Thank you for smoking...

I don't want to be one of those people who always insist that it's ''better in America.'' I like cultural differences. If I wanted everything to be the same, I'd have stayed home, saved myself $1200 in airfare and wouldn't have gotten rained on quite as much. But there is one thing that is, in my humble opinio, better in the United States and I wish fervently that Europe would copy it.

'Do you mind if I smoke?' (at least they ask)
(What I think:) Yes, of course I mind. It gives me a headache, makes my clothes reek, and gives me cancer.
'No, of course not.' (It is, after all, *their* office)

What can I say? It's not my office, and I hopefully won't have to stay long. There is often a window, and it ends up being more or less tolerable. But it really bothers me when the individual with the cigar--even worse--wanders throughout the building with his lovely little air-befouler, contaminating everything. It's immediately apparent where this individual has been, in the elevators, in my office, in the hallway. It stinks. Everywhere.

Perhaps this is the highnosed American perspective, that Smoking Is Bad And Should Not Be Done, the I-don't-smoke-so-noone-else-should-either. Normally I'm a live-and-let-live type. Where religion, politics, personal beliefs and habits are concerned, I'm pretty much fine with whatever it is you do as long as I don't have to do it too. In English it's called secondhand smoke. In German it's called Mitrauchen, it's a verb, and it translates to 'smoking with'. You smoke, I smoke with you, whether I want to or not.

Many European countries have banned smoking in pubs, restaurants, public places, sometimes public buildings, occasional train stations, large portions of airports, and a varying combination of other places. I think this is good. Some firms in Germany have forbade smoking in the office. Complaint: smokers are discriminated against because they have to go to the basement or outside to smoke. They should have a right to tar up their lungs if they want to. Go right ahead, I say, but not where I'm forced to endure it.

This is perhaps a rant: enjoy it while you have the chance (I try to behave myself the rest of the time). If you want to smoke, be my guest. Do dope: whatever. Drink yourself senseless? Hey, it's your liver, your paycheck, and your hangover. Polite people ask first if they can smoke--and polite non-smokers don't refuse them. They offer me one too, they don't take it poorly when I decline. Many, particularly people my age, like it, and don't want to quit. If I had my way, no one would smoke. Since I can't have my way, and since those people who want to should be allowed to give themselves cancer if they so desire, forbidding it altogether would please me and not them and is probably not a viable solution, as much as I may wish it. But there should not be smoking in places where non-smokers are forced to 'smoke with', and definately not in offices and restaurants.

**UPDATE: I feel vindicated... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6032125.stm