Protest the Smoking Instead!


I always figured Europe as a whole to be a more advanced civilization. Extensive train networks, aggressive pricing on phone contracts, multi-lingualism as an essential skill for navigating everyday life (and don’t forget a drinking age at only 16)…but smoking indoors? C’mon already!

Even the French have banned indoor smoking, having smokers resort to those choice patio spots for peoplewatching. Germany also seems to be pretty good with it, as our first night in Munich while waiting in the cold rain for the landlord to show with the keys required huddling with some very wet nicotine-addicts in the doorway to our building. With most other European countries on board, why not? I don’t come over to your table and unloose a gaseous emission of my own while you’re attempting to enjoy your meal?

This is all spurred from the surprise at last night’s meal with the two gentlemen engaged in a chess battle with glasses of wine in hand, and one of them directly behind Melanie breaking out a lighter to fire up a smoke. Sure enough, there was another guy at the bar overlooking the food preparation area with cigarette in hand as well…puffing away. Even when getting back to the hotel, the quaint restaurant on the first level was inviting…until we walked into the lobby and could see the clouds of smoke coming down the hallway. Tobacco…not to alarm anyone. Is no one opposed to this activity? Are we still living in the 50’s? 60’s? I guess pretty much every decade up until the turn of the millennium when tobacco lobbyists were finally being outnumbered by studies suggesting smoking might be bad for you.

Smoking killed this meal. Wear this around your neck!!

There seems to be unrest amongst the animal-loving community to stop wearing of fur. Instead of Pamela Anderson wandering the streets to attract a little attention to the cause, yesterday we witnessed a growing throng of aged, oversized, drum carrying protestors all waving signs and chanting as they strolled through the streets. As a general observation, if you are protesting the wearing of fur…why would you wear the coats while walking down the street? I know it’s cold out, and if you’re planning on marching through the streets for hours, a fur coat is the way to go. And is the line drawn at cute and cuddly animals, or do the cows that supply the leather for the stylish shoes…or the belts to hold up those pants. Certainly the size of some of those protestors hasn’t resulted from the consumption of non-dairy ice cream, or the vegan equivalent of Bavarian Meatloaf. I know, it’s only the ugly critters they make sausages from…and that steak was from one average looking dairy cow, recycled of course to fill your belly.

Regardless of the fur protest, I must say that protestors are much more tolerable when you can’t comprehend the chants. It almost seems like a celebration of sorts. Turn your focus from a cause that is soon to be phased out with material advancements in insulative properties, and synthetics that make even plants seem real…delivering to the consumer a product that is ultimately many times cheaper that the authentic. Focus your attentions on a cause that is currently killing people, and their appetites.

Smokers reading this…I hope to not alienate you. As a former smoker I am simply suggesting to move the smoking outside…not at the table next to me.


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