h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have to take issue with a couple of the examples of 'corporate stupidity', namely:

Ashtrays on non-smoking flights.
Nobody on the top of double-decker buses.

All flights nowadays are non-smoking (at least, all the ones I've been on recently), but the planes were built in the days of 'smoking or non-smoking'. Back then, all seats were fitted with ashtrays. Ripping them out would make the plane look tatty, unless you found a neat way of filling the hole. Even now, the ashtrays have their uses, as they give you somewhere to drop your sweet wrappers or other small waste. Maybe new planes won't have them - we'll have to wait and see.

Where I'm from, the top deck of a double-decker bus was where the smokers went. I would sit up there if there were no spaces downstairs, but wouldn't go up there otherwise. I'm a non-smoker and will not, from choice, spend any time near smokers.

I agree with the ash tray things, sort of - some airlines I'm sure are still smoking, last time I was on a Turkish Airline plane it was.

The double decker thing is a good example of not matching resources to demand and I thinkshould stay.

Remember the reasoning behind these waas well discussed but all those forums are now sadly lost.

Cheers for the interest - any new suggestions?

CH

This is a personal dislike, not an example of stupidity, so I suppose it doesn't really count. I just find it stupid that, here in the UK, people who are involved in preparing or serving food are not allowed to smoke, yet cafes and restaurants have areas for smokers. I wouldn't mind so much if there was a clear divide between the smoking and non-smoking sections but, in the majority of cases, smokers sit right next to non-smokers. If it's unhygienic for the cook to blow smoke or risk flicking ash over the food, surely it's just as much of a problem with the diners.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-smoking. It's just that there's a time and a place for everything and, IMHO, anywhere that food is consumed is *not* the place.

OK, rant over.

Actually, posting that has just put me in mind of something that I think *is* stupid.

The management of my local shopping centre (The Kingfisher Centre in Redditch) have announced that they are planning to make the mall a 'No Smoking' area. However, they have admitted that some shops will not be bound by this ruling because of the terms of their tenancy agreement. (I'm not sure tenancy is the right word, but you get my meaning). This means that you can go into a shop and light up, but will have to put your cigarette out when you leave the shop. You can then light up again the next time you enter a shop where the ruling doesn't apply.

I suspect that the places where the 'no smoking' rule won't apply are the places where food is served (e.g., Burger King and Drucker's). Both have their eating area open to the mall - in the case of Drucker's the no-smoking area is a group of tables outside the 'shop' *in* the mall. Why the management company is bothering to even *try* to implement a smoking ban while these discrepancies exist is beyond me.