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Back to the Forum Archives For those who do not smoke, cigarettes, cigars, and even pipes can be very obnoxious. Therefore, it is unconscionable for those of us who do smoke to carelessly or deliberately expose nonsmokers to tobacco fumes. To me it is no different than passing flatus in an elevator. It is what we might expect of a redneck or a stump jumper, but it is unacceptable behavior for a thoughtful person. Smoking should only be done in areas where this will not happen. This is not the case in most restaurants where the proprietors make the pretense of having non-smoking areas. The smoke, you understand, does not know where the invisible line is. Nor is it clever enough to stay in it's place, so to speak. Even as a cigar smoker and something of a connoisseur I believe smoking should be severely restricted. It should never be allowed in enclosed, open to the public, places. It should only be allowed in outdoor open places and in designated places where there is no chance of exposing nonsmokers. For an example of the later, I would propose an enclosed dinning room for smokers only. As to that, I would be pleased to have a nice cigar bar near my home. The name on this place would have to be explicit so nonsmokers would be fairly warned. Of course, you know what would happen. Some crazies would file a complaint to have the place provide facilities for nonsmokers. You know it would happen. Like all current issues, smoking has been polarized beyond the point of irrationality, to total insanity. Dennis Prager, writing for jewishworldreview.com, recently pointed up the extreme nature of this insanity. He reported that the anti-smoking crazies were up in arms about the James Bond movie, "Die Another Day." Why? Because that dastardly villain, Bond, smoked a cigar. Not only that, he smoked a Cuban cigar and went so far as to laud it's virtues. Never mind that this was a classic Bond movie with semi-naked women, sex, alcohol, blood, guts, and violence galore. That dirty bugger smoked a cigar in a movie intended for children. I conclude, the movie must be intended for children. I am sure no thoughtful adult would pay money to watch a cartoon with human cartoon characters. The TV previews were enough for me. So, to beat the crazies here is what I suggest. Some clever entrepreneur should open up a nice private club near where I live. This would be a members only club on the model of the Elks, Eagles, etcetera clubs. The yearly dues could be whatever seems reasonable, perhaps $250.00. Of course, the person's who join would receive a number of member benefit coupons worth a bit more that $250.00. These would be redeemable at the club for meals, cigars, and the like. I have a nice warm sense now of some nonsmoker picturing a grim grimy room filled with blue obnoxious smoke from floor to ceiling, saying, Ug, how disgusting!" I assure you, this would not be the case. If it were, I would not go there. If I want smoke, I want it from the cigar, not from someone else's mouth. Tobacco smoke or any other contaminant is quite easy to handle. There is an entire industry devoted to this enterprise. The device is called an electronic filter. Electronic filters come in many shapes and sizes for many purposes. Many people are familiar with them as an add on to a standard forced air furnace. In industry, they are used to scrub toxic chemicals from smoke in smokestacks. I am most familiar with them from the ceiling devices used in bars where smoking is permitted. If enough of them are installed, they do a dandy job. So, the cigar bar I visualize would be a nice environment with air drifting lazily upward. In fact the place would be a very nice restaurant with comfortable chairs and perhaps a fireplace. There would be a decent menu and good professional servers. The only variation I would see would be in the ubiquitous desert tray. It would be replaced by a cigar tray with a nice variety of quality cigars. Now let us consider cigars. I made the claim that I am something of a connoisseur. By that I simply mean that I enjoy good cigars. The nice thing about a good cigar is it is an event, unlike a cigarette which is a habit. For me, one cigar is satisfying such that having another one the same day does not even occur to me. Since I do like a "good" cigar, for my own amusement, I went to the trouble of rating a number of quality cigars. I am not talking about drugstore over the counter stuff. Quality cigars are expensive and not sold in any drugstores I know about. Old time politicians notwithstanding, there is no such thing as a good five cent cigar. There are, however, a number of good cigars in the five to eight dollar price range. As an aside, one thing I learned about cigars is about what is called the ring size. I am sure this is taken from the jewelry industry. I don't know why. It turns out that ring size is the diameter of the cigar stated in 1/64ths. of an inch. Hence, a ring size of 48 would be 48/64 or 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Now my findings. I rated cigars on a scale of 1 to 5 for burn,
draw, flavor, and aroma. Cigar Ratings: Don Diego Longsdale 1 1 2 1 5 Punch Chateau M 1 1 3 1 6 Romeo Y Julieta Churchill 1 2 2 2 7 A Fuente Churchill 2 1 3 1 7 Monti Christo Double Corona 2 2 2 1 7 Monetcristo Perfecto 1 2 3 1 7 H Upman Longsdale 1 2 3 2 8 A Fuente Cannon 4 1 3 2 10 You will see that I found the Macanudo to be an outstanding
cigar. However, don't be mislead by the other ratings. I find
any cigar that I rate at a total of 7 or less is a very good
smoke. Now I must confess that I find all of these smokes to
be inferior to the only Cuban cigars I have been lucky enough
to get. Like Bond, I have found Cuban cigars to be the very best,
bar none.
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