It was definitely a soap opera - I was also the only one not ‘fraternizing’ with my co-workers.
Many moons ago I used to fight brush fires for L.A. County. You would be surprised how many controlled burns and back burns get out of control. It was the hardest job I ever loved.
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I was just about to add an anecdote I heard from a relative. Where he worked, smokers got a smoke break every hour or so. Nonsmokers (like him) did not. They probably figured, why would nonsmokers need the break? What are they gonna do, stand around & not smoke?
Granted this was in a state where tobacco was a big part of the economy.
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Microstegium vimineum, where I live. (And starlings and some of those other things, too)
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Well, Japan’s approach to smoking is perhaps fairly common sense: Private establishments can define their own rules. In public spaces, there are designated smoking areas (look around, you’ll see them all over the place — little booths a number of folks will be in, on the sidewalk).
One of my first impressions of the place, upon exiting customs at the airport, was someone smoking right under the “no fumar” sign.
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Yep I have several pictures of No Fumar signs with huge overflowing ashtrays underneath in Spain.
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I’ve always heard that air quality was better when smoking was allowed because now that there is no smoking they filter and exchange the air much less. Don’t know if that is actually true or urban legend.
Found this interesting unexpected side effect on Forbes:
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My stepmother was the biggest neat freak I’ve ever met; it was part of her ethics that anyone who was not neat, with a perfectly clean house/living space, was not a nice person. And she smoked, carrying the miasma around with her everywhere, and wasn’t able to smell it. She finally quit, and maybe then realized it. (Full disclosure: My parents smoked when I was a kid, and when they quit, I quit secondhand smoking their smoke, and so smoking has driven me nuts ever since.)
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Of course some plants actually need fire to thrive; like the pitch pine, which won’t release its seeds unless a fire melts the wax on the cones (the info at this link of course is only about the Northeast, but I imagine it’s the same everywhere in one way or the other):
https://www.fws.gov/northeast/refuges/fire/firewildlife.html
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Yeah, there are actually lots of conifer cones in the US like that, the general term is “serotinous” cones. In the West, that includes ponderosa and lodgepole pines.
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My local ‘favorites’ are the ones started by trained firefighters doing things that even little kids know better than to do:
Boulder Wildfire started by careless volunteer firefighter
Hayman Wildfire arson by U.S. Forest Service fire technician
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Uhhh…the posting on tumbleweeds took a detour into wildfires. I don’t know what your blood pressure is like - read at your own risk:
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The smoking booths was just about the only place I saw outdoor smoking. It stinks that a private institution such as a hotel can allow smoking, but not alert guests to this when booking a room. Coming from the states one doesn’t think to ask.
That and I’m sure many other things you will find different about Japan than the USA. You could always ask to transfer to a non-smoking room to see if it’s an option.
In the UK the smoking ban has also killed pubs, the hard core smokers, now stand out side, or stay at home to drink, the high cost of drink is not helping, but banning all smoke indoors has helped kill off smoking, I go to Berlin a lot and always have to take more clothes with me, because i know i am going to stink of smoke, as smoking indoors is still a thing there and so many more people do it, if you want to stop smoking, just ban it indoors in a cold wet an rainy country…
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I believe almost all airline ban smoking but i had a weird experience flying from Casablanca in Royal Air Morocco flight last year people were smoking and singing.
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