Man, the world is so black-and-white.

Just as there's no way to dig half a hole or become semi-pregnant, there's no middle ground with cigarettes. You're either a smoker or a nonsmoker. Unless you follow the lead of Kaitlyn Ulmer, a nonsmoker who socializes with people who light up.

"So, I've opted to become a second-hand smoker," she wrote on the Downtown Weblog. "It lets me take more 15 minute breaks, talk with my friends and get similar effects to smoking without paying nearly as much."

That's not too far removed from that strange subset of "social smokers." Somehow they toe the line, going through half a pack at the bar yet not getting the shakes when they go without one during the week. Ulmer joked that she's only a social secondhand smoker.

"Now, is it such a bad thing to sacrifice your health for friendship?" she continued. "Our connections to other people are the only thing we really have in this world."

In some ways, the habit is really a good racket. For all the talk of smokers becoming modern outcasts, the work world seems to bend over backward to accommodate their, um, hobby. Wish I was allowed that many fantasy football breaks in a day.

But blogger gsp1 suggested the original poster is "getting shafted." Meaning she gets the lingering stink and the health risks while "totally missing the one and only benefit (if you want to call it that) from smoking - the nicotine."

The reader Attached Mommy to 4 Kiddos acknowledged it was a light-hearted debate but felt compelled to clamber onto the soapbox anyway.

"I think too many smokers think my distaste is towards them and not the dangerous, addictive, cancer-causing, life-altering, invasive sticks that hang in such a sexy way outside their mouths," she wrote with a few ounces of sarcasm.

"And if someone ever approaches you while you are smoking and hands you a quarter," she continued, "that is me! It is just my way of paying you back for the part of your cigarette I inhaled without your permission."

Join the discussion at http://my.journaltimes.com (look for "Downtown Racine" under "Neighborhoods")

Busing change

The blogger Jane wasn't able to attend a meeting on the Racine Unified School District's new "straight line" busing policy. Basically it'll save time and money by having bus drivers stop fewer times, and kids will walk to more centrally located stops.

She's fine with it for older children. But she's worried about elementary-aged kids making the trek to the edge of big subdivisions.

"I know in my subdivision, that would mean some of the younger children would be walking over a mile and standing on a corner that is very busy with morning commuters," she wrote. "As most of our villages' streets do not have sidewalks, these corners are not the best for young children to be waiting for any significant amount of time."

Join the discussion at http://my.journaltimes.com/cityofracine

Reach online community editor Mike Moore at (262) 631-1724 or mike.moore@lee.net. To post your own news, find your community under the "Neighborhoods" tab at http://my.journaltimes.com and click "Submit a Blog Entry."