May the lights in the Land of Plenty shine on the Truth someday

On the morning of the 21st, I was debating whether I should go to the "Women, Power & Cigars" event that evening. I had had two performances in the previous 4 nights, and been out past 1am the night before, and thus had little sleep. I had already been to the first such event a month earlier, and reported on it in a blog entry here. It wouldn't kill me to miss this one, and go home and get a good night's sleep, would it?

But then again, there were some compelling reasons to go that…

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Two weeks have gone by, and many of those who took photos at this great event have already posted them, so I thought it would be great to write my own admittedly very personal account of the herf from Bailey's Pub and Grille in Arlington, VA and the much smaller gathering that took place the next day at the Humidour in Timonium, MD. I took Amtrak down to DC midday on Saturday, 4/26.

Before going to the Herf, I had to visit an elderly friend who is in the Methodist home way up on Connec…

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Sandi, who is so well connected and always knows what's going on before I do, was the one who told me about the "Women, Power & Cigars" Event at the Renaissance Cigar Emporium in Harlem. I immediately rsvped, thinking that this would be a wonderful chance to meet some people I would otherwise never meet. Of course that really goes without saying - the major portion of my experience smoking cigars is that it is an indulgence that brings me to people whose path I would never cross. And when…

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A couple of weeks ago I was in Velvet Cigar Lounge in the East Village. This one guy says, "you know, these days I'm becoming a Cuban snob" (meaning he only wants to smoke Cuban cigars) and a second guy responds, "there are worse things you could do". Now I know a lot of cigar smokers would nod their heads in agreement with these statements. And if you read Cigar Aficionado, and probably many other publications discussing cigars, you get the impression that the ultimate goal of cigar connoisse… Continue

So in 1991 when I started smoking cigars, the one handmade cigar brand you could find in drugstores, diners and any where else that would have them was Te Amo. From my earlier experiences with nasty machine-mades, I knew to stay away from them, which you could find anywhere. So once I became seasoned enough that I could smoke an entire cigar, I would often pick up a Te Amo when I felt like a cigar. If I was lucky, I would find a larger size, like a Presidente, which was great because even back t… Continue