With Yosemite's fame comes tourism and tour busses and foreigners. Although old timers complain that the Yosemite they knew no longer exists, I sense it's largely an exaggeration - the tiny valley that generates the traffic is still largely empty most of the year.

But, we are interrupted again when the Englishman starts loudly complaining to his woman about his problems with spam email at work. "All the other teachers are telling me they're having the same problem. For every forty emails I get, only ten of them are real emails!"

He rants about technology for several minutes while the woman grunts her approval of his outrage. We know now that he's a teacher, and teachers have this way of preaching with self-endowed authority.

The woman says, "Let's go outside for a fag and a drink." They grab their champagnes and head for the door. But one of the diminutive waitresses says they can't drink outdoors. We're very sorry she says, and reminds them that rules are stricter on the edge of a National Park, where the roads wind for hours.

So he says to the white man doing the paperwork in the corner, "You can't light a fag indoors and you can't drink a wine outdoors! You Californians call yourselves libertarians but you want to control everything we do. What a barking mess!"

The pear-shaped woman mumbles approval and the Englishman starts yelling at the white man about his disapproval of the smoking laws in California. I say over Jane's shoulder that the smoking laws in California are wonderful. He ignores me, so I tell him again that they are great. This gives him the courage to increase his rants. The pear woman agreeing with him and looking sour.

The California smoking laws, which ban smoking in enclosed public areas, were met with approval almost universally by all Californians. I was there at a bar the first night the law went into practice. Every smoker had to go outside. It wasn't so bad, they realized. The clean bars and the camaraderie of smokers in the alleyways was rather enjoyable. They grunted that first night, but it was half-hearted. By the next day it seemed the conversation was over.

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