No Smoking in Madonna's

This will come as a shock to you, I'm sure, but I found myself in Madonna's last week on Seventh Street downtown. No, you're probably not shocked at all.

My friend Tony had said hello to me when I first went in, but on my second vodka and tonic he yelled over again with another hello.

I looked over at him, said hello back again – but he kept say hello over and over, must have been four or five times. I looked at him like he was crazy.

He did the same thing to bartender Laura, who also thought he was acting nuts.

Finally Tony laughed. He had a cigarette in his mouth.

No, it wasn’t lit, but he wanted us to think it was, and Laura and I didn’t even pick up on the joke.

You see, the thing is, smoking in Madonna’s still feels natural to a lot us despite the fact we haven’t been able to do it for months because of the smoking ban.

In October 2006, I wrote a column about Madonna’s and the smoking ban that was coming. Click here to read it.

It still doesn’t seem right not to be able to smoke in a bar, but it’s now months later since the ban. Let’s just say I think most of us are getting use to it.

— Larry Gross

(Photo from Public Radio)

Comments

[Jeb]

What? No rant about not being able to smoke in bars? You're getting too soft lately.

[Del]

It's nice to go into Madonna's or any other bar and not put up with all that smoke. Now, if we could just do something about those who stand outside the bar with their cigarettes. We should have a law banning that too.

[Political Junkie]

Wow, Del, how about we just ban everything you don't like? Screw personal liberties.

BTW, Del, drinking alcohol is also unhealthy. You'd better believe Big Brother will be targeting that activity in another decade or so.

[Mighty Mouse]

When I read something like Del wrote, it makes me want to light a whole pack of cigarettes and stick it down his throat.

To the mighty Del: a certain finger is sticking up in the air just for you.

[jackula]

lar, nk is a hop, skip and a jump. come on over. plenty of ashtrays.

[Helen]

You people write so many stories about smoking. Tell me, are your computers all dirty from the ashes as you read these things?