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The Disappearance of the Ashtray

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Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#61

Post by rocket_surgeron »

dmm wrote: post #34
TheRealPomax wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time to read up on how NZ implemented it. Already smoke, even if incidentally? You're 100% unaffected, you can still buy them until you die from old age. Too young? Cool, you're never going to get ciggies sold to you, and you're not going to miss suddenly no longer have access to them because you never did anyway. No one loses. It's a very long term solution, and one that (the current forms of) the US or Europe could…

There are a lot of people who insist that prohibition never works. I wonder if this is successful it will change their minds.

It will not.

They will see the microscopically minuscule number of people who still smoke due to the black market and claim the entire effort to be an abject failure.

They will ignore the millennia of higher quality lifespan added to the population, the massive savings in public healthcare expenses, and the almost-non-existent second hand damage smoking does and just focus on the thousand or so people smoking smuggled cigarettes.

When you suggest that their position is somewhat analogous to not passing laws against murder because "well that dude over there got murdered so OBVIOUSLY the laws aren't not working" they will just look at you funny.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#63

Post by tomcam »

For years as a young child in the 70s, I had to wash and dry the family dishes, but the worst part was cleaning ashtrays every day in the greasy dishwater.

Obviously,you had to use a different set of towels for the ashtrays. If you complained… Your prognosis would not be good.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#65

Post by cableshaft »

aimor wrote: post #37

My grandfather (who died because of his smoking addiction) had a number of ashtrays I distinctly remember. There was a push-down one that would spin, depositing the ashes and butts into a trap door compartment inside. There was one made of old coins bent and welded together. Of course simple glass ones around the house. The truck had an ash tray built in, with a lid mechanism so it could be removed and emptied withou…

> Drinking alcohol is similar in that regard, people are amazed (for opposite reasons) to find out 60% of Americans drink.

I'm technically in that 60%, but I drink so infrequently I barely qualify (outside of certain social events, I never drink, and never more than 2 drinks). I think I had about a dozen drinks in all of 2022.

I wonder what percent of that 60% are similar to me.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#66

Post by relwin »

j_m_b wrote: post #7

It's tough to portray just how ubiquitous smoking was to a modern audience. You would go to a restaurant and the first thing your hostess would ask is "smoking or non"? I remember standing in a checkout line in the 80s as a child and being fascinated with the billowing clouds of smoke an old lady blew. I remember coming home from bars reeking of smoke, even though I didn't. Even teachers had their own lounges that re…

I shared an office with a smoker back in the day -- one or two smoking visitors would leave a cloud hanging for an hour. About 10 years later (several years into the smoking ban in the U.S. workplace) went on a business trip to Japan where all the smokers at work were confined to a small "smoking lounge." You couldn't see their faces through the window due to the thick smoke! Nowadays I can easily smell someone smoking a block away. It's kinda the same reaction as when a vintage 60's car putts by trailing unburned hydrocarbons...

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#67

Post by jeffbee »

That Gallup survey doesn't really scan for me. If you had told me in 2001 that 35% of my generation were smokers I would not have believed that. There must be a huge regional component to those survey responses.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#68

Post by userbinator »

j_m_b wrote: post #7

It's tough to portray just how ubiquitous smoking was to a modern audience. You would go to a restaurant and the first thing your hostess would ask is "smoking or non"? I remember standing in a checkout line in the 80s as a child and being fascinated with the billowing clouds of smoke an old lady blew. I remember coming home from bars reeking of smoke, even though I didn't. Even teachers had their own lounges that re…

It's still ubiquitous in China, or at least was when I was there several years ago. On the other hand, perhaps because of that, some of their buildings seem to have insanely powerful ventilation systems. I remember being in a mall and talking with someone who was smoking only a few feet away, seeing the smoke get sucked straight up into the vents on the ceiling as he exhaled, and I couldn't even smell it (I have a rather sensitive nose, and the smell of tobacco is indeed fairly common outdoors.)

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#69

Post by korroziya »

midoridensha wrote: post #40
brazed_blotch wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, being constantly ostracised from public spaces isn’t great either… something I find infuriating when I travel abroad. If there were at least a few smoking bars where you don’t have to go out into the cold to smoke I think that would be nice.

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