Free Republic

A basics video to show the difference between black powder and smokeless powder. Many who hear these terms are likely not clear as to what is meant or have some misconceptions.

In the great green room, there is a telephone, and a red balloon, but no ashtray. "Goodnight Moon," the children's classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke free. In a newly revised edition of the book, which has lulled children to sleep for nearly 60 years, the publisher, HarperCollins, has digitally altered the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator, to remove a cigarette from his hand. HarperCollins said it made the change to avoid the appearance of encouraging smoking and did so with the permission of the illustrator's estate. But Mr. Hurd's son, also a children's book illustrator and...

CHARLESTON-- A picture of a Mail Pouch sign on a barn has been a fixture at the West Virginia State Museum since it opened in 1976 but anti-smoking advocates say something is missing from the exhibit -- a sign warning of smokeless tobacco's health risks. Officials with two anti-smoking groups want the Division of Culture and History to post the warning when the museum, which is closed for renovation, reopens later this year. But that is not likely to happen. ''It's being treated as a cultural icon as far as we're concerned,'' said Nancy Herholdt, former commissioner of Culture and...