Drew Cline–occassional Spectator contributor, Union Leader editorial page editor, and all around great guy–has posted a funny bit on the UL blog you’d all do well to read in full. Here’s a taste:
EMI has removed cigarettes from the hands of Ringo Starr, John Lennon and Paul McCartney for its reissue of the 1964 Capitol Albums Vol. 2. Ironically, George, the only one not smoking on the cover, is the one who died of lung cancer. Evidently they chopped off two of Ringo’s fingers when removing his cigarette. (That’s what you get when you outsource your graphics department to Albania.)
Clearly we are all doomed and it is only a matter of time before the ultimate irony occurs and the anti-smoking zealots have the cigarettes erased from the cover of Van Halen’s 1984.
Incidentally, we’ll see this week whether New Hampshire, the “Live Free or Die” state, ends up instituting its own restaurant/bar smoking ban. If we don’t stop it, who will? I wrote about the War on Tobacco here and the equally silly War on Tobacco in Movies here.