shaming the smoke

I know a trip has been good when I have discovered a poster, billboard, or sign that sums up a bit of cultural mores.

This trip's find was in the elevator of the Embassy Suites at the Los Angeles Airport. There was a similar sign in my room.

My frst reaction was that it was just another of a long line of shaming episodes to show moral opprobrium against some activity that The Right People lower on The Wrong People. Like eating veal or driving anything with a gas engine.

Shaming tobacco smokers has long been the mission of modern puritans. Adding vaping to the list was a simple step. It just looks too much like the Other Thing We Do Not Like.

I have long wondered why pot-smoking was not on the shaming list. Well, no, I didn't. Even though it emits fumes every bit as disgusting as tobacco, marijuana had favored status -- probably because of its vaguely anti-establishment reputation.

That has all changed now that marijuana has legally turned into the new tobacco. In the process, it has joined the shame list. At least, for Embassy Suites.

Of course, the signs at Embassy Suites are not designed to shame. They are designed to warn. Apparently, all three smoking pursuits pollute rooms sufficiently that they need to be deep-cleaned before The Right People can rest their heads in peace. And The Wrong People end up having their credit cards involuntarily charged $250.

There may be a moral in there somewhere about America's love-hate relationship with smoking, but it is not my moral to disclose.