Let's See How This Goes Over

Even when they're acting like idiots, the image thing works for them.

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- France bans smoking in cafes, hotels and clubs on Jan. 1, stamping out the habit popularized by Jean- Paul Sartre puffing Gauloises in hazy brasseries

Of course there IS the standard "personal defense mechanism" idiotic reply:

"Maybe we're a bit stupid with our traditions, but we have the right to be as such and I cannot stand the idea of a hygienic, clean, and sorry to say `American style' society," said David Droulez, head of the Friends of Pleasure and Taste Association in Paris, which wants to defend France's "epicurean conviviality."

Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.

Either way whenever you hear the term "American Style ______" you're sure that it's something generally detested, and is as innacurate as their decades of "peasant science" of people telling one another that the black tobacco isn't as bad as the blond tobacco.