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Here in Georgia, we have a new law. And though I’m not totally familiar with the exceptions to it, I do know that it prevents smoking in most restaurants during most times of the day.

I hate smoking; it’s got to be the dumbest thing you can do. Sure, I can understand how old people got addicted back before it was known that smoking gives you cancer, but anybody who starts smoking, knowing they’ll get cancer from it, is an idiot. That said, I disagree with the Georgia smoking ban. The government has no place telling restaurant owners to disallow smoking.

If a restaurant chooses to allow a smoking section, fine. If that smoking section causes discomfort to non-smokers (like me), fine. Let the non-smokers eat elsewhere. And the opposite works as well: if a restaurant chooses to be all non-smoking, the smokers can choose to eat where they cannot smoke, or they can go elsewhere. But the government telling business owners that they must be all non-smoking is wrong.

Ok, that was all my opinion that I wanted to get out before I tell you the story about what happened last Friday. For lunch on Friday (July 1, the day the ban started), a coworker and I went to Texas Road House for lunch. While we were waiting to be seated, these 4 old women (who smelled like they had been smoking all week - in the same clothes) came in and requested the smoking section. When told that there was no smoking section, one woman - their spokesperson, I assume - became angry. “What?! You don’t have smoking?!” The hostess explained the law to this cancer patient-to-be. Apparently this lady was too busy smoking for the last 6 months that she had totally missed all of the news coverage on the smoking ban.

So, with great pleasure and much laughter, our lunch hour was topped sitting across the room from these sour old women, furious because they had to go 45 minutes without a cigarette. Maybe this law isn’t such a bad idea after all…