fragmag
New Member
Scotland's ban on smoking in pubs has backfired, so to speak, on a
> regular customer whose constant habit of breaking wind has now
> resulted in his expulsion from his favorite watering hole.
>
> Stewart Laidlaw, 35, is being barred from Thirsty Kirsty's in
> Dunfermline, Fife, for failing to control his flatulence.
>
> "No one could smell anything when the pub was full of cigarette smoke,"
> Laidlaw told Wales on Sunday. "I never used to complain about the
> smell of their cigarette smoke, but now everyone complains about me.
> It's just a natural thing. What can I do about it? I must be the first
> person in the country to get banned from a pub for passing wind. But
> it's not a title I want. I certainly don't see it as funny."
>
> The pub's owner is crying foul, saying the stench has become
> unbearable since the country's smoking ban went into effect last year.
> He thinks drinkers could have been breathing in the waft for years
> without ever noticing it.
>
> (Story continues below)
>
> Laidlaw says the ban just snuck up on him, taking him by complete
> surprise.
>
> "I went in and basically he turned round and said, 'Stewart, that's
> the last fart you do in this pub. Get out.' I didn't even have a
> chance to draw breath," he told the Dumfermline Press.
>
> "I just walked in and that's all he said to me. I don't know if he
> meant I'd done it before or just then. He didn't let me ask. What I
> remember when I walked in was there was a guy playing pool and it was
> already stinking and everyone was laughing. It could have been anyone.
> I've probably done it in the past – when you're drinking and having a
> laugh you don't think about it – but that's not the point. I must be
> the first person in Dunfermline to get banned from a pub for passing
> wind. I'm really angry about the way I've been treated. He's making a
> mountain out of a molehill."
>
> John Thow, the landlord at the pub, is blasting back, saying the
> long-term flatulence was beyond a joke.
>
> "It is just disgusting," he told the Press. "He revels in this and
> does it all the time and it's absolutely foul, it would make you sick.
> Since the smoking ban he's made a career out of this. He has been
> warned and asked politely to stop it on many occasions.
>
> "We are a bus station pub and trying to keep new customers. The final
> straw was when an old gentleman came in and had his gin and tonic and
> the old guy was almost sick.
>
> "Other people have dropped handbags, shall we say. But when
> everybody's choking and I come out with the spray and say don't do it
> again, they will appreciate that and stop it.
>
> "His defense is, 'It wasn't all this when I had to put up with the
> smoking.' Everybody can pass wind but when you make a hobby of it, it
> is going too far.
>
> "He will clear the pub out usually and he thinks it is very funny. I
> don't have to give him a reason for not serving him but I did, maybe
> thinking he would learn his lesson. But if he can't see the error of
> his ways it's a lost cause.
>
> "I don't want him back. I don't need that behavior. It has been
> detected for about a year [since the smoking ban], but it might have
> been going on for a lot longer than that.
>
> "If we have to apologize to other customers for him, then that's too
> much."
> regular customer whose constant habit of breaking wind has now
> resulted in his expulsion from his favorite watering hole.
>
> Stewart Laidlaw, 35, is being barred from Thirsty Kirsty's in
> Dunfermline, Fife, for failing to control his flatulence.
>
> "No one could smell anything when the pub was full of cigarette smoke,"
> Laidlaw told Wales on Sunday. "I never used to complain about the
> smell of their cigarette smoke, but now everyone complains about me.
> It's just a natural thing. What can I do about it? I must be the first
> person in the country to get banned from a pub for passing wind. But
> it's not a title I want. I certainly don't see it as funny."
>
> The pub's owner is crying foul, saying the stench has become
> unbearable since the country's smoking ban went into effect last year.
> He thinks drinkers could have been breathing in the waft for years
> without ever noticing it.
>
> (Story continues below)
>
> Laidlaw says the ban just snuck up on him, taking him by complete
> surprise.
>
> "I went in and basically he turned round and said, 'Stewart, that's
> the last fart you do in this pub. Get out.' I didn't even have a
> chance to draw breath," he told the Dumfermline Press.
>
> "I just walked in and that's all he said to me. I don't know if he
> meant I'd done it before or just then. He didn't let me ask. What I
> remember when I walked in was there was a guy playing pool and it was
> already stinking and everyone was laughing. It could have been anyone.
> I've probably done it in the past – when you're drinking and having a
> laugh you don't think about it – but that's not the point. I must be
> the first person in Dunfermline to get banned from a pub for passing
> wind. I'm really angry about the way I've been treated. He's making a
> mountain out of a molehill."
>
> John Thow, the landlord at the pub, is blasting back, saying the
> long-term flatulence was beyond a joke.
>
> "It is just disgusting," he told the Press. "He revels in this and
> does it all the time and it's absolutely foul, it would make you sick.
> Since the smoking ban he's made a career out of this. He has been
> warned and asked politely to stop it on many occasions.
>
> "We are a bus station pub and trying to keep new customers. The final
> straw was when an old gentleman came in and had his gin and tonic and
> the old guy was almost sick.
>
> "Other people have dropped handbags, shall we say. But when
> everybody's choking and I come out with the spray and say don't do it
> again, they will appreciate that and stop it.
>
> "His defense is, 'It wasn't all this when I had to put up with the
> smoking.' Everybody can pass wind but when you make a hobby of it, it
> is going too far.
>
> "He will clear the pub out usually and he thinks it is very funny. I
> don't have to give him a reason for not serving him but I did, maybe
> thinking he would learn his lesson. But if he can't see the error of
> his ways it's a lost cause.
>
> "I don't want him back. I don't need that behavior. It has been
> detected for about a year [since the smoking ban], but it might have
> been going on for a lot longer than that.
>
> "If we have to apologize to other customers for him, then that's too
> much."
