Yesterday I was wondering downtown Louisville down 4th street. At one time 4th street was the street for entertainment in the city of louisville, now it's being redone with a hard rock cafe, Red Cheeta night club and other semi-upscale stores (think block E.). A sidewalk detour took me through the Brown and Williamson lobby.
For those of you who don't know B&W is the nations 3rd (I think) largest tobacco company makers of such quality smoky treats as Kool, Lucky Strikes and Pall Mall.
Anyways much to my surprise people were smoking in the lobby. "Adult Smoking Area" signs were posted beside these huge ashtray/garbage cans you usually see going into not inside buildings. The room smelled like your friends house if their parents smoked inside. A "clean" stale smoke smell with dabs of industral floor polish mixed in for good measure. Along the wall were framed print cigarette ads from the past 60 or so years.
With its polished wood paneling and shiny rock floors, it was like a step back in time. I wonder if executives can smoke in their offices? Instead of donuts in the morning are there cartons of Kools on the break room table next to the coffee maker. Do they have bring your daugher/son to work day?
In an era where smoking has become the biggest social taboo (besides gay marriage I suppose) it's eerily comforting sombody can take a smoke break and not stand outside.
Long time no blogging.
Here in Kentuckiana (that's what they call it I don't make this stuff up) the news functions on the level of a grand beast just waiting to be fed. It's funny the news seems more like a "product" here then I'm used to. News goes on, then goes off and make sure you have a sidebar when it's over.
It used to be news seemed organic, you looked under a few rocks, maybe forest somewhere and you either had a big crop or it was slim pickings. Now the harvest has to be bountiful and new, new, new every day. The crap farm has become a corporate farm and nobody seems to care about its size just its scale. For all the years I've heard about how the news machine grinds, now I see it in action every day.
Maybe I'm just a little jaded. It's not that I don't like my job, but this is a whole new level. Here you make your mistakes early, but don't hear about it until later and it's all your fault.
Sometimes I miss having a job, that can be hard, still allowed you time to fuck around everyso often. I can really see how news can totally burn you out and not give you enough time to fade away.