All the bar's a stage, And all the smokers merely players

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I know I'm a dying breed (no pun intended) but I know just how these guys feel.

This little story from Minnesota is not without interest and it does give me chance to throw up this wacky graphic that's been sat in the archive.

I know just how he feels, lets face it if you're a smoker the three most enjoyable moments with a cigarette are accompanying a drink, accompanying a meal and of course the best of all, the post coital.

Bars in Minnesota have found a dramatic way to get around the US state's recently introduced smoking ban.

The law grants an exception from the ban to performers in theatrical productions. So the bars have become theatres, and their customers, actors.

Now some bars print bills listing the "cast" of bartenders, and ashtrays become "props". Drinkers don costumes and attempt strange accents.

But a health official said it was time for the curtain to fall on the ploy.more