My mom, two of her daughters and one of her granddaughters in the “smoking section” of Jebbie's On 17, a great down-home restaurant in Hampstead, North Carolina.

Big Nanny's grip on the nation, even in the red states, has grown tighter since I last crossed the nation by car — you can't even smoke in restaurants in New Orleans these days.  Between the Republican totalitarians who want to control our sins and the Democratic totalitarians who want to control our lesser vices, the American strain grows weaker . . .