Hyperreal Film Club
Nonsmokers Are Just All-Around Better People Than Smokers
RECEIVED Fri., Jan. 6, 2006
Dear Editor,
I need to clarify something for Carl Swanson ("Postmarks,” Jan. 6). The proliferation of butts on Austin streets and sidewalks, and presumably in Austin watersheds, is not because of the smoking ban. It's because the vast majority of Austin smokers are pigs. They throw their butts out of their cars. (Did carmakers suddenly quit making ashtrays?) They smoke a cigarette outside their office (on their boss' dime) and then throw the butt on the sidewalk. They wait for a table at a restaurant and, when they get one, throw their butts on the ground. People who'd never think of throwing trash or garbage into the street think nothing of flicking their butts there.
I don't know the solution of correcting behavior of people who are acting like barnyard animals, but nonsmokers aren't causing the problem.
I need to clarify something for Carl Swanson ("Postmarks,” Jan. 6). The proliferation of butts on Austin streets and sidewalks, and presumably in Austin watersheds, is not because of the smoking ban. It's because the vast majority of Austin smokers are pigs. They throw their butts out of their cars. (Did carmakers suddenly quit making ashtrays?) They smoke a cigarette outside their office (on their boss' dime) and then throw the butt on the sidewalk. They wait for a table at a restaurant and, when they get one, throw their butts on the ground. People who'd never think of throwing trash or garbage into the street think nothing of flicking their butts there.
I don't know the solution of correcting behavior of people who are acting like barnyard animals, but nonsmokers aren't causing the problem.
Michael M. Simpson