Unintended Consequences - Part Deux

Well, my post on children in bars certainly generated a lot of responses, both in posts and in emails. Opinions on both sides. I guess what I really find annoying aren't children per se. As a friend of mine pointed out, I met his wife and son in a bar. And there is something touching about a father and young son bonding over a beer and a soda. I guess what I find to be annoying is when you go into a bar that you have been frequenting for years and then in walks about half a dozen young mothers with their children who probably used to hang out in a Starbucks or something before they passed the no smoking laws. Now all of a sudden they are drinking wine instead of coffee and the bar is packed with strollers and hollering children. But, this is just my opinion and others are certainly free to disagree. I also remember the day when you wouldn't think about bringing a very young child to a movie and if you did and it started to cry you would take it out to the lobby. It just seems that these days people have become almost oblivious to the affect on others that their children's behavior is having. Ahh, I am getting old.

Unintended Consequences

Reflecting upon my journey to 1000 bars I realized that I was seeing an unintended consequence of the no smoking ban that has been implemented in New York. Suddenly bars are no longer smoke filled, that is obvious. Now the are beginning to be filled with children. Apparently parents who would never expose there young ones to the second-hand smoke previously encountered now think it is perfectly acceptable to bring them to the now smoke-free establishments.

Now granted, in some places in Europe where bars are considered to be extensions of the home this has long been acceptable. But here in New York it just seems somehow wrong. Who wants to be in a bar having a beer with the guys and then have the local young mothers with kids show up. And, as usual, these mothers are so engrossed in each other and whatever it is they are talking about over their wine that they are totally oblivious to the sometimes obnoxious behavior of the young ones. Everything from just the normal bawling to the unrestrained running around and being a general pain in the ass. The worst I have seen is a baby being changed without even a thought about doing it in the ladies room. Talk about putting you off your beer.

In my opinion, if they are going to enforce the no smoking ban then they should start enforcing the "you must be 21 to enter" rule. Now I am willing to make an exception to bars that have dining facilities, but please, keep the kids in the back, not up front where the serious drinking is going on. Thankfully, a few bars in my neighborhood have risked losing some customers by banning young children from their establishments. I don't think it is asking too much to be able to drink in a child-free environment.

Bar Man Linked To Scandal

The shame of it all is almost too much to bear. I woke up this morning to find that Hwang Woo Suk, the noted veterinarian who appeared on the same page with me and, incidently, Mariah Carey, Angelina Jolie, and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, in the Japan Times Weekly and was widely hailed for his work in the cloning of human embryos capable of yielding viable stem cells is now under investigation for fabricating at least some of his results. This is horrible. Next thing you know it will turn out that Tom Cruise's romance with Katie Holmes wasn't all it was made out to be. Or, worse yet, that Angelina's lips have been artifically enhanced. We won't touch Maria's breasts, not that we wouldn't want to. I just don't know if I can live with this disgrace.

On the other hand, didn't anyone ever wonder why someone who was a veterinarian by training was making all of these breakthroughs in genetic science?

You can see the Japan Times Weekly article by clicking on Hwang.