WANT TO DO THIS  YEAR AFTER YEAR?   There are two things you can do to help end this before another winter comes around: 1.  Stay home As the temperatures plunge in New York state, residents are opting out of the state-imposed torture meted out to smokers.  Rather than huddling over their smokes, shivering outside their once favorite bars and restaurants, smokers are setting up their own bars at home where they and like-minded folk can gather.  This trend is cutting yet more into the livelihoods of the restaurant and bar owners who have been divested by the statewide smoking ban.                    No Smoking       2.  Only go to places that are  openly resisting the ban.   Support them! Bars and restaurants across the state are allowing their patrons to light up to protest the New York State Smoking Ban. Here's how they do it while complying with the letter of the law.

A sampling of temperatures around  New York state  (January 14, 2004 sample) Temperature, wind speed and the  "feels like" temperature --  how cold it feels when wind chill is factored in --  Saranac Lake: minus 28, 6 mph, minus 4 Watertown: minus 27, 5 mph, minus 42 Massena: minus 21, 6 mph, minus 37 Albany: minus 12, 8 mph, minus 29  Binghamton: minus 9, 5 mph, minus 21 Elmira: minus 9, 5 mph, minus 21  Syracuse: minus 16, calm, minus 16 Buffalo: 1, 8 mph, minus 13 Rochester: minus 2, 3 mph, minus 2 Islip: 9, 6 mph, minus 1 Central Park: 9, 6 mph, minus 1   In wind chills of 10 to 20 below, the weather service said frostbite can occur in about a half-hour.