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From: Stephen Harker <sjharker@aussiebroadband.com.au>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Smoking. Was: Clarke Award Finalists 2001
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2025 06:12:55 +1000
Organization: Aussiebroadband connection
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scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes:

> jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll) writes:
>>In article <GPf4Q.234265$VIE2.181216@fx33.iad>,
>>Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>>Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> writes:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>On 6/16/25 22:45, Titus G wrote:
>>>>> On 17/06/25 07:00, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
>>>>> snip
>>>>>> but all that I can remember about them is: more smoking than in Doc Smith.
>>>>>>
>>>>> 
>>>>> I was surprised at characters spending more time smoking cigarettes than
>>>>> sticking to the plot in some recent reads.
>>>>> Meet the Tiger. Leslie Charteris.
>>>>> The Ministry of Time. Kaliane Bradley.
>>>>> Hardwired. Walter Jon Williams.
>>>>> The worst was non SF, Vengeance by Benjamin Black.
>>>>
>>>>	Books I read in the 1960s and thoughly enjoyed were recently
>>>>reopened and closed for the very same reason as I found the smoking
>>>>scenes too objectionable. And nearly every character just had to have
>>>>another cigarette to talk to friends or tell off the enemies.
>>>>	I myself never seriously smoked tobacco at any time but most
>>>>was after i was 25 yoa.  The smoking did not offend me when i read
>>>>the books the first time. Now it disgusts me to read about it. The
>>>>result of anti-smoking propaganda or the thought of my former
>>>>room mate who had smoked since she was 14 yoa and died at
>>>>75 of brain cancer that had spread from a lung cancer.
>>>
>>>As a lifelong non-smoker, I recall having difficulty enjoying
>>>a restaurant meal due to smokers at the next table, walking out
>>>of a bar smelling like an ashtray, or trying to survive a six
>>>hour flight in the last non-smoking row of an airplane.
>>>
>>>I'm happy that all three are no longer issues.
>>
>>At work, I explained to a horrified student that certain heavy 
>>benches are spaced the way they are to make room for the ash-tray
>>stands that used to be at regular intervals in that hallway. 
>
> When I got my first private office at work (mid 80s), the prior
> occupant had been a chain smoker and it took me several days
> to clean the tar off furniture and walls.  Still stunk for
> a year or so afterwords.

I recall when working at TU Delft around 2000 I was surprised to find
that smoking was allowed in the buildings.  It had been banned in
Australia for some time.  The smell was noticeable and I sometimes
opened the window in my office in the early morning to reduce the smell
(even in mmid-winter).

-- 
Stephen Harker                       sjharker@aussiebroadband.com.au