Categories
· Society
· Smokefree Policies
· Theater
USA, by State
· New York
|
Jump to full article: Bloomberg News, 2009-07-20
Intro: Kim Park, an up-to-now successful Korean dry cleaner, can’t figure out why her business has suddenly tanked. Determined to find the cause, she boldly leaves the confines of her shop, whereupon she unwittingly gets herself arrested amid a bar skirmish between smokers and non-smokers.
In jail, Kim meets Alif, an Arab-American under arrest yet again for being, well, Arab-American. He informs Kim that Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s smoking ban is the source of her financial ruin. As Kim questions the ban’s constitutionality, Alif is carted off to Guantanamo Bay. Luckily, Kim escapes captivity and soon meets Kim-Kim, a fellow Korean dry cleaner gone bust. They fall in love instantly, but after a passionate night of dry cleaning, Kim rejects him, disgusted to learn he now supports himself as a prostitute.
Still determined to get her shop back, Kim whips up a petition to overturn the smoking ban. However, her attempts to get signatures are met only with apathy and ridicule. Eventually, with the help of temporarily forgiven Kim-Kim, she rounds up a throng of Korean dry-cleaners-turned-prostitutes to deliver her petition to City Hall. En route, she dumps Kim-Kim yet again after she learns his clients are men.
Jump to full article » |