Usher • September/October 2014
Features
The Rise of Usher
Usher's washboard abs are a set of stomach muscles storied in legend and song that seem to be chiseled from volcanic rock. They even impressed Sugar Ray Leonard. The former …
Golf Talkers
“Hello friends.” How often have we heard Jim Nantz use that welcoming phrase to open a CBS golf broadcast? The network’s lead golf anchor has been beckoning us into the CBS …
Tournament Time
Today and tomorrow nine players will sit down in Las Vegas to compete for the $10 million grand prize in the 2014 World Series of Poker. But gambling in a tournament …
2014 NFL Preview
AFC East 1. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS Death, taxes, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Krafts mean a sixth straight division crown. Brady will need a healthy Rob Gronkowski …
The New Face of Luxury
Even as a new Cold War looms, the old compound on the outskirts of Leipzig, Germany is a reminder of the once-ominous divide between East and West. The sprawling old Russian …
Swimming with the Sharks
"All right everybody,” the amplified voice says. “Here we go. It’s TV time now.” Multiple cameras are rolling as one billionaire and four multimillionaires sit side by side in …
Top Ten of Time
The thousands of new watch models introduced this year presented no shortage of innovative pieces. Some, such as Richard Mille’s $650,000 RM 36-01 Competition G Sensor Sebastien …
Cigars
Cohiba Behike Bands Get New Security Holograms
One of the most counterfeited brands in the world just got harder to fake. New holograms and more sophisticated patterns make the Cohiba Behike’s band nearly impossible to …
Padrón Looks Back at 50
When José Orlando Padrón sold his first cigar 50 years ago, the future was very much in doubt. Today, his family run company is the most critically acclaimed cigarmaker on the …
Being Dan Patrick
One of the most recognizable faces in the world of sports reporting ends his day with a fine cigar
Ratings from this Issue
Up Front
The Issue
Every now and then, we step back from an issue that we’re getting ready for you and say, “Hey, there’s some good stuff in here!” This is one of those issues. And we want to be …
Out of the Humidor
Dear Marvin, One of the many things I look forward to within every issue of Cigar Aficionado is the blind tasting reviews. As a novice cigar enthusiast, I find the ratings to …
The Good Life
Apple iOS 8
When Apple makes an announcement, it usually costs me. I tie myself in knots trying to justify purchasing whatever new technological temptress I now cannot live without. At their …
Bring on the Blends
Sample The General, from Compass Box, blind and you’ll be searching to identify the category of this spirit even while it has a name that suggests it’s in charge of whatever army …
Sporting Clays
You don’t have to be a gun enthusiast or a burly hunter to enjoy sporting clays, the game that challenges shooters to strike clay discs traveling at high velocities with a …
BMW i8
Looking like it just rolled off the set of a movie studio, the BMW i8 isn’t your typical battery car, trading performance for environmental cred. The futuristic plug-in hybrid is …
Eating Nose to Tail
The whole-pig-on-a-spit cookout is a time-tested tribe-pleaser that combines ceremony, group participation and an appeal to our barbaric sensibilities. But whole-hog hootenannies …
Vintage Cigar Posters
When big, bold and colorful posters burst on the nineteenth century advertising scene thanks to advances in lithography, the cigar industry joined the charge. Cigarmakers hawked …
Antimagnetic Watches
From computers to cell phones to headphones, the ubiquitous presence of magnets in our high-tech lives has the potential to wreak havoc on mechanical watch movements. For example, …
Great Whites
Blue blazer, khaki pants, black dress shoes, blue denims, dark suit: primers on the man’s wardrobe always invoke certain basic items. But one fundamental piece of attire stands …
Omni Bedford Springs Resort and Spa
At a time in America when “taking the waters” was a palliative for all maladies, movers and shakers sought healing mineral springs for revival and refreshment. Resorts sprang up …
Pinball Wizardry
Walking from work in Manhattan one dark, cold night, I peer to my right and stop in my tracks. The sight is unexpected, and brings me back to my youth—rows and rows of pinball …