No real Joni content, but at the BSN show I saw in Boston, she came out
for her encore proudly brandishing (and puffing on) an American Spirit.
I'm a smoker who really wants to quit. It's the most insidious
addiction. Trouble is, I like it, and so many activities (like surfing
the Net and emailing) are inseparable from an ashtray with a lit
cigarette. The previously mentioned Fran Lebowitz has probably been a
dire influence (her definition of laziness: "I wish cigarettes came
already lit").
Cigarettes also go only too well with the morning cup of coffee and the
evening glass of wine or Scotch.
There are so many toxins in the air now that it seems ridiculous to ban
cigarette smoking within fifty feet of a building situated on a busy
street. But in a bar or (especially) restaurant, I have no problem.
Victoria, B.C. is very similar to how Kakki describes L.A. At my
favorite watering hole, The Old Bailey (to which I've brought many a
JMDLer over the years), they've made a segregated smoking room. You have
to buy your drink at the bar and take it into the smoking room: the
staff may not be obliged to enter. Thing is, they all smoke anyway, so
they spend their breaks there, and any other time they can steal away
from their duties. However hard governments may try, you can't legislate
human behaviour!
By the way, I remember reading an interview with Joni about "Smokin' Try
Another" in which she said she was referring to a late night recording
session. The cigarette machine had nothing left in it but Kools, which
are unacceptable to even the most hard-core smoker.
Very best to all, smokers and non,
and especially to ex-smokers,
Roberto
