[Gabz]

Proper smoking etiquette is that you don't light up until after all others have finished eating.

Absolutely.

I raised that position while at a dinner, in a smoking-permitted restaurant with 9 others. One of the group was still eating when the person sitting next to him started to light up. When I stated it was impolite to light up while someone was still eating, the person looked directly at me and queried "Are you buying dinner, or am I?" My response was simply "I guess I am."

He waited to light up until the other person finished eating.

That was 1992. Both the person who started to light up and the person still eating were tobacco industry lobbyists and the purpose of the dinner was strategy about a smoking ban in restaurants in Delaware.

My entire point was a lack of manners creating the problem and my point was taken. I wasn't an industry lobbyist, but I did work with (not for) many of them because even back then the owners and smokers were being left out of the discussion.

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BTW, in the end I did NOT pay for dinner :)

[George W. Bush]

BTW, in the end I did NOT pay for dinner :)

Good for you! LOL.

Of course, we live in a country where parents don't even teach children to chew food with their mouth closed, cover their mouths when sneezing and coughing, etc.

I'm pretty libertarian in outlook but a libertarian society can be a polite society as well. Just because we are free to do something doesn't mean we have a license to do so or that we're entitled to disregard others entirely.