It looks like the heavy guns are out. It’s been decades since the dangers associated with smoking have been realized and revealed. Yet there’s still a fair number of smokers out there.

A few years ago our hometown of Austin banned smoking in public places. This was a huge issue and I clearly remember my husband and I angrily (or I was angry at least) spouting off against each other. Just to note, he’s not a smoker but he was taking the viewpoint of a business owner or, as he’s prone to do, playing devil’s advocate. Once I became aware of Austin’s new guidelines, I started noticing that this wasn’t a random piece of legislation: cities across the globe started issuing their own smoking ban. In fact, even though these smoking bans are relatively new and aren’t found everywhere, I sometimes think of a cigarette as I do a video cassette — an artifact whose time has come and most certainly gone. Read more →