Arkansas Blog

Yes he will go cold turkey. Fayetteville has the strictest ordinance in Ark prohibiting blowing poisons around on your fellow humans. The Library won't even let you take coffee or tea away from the snack pavilion near the front entrance. I wish they had larger meeting rooms but we are thankful for the ones they do offer to non-commercial groups for free. I don't know if this chef should qualify. Will he be selling books?

ARK. BLOG: I bet he will. Appearance is sponsored by the Roberta Fulbright Society. He'll be taking a good fee away, I'll wager..

UPDATE: Reader says, "For $75 and front row seating - all sold out - you get a copy of a book or a cd of his. but yes, his books and cds are on sale."

I like his smoking, makes him more human for some reason.
Of course I love Mad Men on AMC because of all the smokin' and drinking, all day, all the time. Even around ~gasp~ children.
No I don't smoke, just like a vice (smoking is now such a NAUGHTY thing for civilized/educated folks to do) out there on display.

A big part of Bourdain's schtick is the "this is who I am take me or leave me, but I'm me". Do I smoke (anymore)? Nope. Do I like to be in a crowd of them in a small room? Nope. But I think something is seriously wrong with us when smoking in a movie will get you an R rating and blood-filled violence barely gets you a PG.

his books and cds are on sale."

I suppose this had to happen. Fayetteville voters did not pass a local (very small) increase in prop tax to permanently fund the library. What's next local swap n meets for the gun lovers? They're just as entitled to the space you know.

Regarding Fayetteville's financial status, it doesn't look to good of late. Sales taxes are declining. This is not to be confused with Washington County which has reserves. Yet Fayetteville cannot support it's library so it must hawk a proud smoker's books and cds, but has plans to
expand a now defunct city airport by the tune of $62 million to benefit a handful of corporate elites complete with an airport golf course in the event of unexpected layovers and "and million-dollar homes with attached hangers." Somewhere along the line the regular folk of Fayetteville, many of whom are educated, are going to throw the rascals out.
See Iconoclast on my blue name.

Without smoke there will be no children's health care.. I say light 'em up. 75 (or any entrance fee) bucks to get into a public library seems wrong.. Will the city take down the public sign for the evening?

eLwood: If you are interested in snooping around at the airport, go out there with a notebook, folding chair and a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope and start copying down the tail numbers on the aircraft based on the field and coming in & out of the hangars. Then check them out in the FAA database or another one like POPAV.com to see where they're registered. You might be surprised that many of those local high-dollar flying machines are not on the property tax rolls locally, but are registered elsewhere like Delaware, a no personal property tax state. That might be contributing to the $ problems in Fayetteville.

Just hope eLwood has a bail bondsman and a lawyer lined up before he does that . . .
Some folks up there might take offense.

Damn, Max sure is a fascist when it comes to smoking.

Just to set the record straight, Fairfield Bay has the only 100% clean indoor air legislation in the state. I dig Bourdain but it is unfortunate to see the example he sets w his nicotine addiction. Belittling this as merely naughty is exactly what the tobacco cartel would have us believe and disregards the lives lost to a rogue industry.

If we're going to fund children's health programs on the backs of smokers, it's time to let smokers smoke freely. After all, it's for the children...

Severus has given himself away; he is *obviously* one of Stephen Colbert's writers!

I'm not trying to say that smoking isn't dangerous. However, Bourdain is an adult and as such, I'm happy to let him make his own decisions. And the tobacco cartels aren't the only ones making money off human preferences that might not be so safe....heck, the food, booze, pharma, car, gambling, sports and sex industries all take their toll. But as adults, we should be able to make choices ourselves and if there are consequences, be responsible.

If we're going to tax sin, then religion is the mother who must go first; for the children!

"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made." Jean Giraudoux

When will LR/Pulaksi County/state of Arkansas go no indoor smoking?
I love going to non-smoking establishments and listening to music, eating, shooting pool, drinking, spending money, all those things I used to do everywhere before I quit smoking (which was before the under-21 ban, by a couple of years).
Whenever I go to a smoking establishment for one of those reasons, the next day I remember why I do not go to smoking places: morning-after asthma, stuffy head, and clothes that should have been hung on the back porch before bed. This causes lethargy, use of Sudafed, and premature doing of laundry.
Come on, Gov Beebe, just do it.