NC bans smoking in restaurants and bars

The NC legislature passed a bill yesterday which will ban smoking in restaurants and bars. It's a huge step forward, and it's pretty remarkable when you take a step back and think about it, given tobacco's role in the history of the state.

Pictured at the right: a 1949 Lucky Strike ad featuring a tobacco warehouse operator in my dad's hometown, Oxford, NC (which is between Durham and the Virginia border, in the heart of brightleaf tobacco country).