Utensils

SECONDHAND SMOKE EXPOSURE AND CARDIOVASCULAR EFFECTSutensils

Committee on Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Acute Coronary Events (National Academies Press, February 2010, ISBN 9780309138390)

The backroom at La Casetta lived under a haze of smoke. No fan whipped it into turbulence. No window let it escape. Instead, from opening to closing, it hung in unmoving bands like the smog over a miniature city with skyscrapers of stacked pizza boxes. I liked to imagine Remo, the manager, nailing up the ‘no smoking’ sign while smoking a cigarette.

The drivers smoked on one side of the room while they waited for orders to come in. The receptionists smoked on the other next to the telephones. A long stretch without orders had caught me in the crossfire of their combined output. By the time the call came in, I’d wheezed through a nicotine cloud for twenty minutes. I didn’t know it then, but at that moment a receptionist listened to a tenacious customer explaining the importance of delivering disposable cutlery with his meal. Continue reading

  • You might also like

    • A Hopeful View Of Our Architectural Future

      THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURE IN 100 BUILDINGS (PART OF TED BOOKS) Marc Kushner Simon & Schuster, March 2015, RRP $16.99 When you think about it, buildings are a little like clothes, but the kind of clothes you would need if thousands of people stood on each other to create a … Continue reading