Philly Goes Smoke-Free

At least in bars and restaurants.

Some background:

• Smoke is bad for you
• I used to smoke
• Stopped when I was diagnosed with asthma
• I tend to get very sick when exposed to too much smoke, and I try to avoid it like the plague

Given that, I don't think there should be a ban on smoking.

If smoking matters that much to that many people, places will become non-smoking by their own decision because of the patrons they wish to attract - and I have no problems with a place deciding to be non-smoking. I have a problem with legislation being used to micro-control us.

I have no problem with taxing - excessively - things that have a dangerous impact on the public health, if the vast majority of the population being taxed votes for it. That's a good way to get government to get their sticky fingers into things, and a good way to exercise democracy.

It may be healthier if we were a society that didn't smoke, but if we are a society legislated nine ways to Sunday, we're not a healthy society.

Just in case anyone runs into these in a dark alleyway...

...in the stacks of some obscure books shop...

...especially considering such places are, themselves, hardly obscure to those on my FL or wider readership... =)

• Some descendants of Arthur Warren of Weymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony by Warren Woden Foster; New England Historic Genealogical Society (January 1, 1998); ASIN: B0006R3ZCW - as I am growing more confident by the minute that I am, in fact, a direct ancestor of said Arthur Warren, this is the most useful title of the three
• The story of the Bloods,: Including an account of the early generations of the family in America in genealogical lines from Robert Blood of Concord and Richard Blood of Groton by Roger Deane Harris; Priv. print., G.K. Hall (January 1, 1960); ASIN: B0007DTAFQ - on account that said direct lineage to Arthur Warren involves a grandmother in the Blood family, this is of only slightly less importance
• The Warren family: Ancestors and descendants of Moses Warren of Warrensville, Ohio from John Warren of Watertown, Massachusetts with allied families (Unknown Binding) by Allene Beaumont Duty; Xerox Reproduction Center; 1st ed edition (1984); ASIN: B0006EIL4C - this one is only of value as a curiousity, at least at this point; sadly, out of the three, it is the only one that can be found on Amazon.com; doubly sadly, at $150, it's not a quick pick

~ ~ ~

On a related note (harrumph!) there is a very definite coat of arms used by Arthur Warren - and some how Dr. Warren (of kicking-Revere's-horse-off-on-a-sartain-ride fame; not to mention starring in a number of Liberty's Kids episodes, and, along the way, starting some goofy school for other doctors - Harvard Medical School, I think, not that anyone will have heard of it...) wound up with the seal on a ring; as of this moment that's the only implication that there may be a relation there. That - The Doctors Warren of Boston: First Family of Surgery - is one book I *do* have, so we'll see what happens once I read up on it.

Anyway, I'll probably be looking into the heraldry there and maybe that of some of the other families - be curious to see what the Clan Riddle (ETA: which would be here) has and all.