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I had never given much thought to buffets before, until a waitress/bartender friend and I started discussing the subject a couple of weeks ago. One of my favorite places in Dover was a chinese restaurant that had a great buffet (and I always left a tip).

I think I also made a crack about TB and for that you have my sincere apologies.

Eight years ago a friend of mine contracted TB - he worked in food service at the local state college - he got it from another employee. Let me tell you - the cover up about that TB outbreak was unbelievable. The state is still denying that anyone there had TB, even though they hounded me and my husband for over a year about our TB test results - that they demanded we get. Because my husband tested positive the state insisted he go on a 6 month regimen of some drug - even though he had turned in his x-rays and paper work from the family doctor attesting to the fact he did NOT have TB. It finally took me going directly to the Secretary of the state health department to get them to stop harrassing him.

Of course the folks at public health were not happy with that turn of events - so they turned their sights on me. they insisted I needed to be retested because I never came back to have my test read. I had the copy of the negative results they had given me, but that wasn't good enough for them. I HAD to have another test, because I may have falsified the paperwork because they had no record of it. Although I was self-employed, at that particular time I was also working part-time in a law office and they actually sent a letter to the attorney I worked for.

In the end I truly felt sorry for these people. They were ticked off because of who I contacted to get them off my husband's back....you would think they would have gotten a clue to not push me. At the time, the attorney I was working for was on the governor's short list for a judicial nomination, plus I had already shown them I was not intimidated by their bureaucratic BS. Apparently one does not have to have much of a clue to get a job with Public Health in Delaware because these people kept after me.

The misfortune of the people of Delaware is this is the mentality enforcing not only the smoking ban, but all the health regulations in the state. I sure am glad I don't live there any more.