...and handed you a Chesterfield King

Curious about what a smoke-free bar will be like, Dane101 exhausted the company coffers (see, that's a joke, we aren't a company, nor do we have funds to put in a coffer) to travel up to the Twin Cities. Minneapolis went smoke-free back in March, so we took advantage of an Of Montreal show at the Triple Rock Social Club to conduct our research.

First impression, the kids are upset about it. Standing in line for the all ages show it was heartbreaking to watch the distress crawl across the faces of the high schoolers as they realized they had to extinguish their tasty smoky treats. We watched as one group was forced to prematurely end a study on which brand tasted better, Camel or Marlboro.

As for the atmosphere in the actual venue, honestly, the show was so fun we forgot to pay attention to the fact that no one was smoking, so one can safely say, there was little difference to note.

It wasn't until we left the all ages show area of the Triple Rock and headed back to the 21 and up bar in the back that we truly experienced a smoke-free bar. The Madison equivalent of the Triple Rock bar crowd would be Mickey's meets the Paradise. Suffice it to say, everyone should have had smoking sticks in their hands, but they didn't.

One could detect that the balance was off, something in the picture was not right. It was unsettling, yet at the same time, no one really seemed to mind. A quick poll of the immediate patrons led to the conclusion that the repercussions of banning smoking won't really be known until the icy cold of winter makes it's way back around. No one seemed to mind, no one seemed highly irritable, and everyone could step out and smoke on the sidewalk as long as they had a stamp on their hand.

Of course, that's just one night of unscientific observations from someone who supports the smoking ban in all places that don't carry cigars or hookahs.

So it would probably be a fair idea to let some Minneapolitans speak for themselves by digging through various blogs. It is worth noting that find Minneapolis blogs talking about the ban before it went into affect was fairly easy. Finding blogs that seem to have an opinion after said ban went into affect, not so simple, but some were found.

Speed Gibson is all doom and gloom saying that the smoking ban in Hennepin County (the seat of Minneapolis) has decimated his favorite breakfast place, "our ten-year Saturday morning breakfast cafe went dark in just ten days. I can report that another such independent diner says they haven't seen a difference yet. Another said business is off maybe 20-30% and it looked like it. The radio news this morning quoted an owner that his business is down 25%, partly because even his non-smoking business has gone down." The problem with his statement, of course, is he doesn’t name "said business."

Check the comments of his entry for a counterpoint from a fan of the ban.

Dharma Bum on the Dharma Blog says that the ban will lead to a lot more time spent in Minneapolis, "No more smoking there. St. Paul still allows it in bars, but not restaurants. Halle-fucking-lujah. I don't care what you say, I'm sick of smokey bars, and it disgusts me that someday my kid (or hell, I) could work in a bar and be subjected to that kind of poison. This is the year 2005, and the idea of smoking inside seems about 100 years out of date. It's called progress, enjoy it."

SparklesMpls says that the ban may encourage him to quit smoking in this entry on "…and I am somebody." Then a month later in his comments section to his entry about seeing the girl from Uncle Buck at the SpyHouse, a visitor named Dunner comments that the smoking ban has been good for business, "I appreciate the cleaner air in there - it was hard to breathe or see in that place at times. In fact, I think that there are actually more people coming there now that they know it's not smokey - my guess is that their business will actually increase due to the smoking ban."

Dan at Planetdan went to a Har Mar Superstar and Ben Lee show at the famous First Avenue and says everyone seemed sad in spite of the energetic performance, "the smoking ban in Minneapolis went into effect last week, but the crowd at the Har Mar concert was considerably less rowdy than usual."

Bob Smith of No Force, No Fraud makes an interesting assumption, non-smokers tend to be in the upper class and non-smokers are in the lower class. He writes that smoking bans are nothing more than another attempt by the haves to take away from the have-nots. He then describes what he sees anti-smoking people and suddenly sounds like a liberal blogger describing a conservative evangelical. Seriously, just switch any reference to Democrat with Republican and any reference to progressive with "compassionate conservative." It's uncanny.

In the end, what does all of this say as a lesson to Madison. Ummm…time will tell?

To end, Dane101 just wants to share the most bizarre argument against a smoking ban for last. It comes from a site, not a blog, called Renew America. This is a site started by supporters of the Alan Keyes 2000 Presidential bid, one interesting essay written by a kid that looks like Wil Wheaton during his Star Trek days compares anti-smoking supporters to Nazis (an apology to Wil Wheaton is in order). Keeping with the rules of the Internet, he wins. Anyone who is brave enough to compare a group he or she disagrees with to Nazis, must automatically win any discussion.