Score one for those truth.com assholes...

I never thought I would be bothered by smoking at any bar, let alone an outdoor bar, but that was the case this week. New Jersey has banned smoking in indoor bars for two months now, so being outdoors and drinking was the first time in a while I'd been exposed to a smoking environment. You'd think it wouldn't be a big deal, and six months ago I would've been happily dragging and spewing toxins into the air as if I belonged on the Jersey Turnpike.

But I've been one of those quitters for about five months now in my endless on-again off-again battle with big tobacco, and the pervasive (if mild) stench in the air was annoying. And as much as I think it's ridiculous to ban smoking in bars (I think banning loud music makes more sense from a socializing standpoint), I have to admit that I've enjoyed smoke-free bars.

Fuck. What's a self-described libertarian to do?

No point here, just that I now sympathize with my non-smoking friends when they put up with me and the Pigpen-like cloud of dogshit fumes I carried around with me. Which I would probably still be doing, mind you, if smokes didn't cost five bucks a pack in New Jersey.

Between that and the new bans, sooner or later you'll see people crossing the border into Philly to pick up two cartons with their fireworks.