smoke like an Egyptian (Hookah bars struggle in Texas)

The Economist ^ | 25-sept-05 | The Economist

[voletti]

AT THE Hookup Lounge near the University of Texas (UT), 20-somethings loll about, some encased in plumes of smoke. But they are not snogging, yet. In true academic spirit, they are learning the ways of another culture—and passing around a hookah pipe. “I normally smoke cigarettes, but it's kind of nice not having to get up and go outside,” says Jon Faviell, who is trying to get into graduate school at UT. He is sharing a mint pipe with a friend.

Alas for Austinites, there are now fewer hookah places to puff. At the beginning of this month, a city-wide smoking ban went into effect. Smoking indoors in public areas is now mostly restricted to the likes of nursing homes and bingo halls. The Hookup Lounge (named for its, ahem, wireless access) survives because it is classed as a retail tobacco store (the bulk of its sales being derived from tobacco products). But one downtown Austin bar, the Red Fez, no longer offers hookah. Another, One2One, is opening up new patio space to keep patrons puffing; on the night before the ban it sportingly offered free hookahs until midnight.

Hookahs used to be associated with marijuana, opium dens and progressive rock (or that's what we vaguely remember). But legitimate hookah bars started appearing in California in the late 1990s, and, despite the anti-smoking surge, they are booming, especially in college towns.

Brennan Appel of SouthSmoke.com, a hookah-merchandise supplier, reckons that there are now several thousand bars and lounges (nobody in the hookah trade is that great on specific numbers). Jonathan Fair of One2One theorises that Lewis Carroll's “Alice in Wonderland”, in which a shrunken Alice meets a water-pipe-smoking caterpillar, has had something to do with it.

[ellery]

The article is about hookah bars, where patrons smoke tobacco. When you refer to "getting high," are you talking about tobacco? Or are you going off-article-topic to illegal drugs? I just want to be clear on what you're saying.

Of course, tobacco is also not a necessity of life -- but surely you're not proposing that only life's necessities should be legal...?

[Alter Kaker]

You druggies are all the same, always trying to intellectualize your beliefs.

I am not a druggie. I do not smoke anything, tobacco included. I do like red wine and single malt scotch, although neither to excess.

The hookah was not designed and is not primarily used to smoke tobacco.

You are simply mistaken. Maybe it's because I live in the Middle East, but never, either here or in the United States, have I seen anyone use a hookah for anything other than tobacco. Out of curiosity, have you ever been in a hookah bar? As for spelling, please forgive me, kind sir or madam, for carelessly misspelling the words "sustain" and "ingest.". I hope that you understand that English is my fourth language and that you always hold yourself to the same liguistic standards to which you hold others. I'm curious to converse with you in your fourth language.

Yours ever sincerely,

Alter Kaker

[toddlintown]

Real men drink the bong water.

[Moonman62]

Hookahs are shared between fiends. Its a communal activity, not unlike eating from the same plate/table in a middle eastern resturant. Provides a bit of bonding.

I hope your fiends don't have mouth sores.

[coop71]

Bingo!!! Hookahs aren't generally used for anything other than tobacco. And the tobacco used in a hookah is usually a flavored tobacco, like strawberry or cherry, vanilla, etc., with molasses and/honey mixed in - not your usual cigarette or cigar tobacco. This idea of hookahs being used for pot or opium is fueled by stupid movies and TV shows and is inaccurate. It's a social activity that goes waaaaaaaaaaay back in history...and while I don't partake (pregnant and a nonsmoker anyway), my husband breaks out his hookah when his buddies come over and they enjoy it, much like people enjoy smoking a good cigar.

[Alter Kaker]

Real men drink the bong water.

Hookas, of course, aren't bongs.

[Tarpon]

Are you saying pot and coke it won't work with the hooker?

[FreedomPoster]

We went to a Lebanese-cuisine restaurant with friends a couple of month ago. We got a hookah with dessert and coffee, with some apple-flavored tobacco. I don't smoke cigarettes, and maybe smoke a cigar once every month or two. With that said, I must say, it was pretty darn civilized, smoking that hookah. I liked it.

Everyone had their own plastic mouthpieces, which you removed when you passed the hookah hose around, for those wondering about that.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

I just can't help it. I laugh and think about Steve Martin, singing "Walk with an erection". Smoke like an......

[MinuteGal]

Sounds like a bunch of happy hookahs!

Leni

[coop71]

LOL. Well, they might work with hookers, but I don't think they'd work so well with a hookah. : ) Actually, I think you can smoke pot with them but it's a lot of effort.

[Tall_Texan]

With a hookah, you put something in your mouth and suck.

With a hooker, they put something in their mouth and...

[Vision]

The article is about hookah bars, where patrons smoke tobacco. When you refer to "getting high," are you talking about tobacco? Or are you going off-article-topic to illegal drugs? I just want to be clear on what you're saying.

I don't know any people who are into hookah bars who don't get high. That's all I'm saying.

[Vision]

You are simply mistaken. Maybe it's because I live in the Middle East, but never, either here or in the United States, have I seen anyone use a hookah for anything other than tobacco

Come on

[coop71]

And with a Democrat, well, they just suck.

[Alter Kaker]

Come on

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm saying I've never seen it. Moreover, are you suggesting that hookah bars in the US, open to the general public, are for smoking cannabis, not tobacco? Because that's just silly. I doubt anyone's that stupid.

By the way, you never told me what your fourth language was. Second language?

[Starwolf]

In every crowd there are a few that have a over simplistic world view and lack experience or a broadness of viewpoint to understand others with divergent views. Most of the time they are elected liberals, but occasionally a conservative falls into that mode. Forgive him and move on.

Comparing languages spoken is effectively a "mine bigger" game in an area in which most Americans have no interest. We think that everyone ought to just speak American English and get on with things. Most of the world seems to agree. That said I do 3 human languages, about a dozen computer languages teaching in about half of them.

[Sir Gawain]

The hookah was not designed and is not primarily used to smoke tobacco.

Source?

[RandallFlagg]

Ping

[Sir Gawain]

It's really funny when you see someone talking about something, and you know that they have no clue what they're talking about. Vision hasn't the slightest idea on how a hookah operates or he wouldn't even try to make the assertion that it's MJ mainly smoked in them.