No Smoking

If this had happened a month ago, the San Francisco Chronicle and city officials would have been another party skewered in Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame induction speech. The newspaper published photos Tuesday of Jordan smoking a cigar during a practice round at Harding Park, despite the city's ban on smoking on public golf courses. City officials asked the PGA Tour to remind Jordan he can't smoke while being an honorary assistant at the Presidents Cup. "It was sort of a gentle nudge reminding them that smoking is illegal and that we would appreciate their support," Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg told the Chronicle.

Re: "Cigarette tax is a lifesaver," Column, May 14 I am not a smoker nor do I have any interest in the tobacco companies. Though I may agree in principle with George Skelton that cigarette companies are deceiving voters about Proposition 29, which would raise cigarette taxes $1 a pack to finance cancer research, I have a problem with the overall premise of the initiative. People have the idea that just throwing more cash at a problem is the best way to solve it. Here, the idea is that we improve cancer research by imposing $800 million in new taxes on smokers.

Most of us are quite capable of choosing a restaurant without the need for legislation dictated by the narrow-minded perspective of Councilman Marvin Braude and his no-smoking regime (Restaurant News, Nov. 28, and Letters, Dec. 12). Furthermore, can letter writer Clarence Brauer be taken seriously? He's actually asking the government to ban music in restaurants. This intolerant mind-set is becoming epidemic. The cure is simple, but read slowly anyway: If you don't like the place, go somewhere else.

Smoking marijuana to relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis is a practice with a fair number of adherents, though it has not been subject to rigorous testing. A new study finds that puffing weed does have a rapid and measurable effect on MS patients' muscle spasticity and on their perception of pain. But subjects who smoked pot were not able to walk any faster and -- surprise! -- they felt higher than members of the control group who smoked marijuana stripped of THC. The study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, recruited 30 MS patients who suffered from spasticity -- stiffness and involuntary muscle spasms that are a common symptom of MS -- as well as from pain, usually in the back.

So Ken Frank, owner of La Toque, makes the observation that smokers are inconsiderate of nonsmokers? How true. But it's amusing that it might be thought that these people would have consideration for others when they have no concern for themselves anyway. This seems a prerequisite to being a smoker. As a nonsmoker and former musician, whose unfortunate places of employment were, for years, bars and restaurants, I am relieved to be working now in a no-smoking environment. With recent findings on the hazards of second-hand smoke coming to light, I'm glad to see the ordinances getting tougher on the subject.

I was recently at a local restaurant. My party had drinks and appetizers at a table in the bar. We decided to have dinner and did so at the same table. During our meal, the bar began to fill. By the end of our meal, there were 12 people sitting at the bar. Nine of them were smoking. I don't know if bar business is off by 26% or 40%. I am allergic to tobacco smoke. I do know I go to bars more often now, due to the new no-smoking laws. But I also know I won't return to this restaurant. SYD GUBIN Palm Springs

Regarding no-smoking hotels and restaurants for tourists and travelers, I think it is a fine idea. Thank you for a fine report. DOROTHY KNAIGER Los Angeles

I am writing this letter as a rebuttal to the comment made by Mike Sims, vice president of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, to the effect that the restaurant owners in Beverly Hills have received no complaints about people smoking in their restaurants. I have personally complained in many of the best restaurants in Beverly Hills about their lack of no-smoking sections. However, as you could expect, most of the maitre d's are under the unfortunate impression that their customers' smoke doesn't stink, and if you don't like it you can eat elsewhere.

A large minority in this country, and particularly in this state, is being trampled, abused and made to feel it has no rights. The sanctimonious anti-smoking crusaders are acting as if they are on a mission from God and the end justifies any means. Many official policies call for accommodation of both sides. But practice gives us no-smoking offices, malls and airplanes whether there is a problem or not without even considering improving inadequate ventilation or other practical compromises.

The Downey City Council has given final passage to a smoking policy that takes effect in 30 days to restrict and prohibit smoking in public and private businesses and enclosed areas within the city. The council voted 4 to 1 for the measure at its May 23 meeting. Councilwoman Barbara Hayden cast the dissenting vote. "It's too lengthy, too restrictive and unenforceable," Hayden said. "I can't support this intrusion into private life . . . and I am not a smoker." Councilman Randall Barb said he believes the law is loose and flexible, and that he wished more ordinances were as readable.

SACRAMENTO - Cigarette makers have a certified history of deception, distortion and lying. And let's not forget fraud and racketeering. Those aren't my words. Credit U.S. District Judge Gladys E. Kessler of Washington, D.C. She wrote in a landmark 2006 ruling that for more than 50 years the tobacco industry had "lied, misrepresented, and deceived the American public, including smokers and the young people they avidly sought as 'replacement smokers,' about the devastating health effects of smoking.

Dear SOS: I just made the kale gratin from last week's edition, and it was luscious. Thanks. My 6-year-old daughter eats like a bird but absolutely loves the brisket from La Sandia at Santa Monica Place. It is one of the only meals she asks for. We actually splurge on the non-kid menu entree for her whenever we go there. I would like to replicate it as best I can at home. Can you please get the recipe? Thanks very much. Jill Donaty Encino Dear Jill: It's a perfect dish if you're entertaining.

Re "Call tobacco tax a user fee," Column, May 7 I'm a nonsmoker who is generally in favor of anything that will reduce smoking and stick it to Big Tobacco, but I wonder if we are getting close to the point at which people who smoke - 12% of adults and 14% of high schoolers - can't or won't give it up no matter the price. Will we just be making life more miserable for the addicted while having little effect on the tobacco companies? After all, if their profits dip, they can just raise the price.

When Sam Lamar Lucas and his wife, Linda, saw smoke below their Colorado home, he called 911. “We live up in the foothills and we just got home and looks like there's a fire right at the foot of Cathedral Spires," Lucas said in a 911 tape from March 26 that was released by the Jefferson County Sheriff's office Tuesday. The dispatcher interrupted him. “That is a controlled burn. The [Colorado State] Forest Service is out there on scene with that. " Lucas was bewildered.

Dear SOS: We were hosted by our good friends for our 50 t h anniversary for dinner at Morton's Steakhouse . We were served smoked salmon pizza as an appetizer. Could you manage to get the recipe? Sylvia Nureddine Ontario Dear Sylvia: Morton's was happy to share its recipe for smoked salmon pizza, which we've adapted below. Morton's smoked salmon pizza Total time: 15 minutes Servings: 6 to 8 Note: Adapted from Morton's Steakhouse 1 (12-inch)

Maybe I was beginning to suffer from smoke inhalation. All I know is that I started feeling faint at Tuesday's meeting of the Los Angeles Fire Commission right around the time LAFD Fire Chief Brian Cummings attempted, yet again, to explain mysterious discrepancies regarding emergency response times. You'd have been dizzy too, hearing about metrics, deployment models, projections and changing formulas. I knew 20 minutes into the meeting that if I fainted and fell over backward, and someone called 911, no one in the room could say for sure how long the projected or actual response might take or what formula would be used to compute it. I did learn at the meeting that when you call 911 for a fire or medical emergency, the call goes to the LAPD first.

Since we decided at the office that "clean air" means a no-smoking, no-cosmetics policy, all the complaining about smoking seems to have stopped. I wonder why? D.G. SHAW Norwalk

When federal judge Richard Leon ruled it unconstitutional for the government to require graphic warning labels on cigarette packs recently, he suggested that if the government wanted to mount an emotional anti-smoking campaign, it should do so on it own nickel. On Monday, the federal government did so, launching a $54-million series of ads called "Tips From Former Smokers. " AdWeek 's David Gianatasio ranks the multimedia campaign "among the year's most memorable advertising, and perhaps among the best-ever work in its category.

In the 1970s it seemed like we had problems we could never fix - and I'm not talking about white polyester disco suits and the band Air Supply. The '70s presented America with the residue of a catastrophic war, soaring inner-city crime rates, runaway inflation and subjugation to Middle East oil. To punctuate the dismal vibe, everybody smoked, or so it seemed if you were sitting on an airplane at the edge of the DMZ between the smoking and nonsmoking sections,...