The Smokin' Pig

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:00:00 GMT
# bugmenot.com is an index of accounts for web sites that require registration. [root]

# Brady Dennis at The St. Petersburg Times - Smoking away, despite the ban - at least one Florida restaurant is bucking the state's year-old smoking ban, in a big way. Bravo Buddy's Bar-B-Que! [root]

Buddy's Bar-B-Que Smokin' Pig
Outside, smoke from the pits at Buddy's Bar-B-Que drifts through the air, smelling of pecan and blackjack oak. But inside, the smoke smells more like Marlboros and menthols.

A sign in the window reads, "Smoking permitted," and the plastic jug by the cash register isn't for tips. Its message: "Donations for smoking fine."

But Buddy's crown jewel - the fixture that has won it fame and irked state and local officials - is the 10-foot-long, 5-foot-tall fiberglass pig attached to the roof. It used to face U.S. 301, snout first.

In a bold, if slightly bizarre, act of civil disobedience, the restaurant's owners turned it around last year so that the rump faces the road. They added an extra touch - a plastic pipe painted to look like a cigarette protruding from its rear end.

The pipe blows smoke. Hence the slogan on the restaurant's $10 T-shirts: "Home of the Smokin' Pig."

# Noel Koch at the Washington Post - Why We Need the Draft Back BugMeNot - the Albany Times Union ran this yesterday, but I can't find it in their on-line edition. Mr. Koch writes that he was part of eliminating the draft during the Nixon administration, but that he thinks, for a number of reasons, that it should be resumed now. I sent the following letter to the editor (of the Times Union):

I feel a draft

In a July 6 op-ed, Noel Koch called for resumption of the military draft. I thought the Civil War determined long ago that there would be no more slavery in America. Guess I was wrong.

Bill St. Clair

# Claire Wolfe - July 6, 1775: A Call to Arms - links to this piece co-authored by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickenson a year before the Declaration of Independence. And Claire tells the story of loading the mortars for a yearly fireworks display, until: [claire]

The next year I showed up to crew as usual and found barricades and policemen manning the entrance to the crew area. Only invited people were being allowed in. (Before that, anybody could just show up, volunteer, get on the mortar line; no names asked, no credentials required.) It was the end of my fireworks crew days. But it was an experience I'll never forget, for sure.

# RagnarDanneskjold at The Claire Files - Bonanza - I never noticed the politics in this old western TV show. Very nice. [clairefiles]

Add comment Edit post Add post