait the extra time.
Sneaking outside for a cigarette is one of the things I miss the most about smoking. You can go outside have a smoke, clear your mind, or meet other people. I met a lot of people on smoke breaks.
Huh. Is that why there’s so much poodle shit on the streets of Paris? Why should dog-owners pick it up, after all, given that no one else in society is living a pollution-free existence? “Until those clean-sidewalk nazis start doing everything they possibly can to avoid producing the absolutelowest possible level of pollution in their daily lives, I’m going to let Fifi dump her load on the sidewalk as if she were in the middle of a cornfield.”
Well, as alice_in_wonderland’s post made clear, there’s open air and then there’s open air. I don’t particularly enjoy it when I’m standing on a street corner waiting for the light to change, and having someone walk up, stand three feet away from me (upwind), light up a cigarette, and start blowing smoke in my face. No, I’m not going to get cancer from this minute or two of intense second-hand smoke, but it’s rude as hell on the smoker’s part.
Virtually everyone on this planet contributes to environmental pollution, and I would agree that there’s no small amount of hypocrisy about second-hand smoke as a pollutant. But please, dear smokers (and poodle owners), don’t use this as an excuse to be inconsiderate or to deliberately ignore the plights of others.
Rilchiam: a 10-minute standing ovation to you for keeping your butts off the ground! Awesome.