Franklin Avenue

Looks like New York is banning smoking in bars starting today. If it's anything like what happened in Los Angeles four or five years ago, smokers won't go down without a lot of noise, and perhaps plenty of media coverage of people flaunting the law. In L.A., when our ban passed, Drew Carey made news by heading down to Barney's Beanery and smoking a stogie. But the law didn't go away, and the silent majority--those of us who secretly loved the law, but didn't speak up to support it since that wasn't cool--won out. Now, you can come home from a club or bar and not smell like an ashtray. It'll take a few years, but New York will get used to it too.