Smoke?

In rural China, the customary greeting among males is to offer a cigarette, asking "smoke?" It's a ritual that contributes to China being he world's largest produce and consumer of tobacco. Rejecting the offered smoke would be discourteous and probably cast the non-smoker into social isolation.

Smoking in the U.S. used to be part of the social interaction. I was watching some old home movies from the '60s and my parents are there with their friends and everyone is nicely dressed and has a drink (not beer) and a cigarette. They look so elegant, like Nick and Nora in The Thin Man.

At my first job in New York I worked on a trading floor where smoking was a ritual that was almost universal. Traders would have stacks of empty cigar boxes next to their desks and the youngsters (me) felt compelled to learned how to properly smoke a cigar so we could emulate the Men. There were a few women traders and salespeople but it was pretty much a male bastion.

Obviously we know now that smoking is deadly. Smoking on the trading floor was first restricted to a lounge (the "death room" as the boss called it) and then outlawed completely. I had one boss who held office hours in the park next door where he could smoke his cigars and have meetings. Arnold Schwartznegger has a tent outside his Governor's office where he can smoke his cigars and conduct business.

Michigan has moved towards smoke free status and it appears the final push is on to outlaw smoking in bars and restaurants. I can understand the argument about subjecting employees to second hand smoke, but other than that I think the government should leave us alone.

This is a rare case where the conservatives have it right (so to speak). Bar and restaurant owners are not stupid. If they were losing customers or valued employees, they would eliminate smoking. The bar I haunt the most has smoking at the bar but not the eating areas - and the place always has waiting lines. The regular bartender smokes and so do most of the servers. Is it good for them? No. Are they grown up people who can make their own decisions? I think so.