Originally Posted by ugacrew

I think there is a law of physics dealing with this called entropy.

Originally Posted by tamms_1965

You are also correct. From order comes disorder. Systems (in this case, a cigarette) tend to go from order (nice rolled tobacco & filter in paper) to disorder (smoke and ash in all directions).

Originally Posted by ugacrew

I told them I was fighting the natural state of disorder and needed to cooperate with the law of entropy. It is natural in the universe for my socks to be on the floor and my bed to be a mess. I can not defy what mother nature has defined as just. After that long spiel it came down to it that I was just spouting a bunch of BS. You can't fault me for trying.

Originally Posted by ugacrew

You wanna know something funny. I had just finished reading up on that in my senior year physics class and was struck with how it could be applied to my life at home. I came home declaring to my parents that I was fighting the natural law of thermodynamics when it came to cleaning up my room. I told them I was fighting the natural state of disorder and needed to cooperate with the law of entropy. It is natural in the universe for my socks to be on the floor and my bed to be a mess. I can not defy what mother nature has defined as just. After that long spiel it came down to it that I was just spouting a bunch of BS. You can't fault me for trying.

Originally Posted by meauxna

You can always consider a backup career in sales.

Originally Posted by snowbunny

Well.... without input energy, order will turn to disorder; to reverse this, energy must be added to the system.

You were right, but if I'd been your mom, I would have said the above and handed you the broom!

Originally Posted by ugacrew

That's exactly what I got.

Originally Posted by snowbunny

In your hands or on your backside? I would've *gotten* it on the backside! (Maybe that would have been a clue that I should have gotten on and ridden out of Dodge! )

Originally Posted by keira-2007

Hah Tracy! All that coming from the lady who just last week stood in a car sales garage ever-so-not-politely telling the manager that he didn't know what he was talking about! I know it's not the same as tactfully asking someone not to smoke on their own property.. but practice what you preach girlfriend!!!

Incidentally, I can remember being in the bath upstairs at our house in England, and being able to smell fresh cigarette smoke... My hubbie was supposed to have quit smoking, so it struck me as odd. So I got out the bath and looked out the window and sure enough, there he was secretly puffing on a crafty fag... I had no windows open - only the vent that's supposed to dispel moist air... alright he wasn't 50 feet away from the house, but I could still definitely smell it very clearly!

Back to the OP's question... Illinois is very flat but it's also very nice, good schools, good jobs around Chicago area and very civilized! Which is always very important... Can't comment on the others because I haven't been, but they all sound very nice too!

Originally Posted by snowbunny

Two multinationals in Indiana? Where? Who?

So much of where you live is where you can work.... unless you're self-employed. My specialised field limits me to a few hotspots, and the capital is San Jose.

Originally Posted by Tracym

I also wonder (and here then Brits, and the yanks, can chime in a disagree with me if they think I'm wrong) that sometimes the Brits and the yanks tangle, just by the way things are phrased - and are thus perceived differently than they were intended to be.

"Would you please smoke elsewhere in your yard..." would possibly be perceived by me not as a request for a favour, but rather as something you EXPECT to be done. If I was telling an employee what to do, that's just how I would phrase it. The word "please" just to be polite, but I would expect compliance. Perhaps that's not what you meant, but I suspect that's how many a yank would take it. And you're also right, sometimes the Brit accent can sound "haughty" to the yanks - unfortunate, and it shouldn't, but sometimes it does.

If I were trying to get that neighbor to do what I'd want, I probably would have said something like "I'd like to ask you for a possible favour... my wife and I are SO extra-sensitive to smoke, that even though you're fairly far from my house, we're still able to smell the smoke. I'm sure you never would have thought of that. Do you suppose there's possibly somewhere else in your yard, a bit further from us that you could smoke? I'd really appreciate it if that would work out."

Now, you might have gotten the same response. But if she was rude to that, then I'd think she was at fault.

Originally Posted by KJ2007

Would you mind, when you change the roll of toilet paper, putting the roll on so that it spins from the top? I know it sounds silly, but it drives me crazy to have it the other way." It WAS silly - but I simply said, sure, I'll try to remember, but don't be upset with me if I forget. No problem.

Originally Posted by tamms_1965

I highly doubt that the OP is smelling her neighbor's cig smoke. 50 ft is a long way for one smoker's fumes to travel.

Originally Posted by meauxna

Um, hellloo? That is the *only* way to do it! Don't they have laws about that where you live? Putting the TP/BR in upside down is a hangin' offense out here....