Posted on 01/31/2005 5:52:10 PM PST by franksolich
Fewer businesses bust after smoking ban
The grim forecasts of widespread bankruptcies in the pub, bar and restaurant sector after Norway's introduction of a total ban on smoking in workplaces proved mistaken, at least so far.
The smoking ban was in place for seven months in 2004 and the number of bankruptcies in the risky industry declined.
In 2003, 386 businesses in the sector went bust. In 2004 this declined slightly to 372, with 338 restaurants and 34 bars closing their doors.
The indoor smoking ban was set to be the toughest in the world, but Dagfinn Høybråten, then Health Minister, decided not to start the measure by sending smokers out into the wintry cold, and delayed the ban until June 1, 2004, allowing Ireland to enforce a similar law two months earlier.
Oslo had fewer restaurants go bankrupt in 2004 while the casualty count for pubs and bars remained the same. Møre og Romsdal, Buskerud and Rogaland counties saw a rise in closures in the sector.
For the record, I smoke (some allege "like a chimney"), and it is getting bothersome, having smoking banned in so many places.
"Ping" for all those wishing to be illuminated about homeland life of our gallant allies in the War Against Terror.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1283798/posts
is a link to the Smokers Lounge, although I see the lastest one was back in November. I wonder what happened to it?
Either (a) lack of interest or (b) lack of publicity, Madam, is what affected the Smokey Backroom.
It is sort of like this Norway ping list; I am trying to figure out if the woefully non-existent responses to this thread are because of (a) or (b), one or the other.
However, I plan to soldier on, doing my best to improve the Norway ping list with each new thread, to see what happens down the road. After all, the brilliant P.J.-Comix and the erstwhile Charles Henrickson did not build up the DUmmie FUnnies and the Sweden ping list overnight; I am sure it was slow going at first, before either one took off like a rocket.
You're half right, frank.
Been so busy the past 6 months I just haven't had time to open it on Fridays.
It'll be opening again soon, within the month of February most likely.
Oh, I didn't know Free Republic operated that way, having someone "run" a forum. I thought it was pretty much everybody-do-his-own-thing.
I will make it a point to check out the Smokey Backroom when it is running again.
Thank you, sir.
Ok, good Joe, those were a hoot to read!
In the meantime, Frank, here's a thread that I just saw from being on the 'just damn' ping list from mhking.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1283798/posts
BIG oops on that link just above! I meant http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1333389/posts
Smokey Backroom is a forum here that gets flame war threads moved onto it.
Got you, sir; I was too quick at first impressions.
Am looking forward to when it begins again.
Should I ping you to it when it opens again?
Please do, sir. When I run low on cigarettes out in this isolated snowbound farmhouse on the prairies, it does do me some good to learn that at least in the civilized world, such things are available.
When I spent a year in Ukraine, my favorite cigarettes were "Belomar Kanal" and mahorka, which was loose tobacco rolled up in newspapers, or pages ripped from "The Life of Lenin." Other westerners could not stand mahorka, but for me, it was essential, because the food was no good. I lost 45 pounds in nine months, preserving my sanity in that God-forsaken land (but whose people I greatly admire) only by having something to smoke.
Is it not Deutschland Deutschland uber alles uber alles in der Welt.
Sorry, son, but it's a joke.
I tried "Norge oppa all," but it did not "sound" right to me, so I switched to the German.
Your friend from Washington is correct; on the surface Washington and Norway have many things in common.
But I always look "below the surface," and in doing so, find that Nebraska and Norway have even many more things in common.
Now, I have to say that there are probably some Norwegians who read these comments, but they are shy about responding to them; perhaps they are afraid some Free Republican is going to slam his fist through the computer monitor, at them.
Or perhaps they are shy because they do not think their English is "good enough."
Which is a silly way to feel, for two reasons.
Number one, most Americans themselves do not speak, or use, "correct" English, and so a Norwegian would fit right in.
Number two, most Free Republicans, and most Americans, understand that when English is a foreign language to someone, it is unreasonable to demand "correct" English.
And so if any Norwegian wishes to say something on Free Republic, he should simply just say it--and I will "cover his back" if anyone gets critical of his English.
Most Free Republicans want to hear from Norwegians, but as long as Norwegians are too scared to state their opinions here because their English "might be poor," well, Hades, we are never going to hear from Norwegians.
So, son, say your piece with confidence, knowing that the only way anyone is going to get away with criticizing your English, is over my dead body.
Well I was just joking too with my comment. Where are you from? Do you have any connection to Norway? I myself is from a town just south of Oslo.
Well I have never been to Nebraska. So I cannot say for sure if you are totally right. Have you been to Norway?
The "profile" explains it all; click on my screen name, and you'll see who and what I am. But it is a rather long "profile," and so perhaps you need to read only the final (last) three paragraphs.
No, the pleasure of visiting Norway has thus far been denied me, but as with so many other things, I expect that sometime I will make a visit to Norway; as God knows, I have ended up in some rather out-of-the-way places in the world before.
As for historical knowledge of Norway, well, my "specialty" (as I guess it is called in Europe, or at least in Ukraine) in college was the history of the British Empire and Commonwealth, and there is so much history there--no one in the world has more history than the British--I never paid much attention to other places (although I should have).
I am trying to correct that mistake.
did not know that quit a few people from Nebraska were of Scandinavian decent. By the way Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch.
Please add me to your ping list.
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