Your pancakes may not taste like an ashtray anymore when you go out for breakfast, but some places miss their patrons puffing plumes in their restaurants and bars.

Take Ernie's (the yummiest little breakfast diner on Ash Street), for example. "This place just ain't the same anymore," a waitress told KBIA-FM last year right after the smoking ban was passed.

But the petition to overturn the smoking ban was dismissed yesterday because there weren't enough signatures. In fact, there were only a little more than half the number of supporters needed to get the issue back on the ballot for next spring. And half of the signers were deemed "invalid."

Come on, smokers! Where's your ambition? Where's the support? You had the chance to restore the quintessential bar scene! And you blew it (pun intended).

Petitioners apparently still have ten more days to get signatures, but it looks like they've stopped trying. Hmmm. Quitting isn't so hard after all, huh?