I went to an art opening–which, let’s face it, was more like a big star-studded Hollywood party– at the Otero Plassart gallery, featuring the work of photographer Scott Caan (son o’ James) and presented by none other than Brett Ratner. I briefly cruised the photos (it was a hot madhouse in there) which were kind of nice but forgettable, apart from one in particular of Amsterdam which brought back personal memories.

Art gallery openings just don’t draw massive crowds like this one–with the exception of Gagosian of course. So it was a social zoo, which my date and I enjoyed quietly commenting on. “Oh look, there’s a Rock of Love reject,” and “Check out that leopard print suit,” that sort of thing. Anyway, art goes very well with wine…and well, wine goes swell with a cigarette (even if you’re a non-smoker like myself).

So we searched around the exterior space for puffs of smoke…and saw hardly any. Healthy crowd? Perhaps. Perhaps not. There, standing in front of us was an attractive exotic couple puffing away at what looked like toy cigarettes. “Electric cigarettes,” they boasted to us. Electric cigarette sounds like a band that would have a soundtrack in an Oliva Newton John movie from the late ’70s to me. But apparently it’s all the rage, according to “Turtle” from Entourage and his date (who we managed to bum a real smoke from).

This is apparently coming on the heels of the marijuana vaporizor trend of recent years. Vaporizors were initially billed as a way for cancer patients smoking weed to still stay healthy (the machines don’t burn the herb, but rather they vaporize it making it much much healthier). In the context of our evening, this technology had apparently given birth to the smokeless cigarette, so to speak (not be confused with those cheesey smokeless ash trays from the ’80s and ’90s).

The electronic cigarette smoking couple highly endorsed the product saying it was way healthier and that they loved it. You just load up your tobacco into the little faux cigarette cartridge and puff away to your heart’s desire, guilt-free, inhaling only nicotine and none of that other bad stuff. Hmmm, not so sure. But one thing is for sure, electric cigarettes are the death knell for the favorite activity of the occasional social smoker: bumming a ciggy. Too bad.

Posted by Shana Ting Lipton