who remembers the old days where one could smoke in the waiting room at the doctor's office..

@Guardian lol...so true

@Guardian I remember commercials selling the cigarettes "recommended by more doctors", too ! 🤨

@beermeplease good times 🤭

@Lilymoon great place to pick up the "chicks" too 🤭

@Lilymoon Yes, “The good old days”! I can remember my first flight. I just turned 18 and was flying to Scottsdale to visit my grandparents. I had started smoking cigarettes regularly about a month before. So, I booked a seat in the “smoking section”. I can remember my anticipation for the “no smoking light” to go off after our flight took off. I wasn’t the first passenger to light up, but close to it. I felt so ”mature”. It was also relaxing. Not that way anymore.

@1olderguy20 when flying was glamorous or luxurious...even in coach where you got free booze and good food.

@beermeplease My buddy from NorCal recently took a flight from San Francisco to Florida, each can of warm Natty Light was almost $10.

@NativePortlander1970 lol....when me and 2 friends (husband and wife) were flying home from mexico we had to catch a connecting flight from los angeles. when we checked in we noticed all 3 of our seats were not going to be together...they bumped me and my buddies wife to the vip, or prime seats close to the front. it wasn't really business class for that type of aircraft but close....we got everything free while hubby was left back in coach...he was so pissed off 🤣

@beermeplease Well, a different brand and called "sweets" Over Here in the UK, but yes, much the same thing.

I think they disappeared around the time the dangers of smoking were beginning to be widely published.

My Dad smoked, mostly cigarettes but he also tried a pipe, and once admitted he wished he'd never started; but his generation thought it normal or even somehow beneficial.

@ArishMell my dad never really smoked much other than the odd cigar when he was out at the pub. my mother on the other hand wished she never started i'm sure. she suffered a horrible death...copd, clogged blood vessels , amputations and then death.....i swear, if a smoker were to have paid her a visit during her final days they would have left the room crying and feeling sick to their stomachs....they would have given serious thoughts of quitting

@beermeplease Awful way to go. I am sorry. It was bone cancer that took my Dad, and though he managed to stop smoking as that took hold, I sometimes wonder how much years of tobacco and tar influenced the disease.


Cigarette and tobacco packets in the UK have had to carry big health warnings and gruesome photographs of organs wrecked by smoking, for some years now, but whether they deter many people is an open question.


Nicotine's powerfully addictive characteristic is now exploited by the e-cigarette makers creating high-strength products in flavours and packaging intended to attract people, especially teenagers, who would never have taken up tobacco. There are, I believe, already signs that these will present health dangers of their own, exacerbated by the less scrupulous makers selling sub-standard versions whose impurities are themselves toxic.

Those attacking moves to wipe out smoking - tobacco or vapour - are sometimes accused of being anti-libertarian, but you not free if you are an addict.

In an ironical twist to this thread, some of those nicotine products sold by dodgy internet dealers are even disguised as sweets, to try to smuggle them past watchful parents or teachers so as to trap children into addiction.

@Iwillwait lol...back in my clubbing days i'd shower with a beer and a ciggy before i went out...yes, i found a way to smoke in the shower 🤣

@beermeplease Of course. 😤

@bijouxbroussard I checked it out and here it's still allowed and apparently there are some strong opinions about it. I'm reading that in Austria they even lifted the restriction.

@CrazyMusicLover That’s very interesting. I’m not sure what dictates those laws here or if they vary by state. California tends to err on the side of public health.

@bijouxbroussard They've been quiet about this topic for a long time here but I remember that the last time it was on the table, there were disputes about what actually is smoking and what kind of businesses would be subjects to the law. I remember that my favorite teahouses were concerned, as they offered waterpipes and by the law if they served also food, which they did, they would have to stop offering them. And that would be a huge problem. I think the bars that didn't offer any foods only drinks were supposed to be unaffected, but I'm not sure.
They also couldn't agree on vaping and details like that.

@Starcrossed I haven't been in a bar in a very long time but I almost can't imagine a bar without cigarette smoke. 😆 It's damn everywhere. Recently I was staying in a hotel that declared at every step how they were a non-smoking hotel and took pride in it and right the next day when I was going to breakfast, I could distinctly smell cigarette smoke in the hall.

@CrazyMusicLover to be honest I raaaarely smoke, but I did enjoy it on rare occasion in my younger days going out to the bar. I get why it's banned, but I do miss it a tiny bit.

@HumanEarth thats how we got our cigarettes when we were kis.

@SW-User i think not allowing smoking killed our once thriving stripper bar scene

@beermeplease Isn't that the damn truth 😔

@beermeplease The big mac is now $5.59 here, while the qp/cheese is $5.29. Seriously, the qp should cost more because it has more meat 🙄

@Azlotto But are they actually being bought. There's a common scam on auction sites, ebay being the worst, where sellers list a very outrageous price, however you'll also see that they have zero bids too. They tried this with beany babies, cabbage patch dolls, Disney black diamond cartoons, and many other items.

@NativePortlander1970
Quarter pounder.

@DDonde yeah but what was the point? the difference between the closest non smoker to smoker was 2 feet....and if you were in non smoking section and 30 feet away it wouldn't have made any difference

@beermeplease It used to work well in some restaurants here. At least in my favorite one where the smoker's room was on the first floor and non-smoker room underground. As far as I know, it's still not banned and I'm afraid that sections might not always be respected either. Especially in summer in outdoor restaurants.

@NativePortlander1970 i did all the time until 2008 until i quit