Brittain should make room for smokers

Brittain should make room for smokers

ATLANTA
November 13, 1998

I read last week's front page article on the revamping of Brittain with avid interest. "Renovations?" I asked myself. "Perhaps it's coming true..."

Reading on, however, I was distressed to learn that these so-called renovations are mere obstacles in the path of remedying the true disease which gnaws upon my Brittain dining experience. In my time of enjoying Brittain's tasty chicken patties, frosty Surge Icees, and nutrient-enriching fruit, I have never been showered with leaking water, nor crushed by the falling plaster which seems to frighten Auxiliary Services so much.

Indeed, the only qualm I have with Brittain's service is evidenced by the sad, pathetic pile of half-smoked cigarettes in the outside ashtray: The inexcusable, dare I say reprehensible, lack of a smoking section!

What complements one of Alvin's toothsome, hand-grilled cheesesteaks like a hand-lit Camel nonfilter? While I sip my morning's coffee and contemplatively chew my toast, why should I be forced to forgo an equally important morning ritual, a delicious, "toasted" Lucky Strike? In Georgia Tech's quest for tolerance, diversity, and embracing less-mainstream culture, surely the vanishing culture of Lucky Strike smokers, long an American tradition, should be protected and appreciated on campus. Indeed, smoking on the whole could be embraced, as a proven stress-reliever, and perhaps subsidized during finals week, but that's an issue for another editorial.

In any case, Brittain, and the student body as a whole (if not the actual physical body, at least the student soul) would be greatly benefited by the redirection of funds to installing a partitioning wall for a smoking section. Or, if the upper room is to be opened, as suggested, perhaps it could be directly instituted as this Holy Grail of campus dining. Indeed, the rich clouds of smoke would then intermingle and be shared amongst the upper-level diners, building a communal personhood of smokers, whether they be consumers of Newports, Marlboros, or even my own beloved Luckys. To see another East Campus smoker, and know that my smoke had blended with his or hers, would surely foster a sense of campus unity.

Even nonsmokers would benefit, as the thick clouds would surely reduce the evil stench of the dumpsters behind Brittain, leaving a olfactory-pleasing mixture of fine tobaccos. And to appease the more militant nonsmokers out there, if those plaster chunks ever do come falling down, at least there'll be a bunch of evil smokers to absorb most of the initial blow-although we'll have the pleasure of a final puff before we go.

Nick Black
luckystrike@resnet.gatech.edu

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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