The Museum of Smoking
As Paris gears up for new restrictions on smoking in public areas, the city also celebrates a new "Museum of Smoking":
Not too long ago, public smoking bans were regarded as a uniquely American phenomenon—a puritanical gesture, held in ridicule by any self-respecting, Gauloise-puffing Frenchman. Over time, however, the public health burden of smoking-related illnesses has spurred a number of industrialized nations to follow the American example. When the initial steps of a public smoking ban took effect in Paris this February, French opinion polls reported that 70 percent of Parisians were in favor of the prohibition.
With the rites of public smoking thus endangered, it's tempting to conclude that a smoking-themed museum is a great way to preserve an increasingly marginalized social ritual. In truth, the opposite is probably more accurate: To paraphrase what sociologist Dean MacCannell said a generation ago about folk museums, the best indicator of smoking-culture's demise is not its disappearance from public areas, but its artificial preservation in a place like Le Musée du Fumeur.
Via the invaluable Arts & Letters Daily.