I’m on my fourth Florida residency—my career, when I had one, kept taking me away but I always came back. This time, I hope I am here to stay.
Why would you think college towns would be exempt?
Everything, from pubs to private clubs, has to ban smoking. There are four exceptions:
- Retail tobacco shops
- Stand alone bars where food revenue is not a significant source of income
- Designated smoking rooms in hotels and motels
- Private homes that do not provide commercial child care, health care or elder care.
I believe pubs serve food. They would have to ban smoking. Bars that don’t serve food can still allow smoking. (For now.)
I was referring in general. And many clubs/pubs in Gainesville (a college town) don’t serve food as their main source of income (some of them do, but not all, and some of those that do are already nonsmoking). I said college towns in response of the other poster who commented about it, but really as you said it applies anywhere.
And Guybud5, I would be happy to send some of the current cold weather to California if that makes you happy. 
Put me in the Luv Fla Club. I hate long sleeves and I hate shoes. Pantyhose make my skin crawl! 
I was raised in upstate New York and ejumakated in New England. When I was growed up I gypsied around the country and even did a stint in God’s own country–Jackson, Wyoming. Divorce and the best luck brought me to this remarkable state. I’ve been here 13 years and I don’t plan to leave. Gimme the heat, bugs and tourists! Bring em on. I get to stay. They gotta leave. Last spring I had the oportunity to take a road trip from Naples up through the center of the state on little byways and two-laners. The immensity and variety of the interior is simply astonishing. No matter what you think of the space program, isn’t it mind-boggling that you can look out your office window and see a rocket thundering into the sky? Florida is so much more than it’s beaches and theme parks. Finally, IMHO the “proud to be ignorant club” has members nationwide.
I feel for you, Guy. There’s something about that hot salty air curling your hair the second you step off a plane from wherever you’ve been that puts a song in your heart.
I love the themeparks, I love the beaches, and I LOVE watching the space shuttles take off. I don’t even much mind the tourists, as long as they’re sweet.
I also love the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, but you can ask RTFirefly about that.
Wow, this is really interesting. I suppose I will come off as some sort of heretic, but I was born in Florida, lived there until I was twelve and I hate it. I remember discussing leaving the state when I was 10 years old! A friend went to the World’s Fair in Vancouver that year, and he came back talking about how beautiful the area was. I was so jealous. My mom moved to the San Francisco Bay Area a couple of years later and when I went to visit her, i instantly fell in love. The cool weather, the hills, the lack of insane humidity. I have lived in the Bay Area ever since. My mom has since moved back to Florida (where the rest of my family still lives) and she tries to talk me into moving back and I just laugh. I go back to Florida and find so many things that irritate me to death:
- Everyone Smokes (and I know not all of you are fans of the new nonsmoking in restaurants thing, but come on, the smoking/nonsmoking divide in most restaurants was a feeble joke. In most restaurants, one smoker would quickly foul up the entire eating area.
- The native Floridians complaining about all the “Snow Birds”, the transplanted Floridians complaining about all the “Crackers”
- The whole dixie mentality (hint: the civil war was over 140 years ago!)
- Jeb
- The nightmarish, godawful neverending humidity.
- Rain one minute, rain off one minute, rain five minutes, repeat ad nauseam
- The lack of non touristy, non beach activities (I do love St. Augustine though, says the History major)
- Rampant, no attempt to hide it, Racism. I’m sorry, the South has some enduring qualities, but keeping non whites (not just african-americans mind you) as second class citizens is not cool.
- Flat, flat, flat, mind numbing flat. The scenery is just so lacking…
Ok I better stop before you all hate me, but I just wanted to plug the opposing view. While there are some good qualities about Florida, to me they have negative aspects. Low cost of living? Absolutely, but then the median income is much lower as well. Plenty of parking? Sure, but I sure hope you are a fan of strip malls, because that’s all you’ll see. Public transportation is a joke (due in large part to ease of car use) Sidewalks are nonexistant, as are bike lanes. I like to walk and ride my bike, so sue me. I don’t love my car, so sue me. I don’t like beaches and I don’t want to look like a prune at 45, so sue me. And heaven forbid you not follow auto racing.
Plain and simple,
I hate Florida. If my family did not live there I would never go back there. Of course, my friend who wanted to get out with me at age 10? He lives in Tallahassee and loves it. I guess I am just a freak, so don’t mind me. I will say that as long as I keep my mouth shut, the people are super sweet. Since I usually only visit for a few days, that’s doable.
Hmm, this is coming off a little more harsh than I would like. Please note that all of the above is just my experience. I am sure there are parts of the state that defy the generalizations above, but I have been to most of the state and the above is pretty consistent. Everyone has a place they consider home and I am happy that most of you reading this thread have that place in Florida. I did not.
Ah man. I was already getting a little homesick while reading this. Then you had to post that pic and send me over the edge. Nothing I loved more than riding around on a lazy, sunny day. I would always make sure I hit a canopy road in Tallahassee and then goof off at a sink hole somewhere.
sigh
If you’re a former student you may want to check up on your old campus <A HREF=“http://www.fsu.edu/Webcam/”> here</A>.
The Idahoian version of the above joke.
Theres a californian, nabraskan, and Idahoian standing on a cliff edge. There all holding 12 gauges…The californian throughs up a bottle of wine and shoots it. and then proclaims “we have to much wine where I am from…just some economic control.” The nebraskian throughs up an ear of corn, shoots and proclaims “Just driving the price up!”. The Idahoian then looks at the californian takes am and shoots. He proclaiams “Population coltrol!”
LOL I love this joke because I am an Idahoian and there are way to many cali’s here!