And another thing …

A proposed ban on smoking in restaurants is breezing through though the Legislature, driven by strong public support and the advocacy of health experts. The Maine Restaurant Association remains bitterly opposed, saying essentially that nonsmoking diners should just dine elsewhere and nonsmoking restaurant workers should find another line of work. No wonder they call it the hospitality industry.

The cracks in the new $74 million bridge being built over the Kennebec at Bath can be fixed. When fixed, those in charge say, the bridge probably — that’s probably — will be perfectly safe. So add one more symptom to the Two Maines syndrome that divides north and south: economic disparity; educational inequality; geographic disadvantage; feeling lucky.

Long criticized as a bastion of white male elitism, the Academy of American Poets has diversified by adding nine new members. Five are women, two are black and, in a gesture of inclusion toward the iambically challenged, two write in “experimental” styles.

Wednesday was the 10th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Capt. Joseph Hazelwood, convicted in 1990 of negligence, finally will serve his sentence this summer by picking up trash along an Anchorage highway. Exxon has yet to write a check for that $5 billion judgment. With 11 million gallons of oil, you’d think the wheels of justice would turn a little faster.

Every month for 10 years, Michael Klingebiel and his mother, Phyllis, each chipped in $20 to buy 40 tickets in the New Jersey lottery. They finally hit a $2.15 million jackpot in 1997, but son refused to share the prize, saying he used his own dollar to buy the lucky numbers. Mom sued, the case dragged through the courts, son finally settled the other day, by giving the woman who gave him life a 22.5 percent share. It was, he said, a “business decision” reached after adding up his escalating legal costs and the likelihood of a larger jury award. Family values as calculated by a CPA.

Elsewhere on the values front, here’s a battle the United States House of Representatives fought Tuesday: Democrats propose a resolution denouncing the Council of Conservative Citizens as a white-supremacist group (that, coincidentally, has engaged several prominent Republicans to speak at its meetings); Republicans substitute wording condemning all forms of racism and intolerance; the measure goes down to defeat amid charges and countercharges of sinister political purposes. It’s bad enough to think that Congress may be beholden to Big Tobacco or Big Oil, but Big Bigotry?