Cowboy, Americans didn't have the vote that stopped the smoking in Germany. You can't blame us.

It's easier for people to quit smoking when it's not in every public place for most people. Even though I'm an ex-smoker I still enjoy the odor of a fresh cigarette. They've given me many pleasurable moments. For years after I quit, I'd enjoy a cigarette once or twice a year, usually in Europe.

>what is killing me in Butterfingers cause I love them
Me too, but since they're no longer sold, I should start smoking or eat, drink, inhale some other poison.

The owner of the biggest Oktoberfest tent said that he doesn't mind when people smoke. The waitresses will have to inform them that it is illegal, but he surely won't inform the police or anything.

Seems like the cops will have to make a few more arrests.

We had a similar vote in my canton here in Switzerland.

3 out 5 restaurants now have special permission for smoking rooms.

The vote has become a joke.

I am very happy to hear this and wish Austria would follow suit.

A smoking section at least offers people a choice. Allowing smoking in restaurants in Germany and Austria is about the only negative - to us - in traveling in these countries. If the smokers can indulge their habit in a smoking section that is truly cut off from the rest of the restaurant so that those of us who find smoke nasty (especially so around food) do not have to endure it, then IMO it is better than having no option at all.

annhig..

I CAN blame it not only on the Yanks but also on the Brits.
If you wish to burn the few acres of tobacco plants in Germany, feel free to so. But the real villains are in your own backyard:

Big Tobacco is (aside from the Chinese and parts of the Japanese market) a handful of companies based in the US and the UK.

Nicotine addicts worldwide keep those companies alive and kicking, and also the economies they are based in.

I'd find it much more efficient to cut off supply and go after the drug-producing and -trading companies (i.e. Philip Morris Int. and Altria in the US (and to some extent in CH); British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco in the UK; Japan Tobacco) -- than to squeeze more taxes out of the consumer, invent a few nice anti-smoking laws, but keep the drug available for the sake of higher tax revenues in the countries which support drug supply.
The latter is pure hypocrisy IMO.

A bummer this won't apply to Oktoberfest this year - would have made my trip more pleasant.

I could care less about the cancer risk from second-hand smoke and don't care if smokers kill themselves - I just hate the smell of it in my lederhosen.

If you knew how real lederhosen get broken in, you would not worry about the smell of SMOKE

<i>I just hate the smell of it in my lederhosen.</i>

Just before a trip to Germany I had my swede jacket cleaned. After a night in a couple of smokey D&uuml;sseldorf jazz clubs I hung the jacket in the closet overnight. On opening the closet door the next morning I was almost knocked over by the stink.

Just before a trip to Germany I had my swede jacket cleaned.>>

spaarne - is that the jacket that makes you look a proper turnip? [I think you mean "suede" jacket].

ho, ho, ho.