You know, there was a time you could actually smoke inside of Thomas Cooper Library...

Now it looks like you'll be lucky if you can light up outside of it. And Columbia restaurants are being pressured to go smoke-free as well. The WIS story mentions No-Name Deli, whose smoke-free status I'm afraid rests largely on my shoulders. About ten years or so ago I went there every morning to read Proust, smoke and drink coffee. There was this waitress there who just loathed me, and I never really figured out why, because it was the dankest-smelling place in all of Columbia. Clearly I wasn't the only person who smoked there, although I guess I was the only one on her shift. Anyway, she hated giving me refills. She hacked and wheezed and dlared at me like I was sheer bloody evil. Then the day came, somewhere during the midst of The Captive, I think, when she happily announced "You CAN'T SMOKE IN HERE ANYMORE!" I haven't seen her since -- all to the good, I suppose, since their business has increased 20 percent.

It is now coming to the point where public spaces and I will no longer have any use for each other.