Smoking

“Nanny” alert! Two essays in a journal this week explore a radical idea: People who smoke tobacco should have to buy licenses. OK, so something like that may be a nonstarter in the U.S. today, but it's enough within the realm of possibility elsewhere to engage two public health experts in open debate. As one of the writers notes, “endgame” discussions are already taking place among smoking cessation circles and New Zealand, for one, has declared a goal of becoming smoke-free by 2025.

Well, they've finally done it. The potheads will soon be running wild and free in Boulder and Seattle. By becoming the first states to legalize recreational marijuana last week, Colorado and Washington have jettisoned the whole mishmash of medical marijuana cards and dispensary permits that have tied California up in knots. How did they pull that off ahead of us? We gave the world the Emerald Triangle, not to mention a West Los Angeles skate park some clueless bureaucrat named Stoner Skate Plaza.

Quinn Hatfield uses a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. Brine the turkey for 36 hours, then air-dry it for at least an hour before smoking. Half fill the charcoal basket with briquettes. Add one handful of applewood chips and mix it in with the charcoal (turkey takes on smoky flavors well, so you don't need to use a lot of chips). Fill the starter chimney halfway with briquettes and light. Once completely lit, pour them on top of the other coals and fill the water tray. Adjust vents in the smoker to hold the temperature at 300 to 325 degrees.

"Shine bright like a diamond," Rihanna sings, filmed in black and white, her hand bathed in the precious stones during the new video for her song "Diamonds. " Taken from her forthcoming album, "Unapologetic," due to come out Nov. 19, the aspirational pop song reaches for profundity in the new clip through a series of beautiful, elemental non-sequiturs. (Watch it below.) There are diamonds, of course, so many that they look like mercury flowing over the singer's hand -- and there are wild horses.

"Blues for Smoke" is a vast exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art that explores art through the prism of the influence of Blues music. The interdisciplinary exhibit features works on film, paper, canvas, tape and more by more than 50 artists from the 1950s to the present. Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., L.A.; Through Jan. 7. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. $12. (213) 626-6222; http://www.moca.org.

What are you most afraid of? Posing that question directly to the audience at the outset of his “Smoke and Mirrors” theatrical magic show at the Promenade Playhouse in Santa Monica, Albie Selznick establishes the evening's unifying theme: overcoming fear as a motivator for extraordinary achievement. As an actor-magician, Selznick sports fine credentials in both domains - he's a company member of NoHo's the Road Theatre (which co-produced this show) and a lifetime member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood - although it's predominantly his experiences in the latter capacity that propel this 90-minute semi-autobiographical narrative threading feats of illusion and legerdemain.

Two men died and another was seriously burned early Thursday when a fire raced through a two-story Pasadena home where elderly residents rented rooms. Flames and heavy smoke quickly engulfed the building following an apparent explosion that was reported about 2:15 a.m. at the home in the 1300 block of El Sereno Avenue, officials said. The fire and thick smoke sent 16 residents scrambling for safety. Neighbor Felix Palumbo said he heard two loud bangs, resembling fireworks, and went out onto the street to see the flames tearing through the front of the structure.

"Blues for Smoke" is an odd duck. The big new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art's warehouse space in Little Tokyo is filled with a lot of terrific art from the past half-century, including many works by artists who should be far more widely known than they are. There's much to discover. Its central theme - that a good chunk of contemporary art evokes the ethos of the blues, the great musical legacy that is arguably America's first distinctive contribution to world culture - is provocative and engaging.

Still nipping out of your workplace or a restaurant to cop a cigarette out on the sidewalk? You are public health hero, and a grateful nation salutes you. Workplaces and eating and drinking establishments that are free of second-hand smoke have shored up Americans' health even in the face of rising levels of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, says a new study. Published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the latest research focused on Olmsted County in Minnesota, and tracked the rate of heart attacks and sudden heart attack deaths in the wake of smoking bans that cleared Olmsted County's restaurants, bars and workplaces of tobacco smoke.

Thick billows of acrid smoke engulfed the stage of the Palladium about an hour into A$AP Rocky's sold-out concert on Friday night. A young Harlem-born rapper whose next-big-thing status in New York hip-hop mirrors that of Kendrick Lamar in L.A., A$AP Rocky had quieted the room and was attempting to start some kind of birthday presentation for one of the show's openers, Schoolboy Q. Suddenly, both men -- as well as a cake topped with burning candles...