Pubs in Wales are expecting an influx of drinkers fleeing Ireland's ban on smoking in public places.Reading that made me wonder again why a better and fairer solution in Ireland itself wouldn't be to have designated smoking pubs as well as other smoking venues. Anyone out there got an answer to that? I'd be interested to hear it.Already some landlords in Holyhead have seen groups of Irish drinkers crossing the sea to enjoy a day or weekend of drinking and smoking in their pubs.
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Holyhead publican Wendy Williams said up to 20 Irish drinkers in a day had visited her bar, Gleesons, because they were fed up with the smoking ban introduced in Ireland on March 29."They said it's nice to sit down and have a smoke and a drink, and not have to go outside for a smoke," said Miss Williams.
Meanwhile, the item encourages me to to give another plug for Denis Leary (a certain amount of effing and blinding follows):
There's a guy - I don't know if you've heard about this guy, he's been on the news a lot lately. There's a guy - he's English, I don't think we should hold that against him, but apparently this is just his life's dream because he is going from country to country. He has a senate hearing in this country coming up in a couple of weeks. And this is what he wants to do. He wants to make the warnings on the packs bigger. Yeah! He wants the whole front of the pack to be the warning. Like the problem is we just haven't noticed yet. Right? Like he's going to get his way and all of the sudden smokers around the world are going to be going, "Yeah, Bill, I've got some cigarettes.. HOLY SHIT! These things are bad for you! Shit, I thought they were good for you! I thought they had Vitamin C in them and stuff!" You fucking dolt! Doesn't matter how big the warnings are. You could have cigarettes that were called the warnings. You could have cigarettes that come in a black pack, with a skull and a cross bone on the front, called tumors and smokers would be lined up around the block going, "I can't wait to get my hands on these fucking things! I bet you get a tumor as soon as you light up! Numm Numm Numm Numm Numm". Doesn't matter how big the warnings are or how much they cost. Keep raising the prices, we'll break into your houses to get the fucking cigarettes, ok!? They're a drug, we're addicted, ok!? Numm Numm Numm Numm Numm *wheeze*For the record, I'm a longtime non-smoker, but also an ex-smoker. So I know: when you take that first drag and inhale it right down, you know down into your toes... But you do wake up feeling lousy.
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I love to smoke. I smoke seven thousand packs a day, ok. And I am never fucking quitting! I don't care how many laws they make. What's the law now? You can only smoke in your apartment, under a blanket, with all the lights out? Is that the rule now, huh?! The cops are outside, "We know you have the cigarettes. Come out of the house with the cigarettes above your head." "You'll never get me copper! I'm never coming out, you hear? I got a cigarette machine right here in my bedroom. Yeah!"Know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get one of those tracheotomies. So I can smoke two cigarettes at the same time. I'm gonna get nine tracheotomies all the way around my neck. I'll be Tracheotomy Man! "He can smoke a pack at a time! He's Tracheotomy Man!"
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[W]e tried to be nice to you non-smokers. We fucking tried. Okay? You wanted your own sections in the restaurants. We gave you that, huh. But that wasn't enough for you. Then you wanted the airplanes. We gave you the whole God damn plane! You happy now? You own the fucking plane!...... Yeah, we tried to be nice to you non-smokers. We tried. But you just fucking badger us, you know? You won't leave us alone! You got all your little speeches you're always giving to us. All these little facts that you dig out of a newspaper or pamphlet and you store that little nugget in your little fucking head, and we light up and you spew 'em out at us, don't ya? I love these little facts. "Well you know. Smoking takes ten years off your life." Well it's the ten worst years, isn't it folks?
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It's always the yogurt sprout eating mother fuckers who get run over by a bus driven by a guy who smokes three and a half packs a day. "Sorry officer, I didn't see him. I was too busy smoking!"