Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

The spelling 'nett' is sometimes used for that 'remainder' sense. Since
'net' in association with computer networks is such a common word nowadays,
it probably wouldn't be a bad idea if more people adopted that spelling
distinction. They are two different words with different etymologies that
just happened to end up with the same spelling.

I agree.  I have heard of negative (not sure what that was) and positive
air flow, but that tends to get confusing, so that "net infiltration"
makes more sense.  I think that some hospital rooms, labs and "clean"
rooms in assembly factories have a "positive" air flow, to control
fumes, dust, etc.

I can recall when the our fair city took the first steps in banning
smoking in eating places.  One of the better hotels had a large squarish
restaurant room with choice seating at streetside windows.  First, the
smokers were banished to the periphery of the restaurant, forcing
non-smokers to walk through their tables to the lesser-favored and
smoke-fogged seating.  Then the seating was reversed.  No one was happy,
and the situation didn't last long.  (That hotel was the first in the
city--and probably the state--to have some rooms exclusively for
non-smoking customers.) The city banned smoking where waiters were
required to earn their living in a harmful environment (wherever they
had to walk through smoke).

Then, if a restaurant had a bar, as long as smoking was allowed, food
service could only be conducted at least 6 or 8 feet distant from the
bar. Then, a wall was required, and the route from the kitchen to the
tables could not pass through the bar area.  But if the entry to the
restaurant conducted customers through the bar area, there were still
complaints. Now, there is no smoking in the bars at all, within the city
limits.

I suppose most urban areas in the US have gone through these
contortions.