jake you are a pussy

Tscoccol, you bet wrong. Offices are for working. Bars are for drinking and smoking. Everybody knows that.

Why don't people just get on their knees and inhale the exhaust from car tail pipes? That's free.

Hey, John...shut your trap and stop whining. The public smoking debate is over and done and you are on the losing side. I bet you would have been one of those idiots who protested about employers eliminating smoking in offices.

I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother, but regardless of the science being flawed or not, the amount of smoke you're inhaling if you're sitting in a restaurant with a smoking section is infitesimal, and while it might be annoying, that's not going to kill you. As for bars, are ventilation systems or smoking rooms not good enough for the pious non-smokers? They have to have the satisfaction of watching smokers shiver on the sidewalk? "Have a cold with your cancer, evil smokers!" It's ridiculous, and wrongheaded, and while if you live with a smoker for years you might feel the effects of secondhand smoke, a night out in a bar with a good ventilation system or a smoking room will leave you with at, at worst, the smell of smoke on your clothes. Sorry if that's annoying. Your clothes are annoying, but I don't make you stand out on the street...

"The studies claiming secondhand smoke is health-damaging are deeply flawed and use bad science"

That is full of crap. My grandmother never smoked yet she died of smoking related illnesses from 2nd hand smoke.

Repeating again: The studies claiming secondhand smoke is health-damaging are deeply flawed and use bad science. There is no conclusive proof. Fine if you don't like the smell, but please don't use the "you're hurting my health" excuse.

Anyways, as for smokeless tobacco, Swedish "snus" is good stuff.

(http://www.northerner.com/snus...

Lung cancer rates have dropped in Sweden thanks to snus use. For a brief while, the big cigar place on 5th Ave. in the 40s sold one brand. It comes in a pouch, so there's no real mess. And you didn't have to spit while using it. I liked it much, especially on long drives with a smoke-hating passenger. Sadly, the place stopped carrying it.

As disgusting as chewing may be, it still beats smoking in my book. Second hand smoke is my big issue, why should those who don't want to inhale smoke have no choice in the issue? Every time I see a smoker in a public place I feel like approaching them and sneezing on their face to see how they like inhaling something they would prefer not to.

In college, I hooked up with a kid who happened to be both a smoker and a varsity athlete (until he got kicked off the team, but anyway). He would chew when he was in season so he didn't hurt his lungs (I guess). It never bothered me except when he would have chew in his mouth and try to kiss me. Kinda yucky, but whatever, nothing really phases me.

i have the following dipping disaster to report from the upper west side..pre ban...all you can drink wells for 15 bucks...two slices of white pizza....throw in a pull of chew...then 15 minutes throwing up in the trash along side the bar (not sure why it had that effect)...dipping never went well in the bar...once you take it out what do you do?....a gargle is an order but how does that work?...i use to use a travel listerine bottle at baseball games and the like when I was younger...

I do not nor will I ever own a cell phone.

Jen, this ones for you- I used to live with some dippers who were to lazy to pour their spit cups down the drain of the dorm's bath down the hall. They used to fill up cranberry juice bottles instead, which they would store under the beds. Unfortunately, they sometimes forgot to put the top back on, and when trying to find some clean clothes under the bed (it was high school OK)they would get knocked over. Nothing like the smell of fermented chaw spit soaking into dorm room carpeting. Ahh highschool- bad hygene and all.

PS- Jake do us all a favor and put that bag over your head.

After a while you just swallow the spit and no one can tell you have it in. I agree, much less offensive than talking on you cell phone or not getting out of the way of subway doors.

Jake, as soon as you and everybody else get off your cellphones, lower your voices, learn some table manners, learn how to dress, and treat service and waitstaff people like human beings, then I'll put out my cigarette. Until that happens, I'll continue with my smoking, a behavior far less offensive to a lot of people than the common ones listed above.

Tell you what Max next time you want to smoke in a restaurant I'll come over and puke into a little plastic bag in front of you. It is about the same social etiquette.

Ooooh--which two?

Even though I am adamantly anti-smoking, chewing tobacco squicks me out much, much more. The whole idea of spit cups kind of make me throw up in my mouth a little. I think I may have a phobia about large collections of saliva.

Two of 8-bit Jake's four suggestions are curiously enticing.

Why not just chew Nicorete (sp?)?

All the caffeine and no sputum.

Thanks for the off topic rant Jake. What else to you find disgusting? annoying? mildly off-putting? Also, what would you classify as an appetizing drug activity? Do you only eat in bars?

On topic- yes I have seem more dippers now than before and have even seen folks put on nicotine patches for certain events where there is no easily accessed smoking area (outside).

Thanks for the of topic rant Jake. What else to you find disgusting? annoying? mildly off-putting? Also, what would you classify as an appetizing drug activity? Do you only eat in bars?

On topic- yes I have seem more dippers now than before and have even seen folks put on nicotine patches for certain events where there is no easily accessed smoking area (outside).