By now, most people can recognize that New Yorkers are a healthy bunch (or at least: are having their health looked out for whether they like it or not). There was the calorie count campaign, the trans fats ban, the war on salt, the bike share program, and most recently, the war on absurdly-sized sodas. Read More
New York is pretty much a no-smoking zone right now, one in which all of us puffers are living in our own private Joseph Heller — a world where it’s legal to buy cigarettes and sometimes even smoke them, but where one finds themselves increasingly admonished and ostracized for doing so. Katie Couric, for instance, will tell you that you’re not attractive if you stink of tobacco. Our dream woman, gone forever because we can’t kick our nicotine fix.
And yes, we understand that it’s a nasty, smelly habit. But you know what else is? Taking it upon yourself to be the self-righteous Thought Police for the “Smell Flowers Not Smoke” campaign, as UES blogger Reggie Darling has done. Read More
Three days after New York’s ban on smoking in city parks went into effect, The Observer, ambling along one of Central Park’s idyllic stone paths and in plain view of a number of badge-wearing rangers, lit a cigarette. Wondering about the potential repercussions of the act, we approached the scrum of law-enforcement types.
“Excuse me, Read More
For the last few days, I’ve noticed smokers everywhere: outside the media center, inside Arthur Ashe, outside the food courts, even courtside. If there is a policy about smoking, it’s not being applied. Which is just fine by the smokers.
"I was smoking up against the railing [in Ashe] earlier, and some guy, the beer Read More
