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I remember crossing the ocean on a full chartered DC8 way back when with half the plane smoking

Yeah, remember how rows 1-21 were smoking, and rows 22+ were non-smoking?
And how the smoke was supposed to be smart enough to know this even though there were no barriers in between and the air was recirculated through the whole plane?
Yep, bad standup comedians lost a staple joke when this went away. And now it looks like they're about to lose all their "airline food" jokes as well. (What? You mean airlines used to serve FOOD?)

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In the early 80s, when I worked on an ICU that CPR'd smokers every other day, nurses could still duck into the tiny glass-enclosed conference space (right on the unit) for a smoke break. Now *that's* anachronism.


Definitely! Didn't they also used to put up signs warning people not to smoke IN or NEAR oxygen tents in hospitals? All that seems really silly when I think about it now.

Back before the workplace smoke bans, I worked somewhere where they had a special "smoking room." It was pretty cool. Basically a 20x20 glass aquarium in the middle of one of the hallways -- equipped with an airlock and super-turbo-industrial fans and filters to vent everything directly outside. The idea was they didn't want to lose smoker productivity by making them go in-and-out of security every time they needed a cigarette. But I think these "smoke-quariums" went away when smoking was completely banned in the workplace.