Apparently there’s bill afoot to repeal the smoking ban in bars which make less than 10% of their income from food. The bill is doomed, and hardly worthy of notice, but the story in the Somerville Times is worth it all for this quote:

“I feel like the tips of my fingers are going to freeze and fall off. It’s colder than my ex-wife’s heart out here and, believe me, that’s pretty damn cold. That woman could turn her back on the baby Jesus and step over Mother Teresa’s dead body without missing a beat” said Michael Sindoni, a Sligo’s regular, who wholeheartedly supports Senator Shannon’s proposal.

Health concerns are not a good enough reason to ban smoking in a bar like Sligo’s, said Sindoni.

“If you’re in Sligo’s you ain’t worried about your health. I’ve seen a lot of things in this world but one thing I will never see is a person boozing in Sligo’s and complaining about second hand smoke,” said Sindoni before heading back into the pub to finish his drink.

Welcome to Somerville. Now, I swear I read something in The New Yorker just after his death about Daniel Patrick Moynihan frequenting Sligo’s while he taught at Harvard. I couldn’t have made that up, but I can’t find it now.