Bravo Tennessee!!

No Sir. That's what they called the legislation that went into effect today: Tennessee's No Smoking In Restaurants. But the new law isn't limited to restaurants; the law prohibits smoking in all enclosed public places (with a very few exceptions). Bravo!

It was a fact of life in Texas--if you went out to a bar, you'd almost have to leave your clothes outside lest your closet take on the odor of stale cigarette smoke. And as an exsmoker, I was ickishly aware of that odor.

Now, one thing I've liked about Boscos here is that it went nonsmoking very soon after the Tennessee governor signed the bill into law (which happened in June), and so I've come to love enjoying a cold beverage and a bite to eat without leaving the place having to pony-tail my hair just so I wouldn't smell it. A couple of weeks ago, I visited a place called Hueys to check out their Sunday afternoon live music. The music was great, but I couldn't stay for dinner; the place was unbelievably smokey. But I told them I'd be back---after October 1. The bartender said I was not at all alone in that sentiment.

And now, October 1 is here! No more smoking in restaurants! WooHoo!! What about bars? Are they the exceptions? Not unless they want to NEVER allow anyone under the age of 21 in--including employees. In other words, if it's a place that does great family business in the early evening, like Buffalo Wild Wings, but is mainly bar for sporting events on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, it'll be smoke free. Fabulous!

With the exceptions, though, smokers will have places to go. Several places are going or remaining strictly 21 & up. The Blue Monkey, a place I've wanted to check out but haven't yet, is one example. But I must say that I'm not exactly in a hurry to go there now. There are too many other places I can go that won't give up their patrons---and employees---under the age of 21. That's right---think also of all the under-21 college students here in the service industry. They now can work only in places that ban smoking; the law is, after all, designed to protect employees.

With nonsmokers loving the new law, though, how will a 21 & up place convince the nonsmokers to keep coming in? After all, now we can expect an even larger gathering of smokers in each of those places. But what else is a place to do other than compromise! For example, the Flying Saucer has it (almost) all figured out. It's gone to 21 & up, allowing smoking in what's called "the Garden," but the true indoor room, by management decision, will be smoke-free. Now that's what I call a good idea. Granted, it could be better---you have to walk through the Garden (not open air, but huge garage-door style windows open up onto 2nd and Peabody Streets) to get inside. Hmph. Oh well, life isn't perfect.

But, then again, with the new ban comes another problem---actually, it's making an existing problem worse: the littering of cigarette butts. A local blogger here counted cigarette butts this morning on his side of the street for the course of his quarter-mile walk downtown, and he reported---get this---445 butts. Yowza! That's a whole lotta butts.

(Granted, not all smokers are litterers. I, for one, stopped littering as soon as a friend told the story about picking up a discarded cigarette and *politely* returning it to the woman who'd tossed it aside---by dropping it down her shirt. I don't know if she got the message, but I did.)

Back to the local blogger. He makes a good point: "You know, thinking about it, farting in public makes more sense as a socially acceptable behavior than smoking in public does. But there isn't a billion-dollar industry buying every conceivable type of ad to convince you how cool farting is."

Ah, well, at least now, in Tennessee, we can breathe a little cleaner. Bravo.