Bars and Cigarettes, Together Again?

Although we're only occasional smokers (read: when we're drunk or feeling awkward at a party), we sympathize with the need to have a cigarette. And while the smoking ban at bars and everywhere else has kept everyone relatively secondhand smoke free, the constant browbeating smokers receive from non-smokers is enough to make the anarchists in us want to light up in front of all the naysayers. That's when this article on bars working around the smoking ban in Minnesota caught our eye. According to the article, "Dozens of bars are expected to stage 'theater nights' this weekend in which patrons are dubbed actors. The law, which went into effect in October, permits performers to smoke during a theatrical production." Thus, by staging this barside cigarette hotboxing, both the childhood dream of becoming an actor and smoking with drink in hand can come true. Although the article is from the Minneapolis area, BoingBoing points out that California law is similar and allows actors to smoke onstage as well. The two big questions on our mind are these: what bar is going to be the first to pick up this idea and run with it, and who is going to be the spoilsport to get "theater night" shut down?