Posted: 01:21 PM ET, 12/17/07I’ve always admired Sir Winston Churchill. Half American, half British, a man of words and a man of action, he stood up to the Nazi threat, all while puffing more cigars than 20 men would normally smoke. How can you not admire him?
I recently picked up the tidy (192 page) biography on him by John Keegan, which came out this year in paperback, published by Penguin. Read more
Posted: 01:37 PM ET, 12/12/07I think it is happening just about everywhere that smoking is being banned. There is a small underground movement of freethinking people who are determined to exercise their personal freedom to smoke. Granted, I don’t want to impose my smoking pleasure on someone who doesn’t like smoke, but that doesn’t mean governments should legislate in favor or against either one of our preferences. Read more
Posted: 10:01 AM ET, 12/10/07It's about time!
This past Saturday marked the first time that spirits were auctioned in New York City since before Prohibition started in 1920. Christie's, the London auction house that also has a presence here, and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a national trade association, are to be thanked for lifting the statewide ban that stood even while prohibition had ended in 1933. Read more
Posted: 11:43 AM ET, 12/07/07Since I’m a suburban resident, I don’t frequent the cigar bars of the city very often after work hours. But a friend of mine was recently in town, and I hadn’t seen him in a long time. He suggested we meet at Club Macanudo one night this week. Read more
Posted: 09:19 AM ET, 12/04/07I haven’t been to the United Kingdom since the new smoking laws went into effect. I had read about those laws, and couldn’t quite register that smoking in public had been virtually outlawed across the country—in the bastion of cigar-smoking, you can no longer smoke. Read more
Posted: 11:55 AM ET, 11/30/07I opened one of the cabinet humidors in the office this morning, spied a box of cigars in a corner, and couldn’t help feeling a bit sad. It’s a box of Alfons Mayer cigars, and I’ve had them since 2005.
Alfons Mayer was an outstanding tobacco man, one of the world’s best, and for years he was the tobacco buyer for General Cigar Co. Read more
Posted: 09:53 AM ET, 11/27/07I have skipped a Thanksgiving smoke in recent years. There always seemed to be something conspiring against it. Sometimes, it was my post-Big Smoke malaise…I had just had enough smoking for awhile. Or I was at a house where smoking wasn’t welcomed. Read more
Posted: 10:09 AM ET, 11/26/07On November 16 I smoked the fabulous regional edition Cuban cigar for the U.K. market in London’s Davidoff shop, and what a smoke. The Por Larrañaga Magnifico is one hell of a cigar. It was specially produced this year for Hunters & Frankau, the U. Read more
Posted: 01:06 PM ET, 11/20/07It’s Big Smoke day in New York. After 14 years, I know that means the holiday season is on us too. It’s always been the perfect kick-off to that time of year.
For starters, we get a parade of our favorite cigar manufacturers coming through the city. Read more
Posted: 05:05 PM ET, 11/15/07Cruised the west coast of Mexico last week on Holland American with hopes of scoring some Havanas, but got a lesson in caveat emptor instead.
The ship (Oosterdam) had a selection of nice cigars—including Fuentes—and a comfortable smoking lounge, but no Cubans as the tour originated in the U. Read more
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