Missing in 2008
2008 is the year I start missing the "old times", sitting for hours in a coffee table reading, chatting, writing, debating. It was a rite we developed, the same that others, we poeticly assumed, like Pessoa, did before us. Growing our minds in the back corner of a bar. One table, two Zamiatine books, coffee and an ashtray - one day at Tropical. Music albums being made at a coffee table - one day at Bocage.
At the 1st of January of 2008, the rite of countless Portuguese people ended - mine included. You just can't smoke in a coffee or a bar anymore...
At the 1st of January of 2008, the rite of countless Portuguese people ended - mine included. You just can't smoke in a coffee or a bar anymore...
Well I'm glad I can finally do that in cafes without having the smoke fogging my mind and lungs ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd it was about damn time. Your freedom ends when mine begins, and I do have the freedom to stay at a coffee table without being importunated with the others' smoke. Besides, smokers (like me, by the way) can go outside.
ReplyDeleteCoitadinho, :'(
ReplyDeleteJá era tempo, sim.
I don't really think that those places I spent countless hours reading, debating or in any other way living were foggy: if they were I wouldn't probably be there. Also, I don't really think I attacked anyone's freedom in doing so, 'cause I don't think I've importunated anyone with it. What I said - and trully feel - is that I'll miss those times, those moments. Yes, it's not something without solution: you can interrupt your readings and go outside to have a smoke, or just avoid reading in those places (which is my choice). Still, the rite ended, and I'll surely miss it.
ReplyDeletewell, isn´t this just great? All of the sudden, everybody is just really mad at smokers because we polute "your" f*cking air!
ReplyDeleteEverybody is a puritan now.... oh, me, my lungs are so dirty because of the other smokers.... when I bet most of you go out to a club and smoke a f*cking cigarette!
Numa coisa tens razão Maradito, acabaram-se as tardes frias no café e as noitadas de copos a falar de tudo no café!
Abraço
(Ando mesmo lixado com isto, principalmente com os que se acham superiores porque têm uma lei que os "defende")
Who the hell feels 'superior' with this? I welcome this law, because I am not smoker, and although I use to go to coffee shops and their ilk, I do prefer doing so in a smoke free environment. But that doesn't mean I'll start treating smokers "like criminals" (phrase caught from Portuguese media).
ReplyDelete"All of the sudden, everybody is just really mad at smokers because we polute "your" f*cking air! "
It was noticed some time ago that breathing in heavily smoked environments does more damage to non-smokers than to the actual smokers. IMHO this alone should be enough justification to forbid smoking in closed places. This is, of course, arguable; however, that smokers pollute *everybody's* air, is not.
Additionally, it'll be quite nice to get home after a night out and not have that really unpleasant tobacco smell carved into my clothes!
Alright then, we are guilt of charge for putting your clothes smelling like smoke!! What the hell?! Why shouldn't YOU be put out of bars and coffes for not smoking? I think I live in free world and I am free to do the things I want to do!
ReplyDeleteDO NOT throw in my face studies like "breathing in heavily smoked environments does more damage to non-smokers than to the actual smokers". Show me some proofs! You don't like the smoke? Don't go to places where the smokers hang out!
Don't take me wrong, I agree with the prohibition in some places, I do think that we shouldn't smoke when there's people eating right beside us, but wait...I already don't smoke in that situation! Th edifference is, I have a sense of equality while YOU (non-smokers, now turned into fascists)don't really have that! Why the hell should I be discriminated? Why the hell am I not allowed to go to a concert and smoke a cigar??
"It was noticed some time ago that breathing in heavily smoked environments does more damage to non-smokers than to the actual smokers"
ReplyDelete@gauthma: don't both breathe the same air? check your facts.
again, I'm largely favorable to the legislation
@celso pinto: Yes smokers and non-smokers alike, all breathe the same air. And so both are exposed to the aforementioned harm. But wait a minute, those who smoke *already are* exposed to dangers of smoking anyway! !!! It's those who don't that should not have to breathe smoke cluttered air!!
ReplyDeleteIf you are in favour of the legislation, then what are you against?
@necroslaughter: I don't want to start a flame, but that free world argument is being pushed a bit too far. Yes, I think you should have the right to smoke, but it is my very modest opinion that that right ranks below the right of anyone that want smoke-free air to have it. In _public_ places, that is! Don't get me wrong: you should have the right to smoke, as long as it affects only you! Smoke in a concert in open premises, and nobody breathes your smoke. You smoke in a closed coffee and... there's no problem at all!... if it were just you!! But add a couple of dozens of "yous", and anyone going to that coffee can forget about breathing only air. Hence the need for the legislation.
And if you really think I should be put out of bars and coffees, then I'm sorry to say you are way more fascist than me, just in the opposite direction...
I hope this helps a bit:
ReplyDeletehttp://jornal.publico.clix.pt/main2.asp?dt=20080106&page=4&c=A
http://jornal.publico.clix.pt/main2.asp?dt=
ReplyDelete20080106&page=4&c=A