Bar as Smoking Research Center

Bar as Smoking Research Center

With the lawsuit by bars challenging Iowa's no-smoking law dropped, owners of erstwhile smoky taverns may want to try the trick one UK pub pulled:

The landlady of a British pub has exploited a loophole in the country's smoking ban by opening a "smoking research centre" where drinkers can light up legally, reports said Wednesday.

Locals at the Cutting Edge pub in Barnsley, northern England, must fill in a questionnaire on their smoking habits to satisfy legal requirements before sitting down for a drink and a cigarette in the centre.

"Centre." That British spelling is my favourite.

The lawyer for the Iowa bar owners, failed Senate candidate George Eichhorn, is no doubt checking that "research centre" loophole against Iowa law even now.

Wonder if British law applies at the Wig and Pen? It's in a legally weird zone anyway, straddling the Iowa City-Coralville line. Will they charge sales tax on the east end of the bar and not the west? Or only on five slices of eight in the pizza? Something we should all ponder over a pint of Guinness.