Re: Minnesota Bars Beat Smoking Ban



Carmen wrote:

"jerry warner" <"warner(nobetty)"@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:47D21F32.55A98628@xxxxxxxxxxxx


tiny dancer wrote:

Minnesota Bars Beat Smoking Ban

By GREGG AAMOT
Associated Press Writer

Posted: Mar. 6 3:22 p.m.
Updated: Mar. 6 10:10 p.m.

MAPLEWOOD, Minn. - All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A
new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an
exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are
getting
around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in
costume, and pronouncing them "actors."

The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away - and
sometimes
speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too.

The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down on
these sham productions. But for now, it's on with the show.

At The Rock, a hard-rock and heavy-metal bar in suburban St. Paul, the
"actors" during "theater night" do little more than sit around, drink,
smoke
and listen to the earsplitting music.

"They're playing themselves before October 1. You know, before there was
a
smoking ban," owner Brian Bauman explained. Shaping the words in the air
with his hands, like a producer envisioning the marquee, he said: "We
call
the production, `Before the Ban!'"

The smoking ban, passed by the Legislature last year, allows actors to
light
up in character during theatrical performances as long as patrons are
notified in advance.

About 30 bars in Minnesota have been exploiting the loophole by staging
the
faux theater productions and pronouncing cigarettes props, according to
an
anti-smoking group.

"It's too bad they didn't put as much effort into protecting their
employees
from smoking," grumbled Jeanne Weigum, executive director of the
Association
for Nonsmokers.

The Health Department this week vowed to begin cracking down on theater
nights with fines of as much as $10,000.

"The law was enacted to protect Minnesotans from the serious health
effects
of secondhand smoke," Minnesota Health Commissioner Sanne Magnan said.
"It
is time for the curtain to fall on these theatrics."

At The Rock earlier this week, a black stage curtain covered part of the
entrance, and a sign next to it with an arrow read, "Stage Entrance."
Along
the opposite wall, below a sign saying "Props Dept.," was a stack of the
only props needed: black ashtrays.

At the door was a printed playbill for that night's program, with a list
of
names of the people portraying bartenders and security guards. Playing
the
owner: "Brian."

Courtney Conk paid $1 for a button that said "Act Now" and pinned it to
her
shirt. That made her an actor for the night, entitling her to smoke. She
turned in an understated, minimalist performance, sitting with cigarette
in
hand and talking to a bass player with the band.

"I thought it was funny that they found a loophole," Conk said. "I'm more
of
an activist-actor tonight, you could say. I think it's kind of this way
of
saying what we think about the ban."

While The Rock asks nothing of its actors by way of creativity, a few
other
bars have been a little more theatrical.

At Barnacles Resort and Campground along Lake Mille Lacs, a "traveling
tobacco troupe" dressed in medieval costume on the first theater night.
Mark
Benjamin, a lawyer who pushed bars to exploit the loophole, wore tights,
a
feathered cap and black boots.

"Hey, I'm a child of the '60s. I can do a little improv," he said. His
improv amounted to speaking in medieval character to other patrons.

In Hill City, Mike's Uptown owner Lisa Anderson has been offering theater
night once a week. The bar had a Mardi Gras theme last Saturday,
attracting
about 30 patrons, most of them in costume.

"I was dressed in a Victorian dress with the old fluffy thing that weighs
500 pounds," she said. "We had some fairies and some pirates and a group
of
girls - I'm not sure what they were, but they had big boas and flashy
makeup."

Though there were no skits, Anderson said some people "start talking with
different accents." She added: "It's turned into the funnest thing I can
imagine."

One bar on northern Minnesota's Iron Range, the Queen City Sports Place,
calls its nightly smokefest "The Tobacco Monologues."

Proving anew there's no business like show business, Anderson said her
theater-night receipts have averaged $2,000 - up from $500 right after
the
ban kicked in. Similarly, Bauman said revenue at The Rock dropped off 30
percent after the ban took effect, then shot back up to normal once the
bar
began allowing smoking again.

He and other bar owners said they plan to continue putting on theater
nights.

"There's no question we were struggling," he said. "And we are extremely
nervous that this is going to go away, and we will be back to the way it
was."

http://wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/2535835/

Humankind has smoked for ~40,000 years but these
Johnny Come Lately yuppies think they will "outlaw" smoking?
Give us a break! Better they get on the drugs they need and
let Humanity alone before theyare all run out of office or the
Country, whichever comes first.

In Iowa we have one of the rope-dopes, our Gov Cheddar
Culver (who wants US? to lose weight while he bliovates?).
This moron says he was a teacher and I guess he was. Now
know for a fact what is wrong with education!

A Kindergarter would know better.

Fact: Public places are open to all who meet the legal requirem,ents (should
there be any) to enter the establishment.
Fact: The government has the long-recognized responsibility to set
reasonable standards for the sake of public health. Air quality is one of
these standards.
Fact: People have the legal right to smoke as long as they are of age.
Fact: Nonsmokers have the right to a reasonably safe environment while in a
publicly accessible space, as do smokers.

The greater public health interest lies with banning cigarette smoke, a
known dangerous substance, in publicly accessible spaces. Smokers are
entitled to engage in whatever dangerous behaviors they wish in their own
home - hell, fill it with smoke until they pass out from lack of oxygen if
they want. Smoke so much the walls are stained with nicotine and the pets
die and they still can get away with it. They do not have a legal right to
contaminate publicly accessible spaces with cigarette smoke, since that
infringes on the right to safe air of others in the space. The government's
regulation of smoking in privately owned businesses such as restaurants and
bars goes hand in hand with its right to regulate other aspects of that same
privately owned business - such as health regulations and inspections.

You want to operate those sorts of businesses, you know going in that there
are oversight issues. Sorry about your drug addiction, but that's life.

Carmen

well my dear you forgot (a) car exhaust (b) leaves (c) volcanoes and natural
fires (d) cook smoke (e) proton and electron sublimation, (f)
.....................................................
and the End of the World.

Have a Happy Mall Experience.



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