RHOADES LESS TRAVELED:

Was it Thomas Jefferson who said that my liberty extends to the end of your nose?

And how does one apply that to smoking?

That’s what Newport Beach city officials are grappling with.

Soon to be on the table will be an ordinance — the details are sketchy — that would ban public smoking in some public places in the city.

“This issue of infringing of personal liberties needs to stop short of where is the exposure to involuntary health hazards,” said Councilman Mike Henn.

In other words, we all breathe the same air and, with that in mind, should non-smokers be exposed to secondhand smoke? Most of the council seems to be leaning toward a resounding “no.”

Early indications are that Mayor Ed Selich and Councilwoman Leslie Daigle are in the minority on this one.

“I have my own personal non-smoking ordinance,” Selich said. “When it’s bothering me, I get up and get out of the way.”

As Brianna Bailey reported (“Mayor opposes ban on smoking,” March 11), Newport Beach has laws on the books that prohibit smoking in some public places, including elevators, public areas of hospitals, public restrooms and inside restaurants, theaters and auditoriums.

The City Council passed an ordinance outlawing smoking on Newport’s beaches and piers in 2004.

A plentiful amount of other cities and organizations have taken steps to curb smoking.

Man, how times have changed.

I grew up in a smoking household — ashtrays were on all of our end tables — in the 1970s.

Mom was a pack-a-dayer; dad was a two-packer.

Movie stars puffed away on the big screen.

Athletes sparked up in locker rooms and on the sidelines. Commercials glorified the habit.

Smoking was cool.

Now it’s passe.

More and more, smokers are marginalized and even ostracized.

I recall seeing them huddled like refugees in a small, taped-off area of Dodger Stadium last season.

Personally, I go back and forth on the subject, and a disclosure: I smoke a couple of cigars — a sardonic friend calls them turds — a week, and hold to two competing thoughts: 1) That cigars are bad for me and for the environment; 2) I don’t want anyone telling me I can’t enjoy a Padron on my deck beneath the stars.

That is, I enjoy a fair amount of liberty on my own plot of land.

And your nose, and I’m just thinking out loud here, ends at the beginning of my property line.

How’s that for a compromise?

Managing Editor BRADY RHOADES may be reached at (714) 966-4607 or at brady.rhoades@latimes.com.