Mayor Mike's anti-smoking laws are certainly going to affect a large portion of Manhattan's population, but we'd like to take a moment to consider the victims that no one talks about: the smoking fetishists. Yes, the smoking fetishists. Check out the nifty fetish map below. Amazingly, it's work safeat least in terms of images. [Ed. note"Furverts?" Ew.]
Smoke signals
Smoking fetish links [Smoke Signals]
Fetish map [Deviant DesiresThanks, Rob!]

NY Mag lists a few work-arounds for Mayor Mike's new anti-smoking laws, which are scheduled to go into effect on March 30. Any creative ideas? We're taking suggestions. Join the revolution!
Smoke signals [NY Magazine]

· When Athina Onassis Roussel turns 18 on Wednesday, she will inherit her family's fortunebetween $2.4 and $14 billion. [Page Six]
· The star of the hit '80s movie Gremlins busted for stealing a CD from Tower Records. The CD? Deep Purple. [Page Six]
· The NYT still hasn't mentioned a word about the Scott Ritter story. [Page Six]
· Mayor Mike on Matt Drudge's report that he was furious that the Rolling Stones were smoking onstage: "I can't for the life of me understand where this Drudge gets this kind of stuff. The annoying thing is that people take it for gospel." [Page Six]
· Tom Ford on "his latest ad campaign, which features a model's pubic hair shaved into Gucci's signature 'G.'": "I think everyone needs a good spanking now and then," Ford said. "There are quite a few people I'd like to spank." [Page Six]

A foretaste of Bloomberg's brave New York, last night, at the party for Laura Rich's book on Paul Allen. Apart from Sridhar Pappu and Keith Kelly, most of the hacks were San Francisco refugees, as was the host, which set the tone: no smoking inside, and a huddle of misfits in the 10
chill on the fire escape. A book party so smoke-free even Michael Bloomberg would have felt comfortable.

The Accidental Zillionaire: Demystifying Paul Allen

"Mikey is the typical ex-smoker. He had his fun, and now you can get fucked. He's rich and you're not."
Super fun opinion update [KenLayne.com]

If you've been ordering cigarettes on the Internet to avoid the Bloomberg-sponsored price increases, your discount may be short-lived. The city is suing several Internet retailers for taxes not paid.
City seeks to recoup money from Internet cigarette vendors [NYT]

Mayor Mike suggests that telling cell phone users to "shush" is a better solution than fining them if they're chatting during public performances. Bloomberg does something remotely libertarian; Graydon Carter would be pleased.
NYC mayor vetoes cell phone limits [NYT]

Michael Wolff whines that he's not getting enough attention from Mayor Mike. And neither is the rest of The Media. He cites Harvey Weinstein and Trent Lott as examples of failure to properly manage the press (or in Weinstein's case, too agressively managing the press) and warns that Bloomberg may be next if he doesn't demonstrate the proper deference to the Fourth Estate. "He's not afraid of us," Wolff writes, incredulously. Well, no.
The Unspun [NY Magazine]

Now this is embarrassing. The Oscars have always bothered New York. An event so celebrity-ridden and trivial ought to take place in Manhattan, dammit. Harvey Weinstein, Michael Bloomberg and pals, having failed to trade September 11th sympathy for an East Coast Oscars, are still hoping the telecast will at least cut briefly to New York. Else the terrorists will have won.
Group to lobby for greater N.Y. presence in Oscars [AP]

Bloomberg spokesman on hearing that the NY Daily News' "unscientific survey" gave the mayor an "F" on performance: "[he] doesn't comment on Bigfoot, the tooth fairy or other fictions." The skepticism isn't entirely misplaced; the poll was conducted online, which means, of course, that it's entirely possible to vote early and vote often.
Bloomberg gets an 'F' in Daily News opinion poll [NY1.com]
Mike gets an F [NY Daily News]

If Bloomberg's smoking tax is breaking your bank, try ordering from "Barbi's butts," an online retailer based at the Seneca Indian Reservation in Salamanca, NY (Read: no state taxes. Ah, regulatory loopholes. Gotta love 'em.) Barbi's offers cigarettes by the carton at non-Manhattan prices.
Barbi's butts
Marlboro Cigar-friendly restaurants Marijuana seeds

So Robert Hammond's lobbying has paid off. Hammond, an occasional dotcommer and artist, is co-founder of Friends of the High Line, a group lobbying for the elevated railway on the west side to be turned into an urban park. Friends of the High Line, which holds The Bloomberg administration this week adopted the scheme, backing the High Line's designation as a trail, which would stop its demolition. Gifford Miller, the City Council speaker, is a major supporter. Which is only fair, given the enthusiasm with which Hammond's been fundraising for the ambitious young Democrat. The objective: a New York version of the promenade plantee along the old line to Bastille in Paris. It's warms the cockles to see, applied to urban improvement, a bit of old-fashioned political arm-twisting.
On West Side, Rail Plan Is Up and Walking [New York Times]
Friends of the High Line

NYT writer Joyce Purnick says it's the season for making apologies, and points out a few people that notably haven'tKissinger, for a rather convincing and long-running impersonation of the Prince of Darkness; the head of the MTA, for telling the mayor to "shut up,"introducing the "kindergarten sandbox" phase of the negotiations; and Mayor Mike for buying a $600 bike most New Yorkers can't afford. (She may have been grasping for straws on the last one. If he'd have bought a discount bike, someone would have complained that he was shortchanging local businesses more money, but we digress...)

Lighting up in the front of the Mayor a few weeks ago at a public event wasn't enough. Graydon Carter, the Fourth Estate's resident tobacco evangelist, is now railing against proposed anti-smoking legislation in the editorial pages of Vanity Fair. We're not big fans of the policy ourselves, but we're not sure that referring to Bloomberg's New York as "potentially Seattle" has the sting for which Graydon's aiming. The fact that Graydon's never actually been to Seattle is irrelevant, of courseex cathedra pronouncements from the royal chambers of Condé Nast being self-fulfilling prophecies. If Graydon says Seattle is a horrendously cold place where people iron their socks and no one has sex, then obviously it is, or it will be. You Seattle residents that disagree can go start your own damn magazines.
"Seattle on the Hudson" December 2003 Issue [Vanity Fair]

Mayor Mike schedules a 7:30 AM meeting, and The New York Times insinuates that this unconscionable act is indicative of a fundamental disrespect for "ordinary New Yorkers." The New York Times seems to have overlooked/dismissed the fact that many "ordinary New Yorkers" have, well, jobs, and can only attend early meetings because their employers require them to be, well, at work, between the hours of 9:00AM and 5:00PM. But that would screw up the whole story, wouldn't it?
Taxation without caffeination [NYT]

First time I've seen the plans for Ground Zero. Mayor Bloomberg was right to be lukewarm. None of the ideas...