joeypots

+1

I use the collection feature on https://www.cubancigarwebsite.com. It works great for keeping track of what's smoking good and how many I have. I know, It crashed a few years ago but it seems to be the best tracker for me. I keep a list of unbroken boxes on a spreadsheet.

This is what put the size of the universe in perspective for me. If the universe can be put in perspective, that is. As has been noted, much life should exist because of the vastness of the universe. But the size of the universe is mind boggling. The closest neighbor to our sun are the stars Alpha A, B, and Proxima Centauri. Call the three Alpha Centauri. They are about 4.3 light years from our sun. Say we had a ship that could travel at a million miles an hour. Never mind worm holes and warp drive and science fiction. If we are being real about what we know and what we can conceive, at a million miles /hour, how long does it take to travel from our sun to the next closest star? Three thousand years. And then, three thousand years to get back. And, that's only travel between our two closest stars. So sure, there's all sorts of stuff out there because the universe is a sphere thought to have a diameter of 93 billion light-years. And I flipped out at 4.3...... To get a handle on the big thinking about extra terrestrial life visiting Earth look up the Fermi Paradox. And that's only about our galaxy.

👏 What a line up!

100% agree. But I'm the kind of guy that thinks cervantes and dalias are distinct vitolas. Put robustos - hermosos #4, and pyramids - belicosos on the list as well.

If you need to remove humidity to lower RH in the hot sticky months. I've found that adding moisture is much easier than removing it. The Dry and Dry product is the best I've found. 5 lbs will do it. https://smile.amazon.com/Premium-Silica-Desiccant-Industry-Standard/dp/B01BLYLUSY/ref=pd_cp_328_3?pd_rd_w=X5sZt&pf_rd_p=ef4dc990-a9ca-4945-ae0b-f8d549198ed6&pf_rd_r=NTB006H272XQ256YS8T5&pd_rd_r=b4991b22-0ee8-4b15-817b-ce8315e43416&pd_rd_wg=C54Il&pd_rd_i=B071QX7228&refRID=NTB006H272XQ256YS8T5&th=1

How do you know if someone is vegan? Don't worry, they'll tell you.

Last Friday evening I was smoking a cigar with my buddy, Ross. We were sitting on a bench on the walkway that circles the local pier. Lots of people walk there, it's a nice walk with a great view, even if it's a bit windy. Of course there were a few people who looked at us and scowled. None dared chastise us for our cigars because we scowled right back. You know the type. People who are up tight and PC who looked at us like we were radio active. I live in a very well known summer destination and there are loads of well healed visitors that come here and spend a bundle who are, as we like to say, entitled. I think we had the 'I dare you to say anything about my cigar. I live here' look going on pretty strong so no one bothered us but we saw a few who wanted to

I'm not even gonna say when I started smoking cigarettes. I stoped in 1987. In the mid nineties there was a cigar boom. Cigars became popular and B&Ms advertised on the radio. So I thought, "Hey, why not a occasional cigar?" The first ones were Avo #3s. Soon after a woman in the real estate office next to my old shop said her husband liked cigars. My new friend Bob and I smoked loads of NCs together and then started a card game on Tuesday nights. Avos, Fuentes, and NC Partagas were common for years. Dominican cigars with Connecticut wrappers were the most frequent choices. I still have the habit I started back then. A mid week and Sunday cigar is the most common scenario, occasionally I'll smoke a third somewhere in there. I've had a lot of friends who couldn't moderate smoking, cigarette smokers who start to inhale cigars and some who start to smoke too many and have to quit. I haven't had that experience and don't have strong cravings for cigar nicotine. A friend who lives in Toronto with a seasonal home here started to bring me the occasional Cuban cigar. It took me a while to catch on but eventually I "got it". In the early 2000s there was an internet sales boom accompanied or caused by online cigar forums. It took a few years but eventually I made the switch to exclusively smoking Cuban Cigars.. Cheap desktops and a really bad small cabinet humidor gave way to quality storage and over about ten years I accumulated an inventory of about 40 boxes. I've been exclusively a Cuban cigar smoker for something like 18 years. It took a while to figure out what I like and now I generally stick to the best regular production sticks I can get. I find that most Cuban cigars are best for me after I've held then for something like five years. I find there is a aging sweet spot for Cuban cigars and when they get to the place where I like them I smoke them. I probably made the switch to smoke Cuban exclusively because the cigars I was smoking were one dimensional.

I like Bond. I'm not a fan of the super power/hero stuff.

I like the Hoyo DC and the Party Lusitania better than the PDC. But that's just me.

Been a while, eh? I smoked a MC#2 thats about 6 years old this afternoon. Smooth MC tobacco with that nice tangy taste. I hear thats called citrus now. Any way, I smoked it right down to the nub it was so good. $12 at the most. No more ELs or REs for me. They got some balls selling 10 cigars for more than $500 a box. Fresh! I don’t care if the money matters to the buyer or not, it’s just price gouging and it’ll bite them in the ass someday.

I'm not an expert by a lot. But I've been at this for a while and the EL program was getting going when I started to smoke Cuban cigars. I remember the R&J Robusto EL, the SD#3 El Partagas, the Monte DC EL, the HDM Pyramid and a bunch of others from the beginning of the century. Back then the talk was about using wrapper leaf from the top of the plant that had been processed, aged, fermented, or what ever you want to call it, so that the deep, rich strong flavors of such top of the plant wrapper could be harnesed. We read here now that good wrapper is thin, smooth and supple. EL wrapper was anything but. Some of those early Els were ok but i think for the most part they were either fireproof or so harsh and tannic that they burned my mouth. Many never came around with time. We also learned that the release was important, like the first release was the best, #2 or 3 not so much. Of course getting or knowing how to get a first release was impossible. So now, 18 years on, we learn that with a with a box of ten Cohiba Talisman we are confronted wit a box of 10 cigars that cost more than $500 US with the assertion that the light color wrapped ones are good. The dark ones? Not so much. Is this a joke? I'm not laughing.

Couldn't abide Infinite Jest but couldn't put down the Goldfinch.

Blind tasting? I wouldn't be surprised by any vitola from any marca being either a gem or a waste of money. That said, the Vegueros I've had were awful. A lot of what Shlomo posted above is dead on for me.

Just because the RR comes in a box of ten. Both are very good.

Love your country not your government.

I live about ten miles from Provincetown Massachusetts which is the summer vacation capitol for the LGBTQ community on the east coast of the USA. There are loads of people around here who are clearly not fitting into the male-female construct. I'm not going to reiterate so much of what has been written here but there are a few points I can relate from personal experience. The suffering people endure when they know their sexuality is not aligned with their body is real and severe. These things are not bonded and indivisible, they never have been, the rates of suicide among such people are shocking. I grew up in a depressed mill city in Massachusetts and in the rough part of town there was a bar room, The Cosmopolitan Lounge, that was frequented by what we as kids called he-shes. 45 years ago that place was always packed on the weekends and it was considered the lowliest place in a low place. The point is, in my experience, these people have always been with us and have been persecuted for the way they were born. I know, the professionals say many trans kids grow out of it. I see adults who are not growing out of it. What's happening now is that as the stigma declines they come out in droves. And, living in close proximity to a large concentration of people who have these" nonsense gender issues" I can't see any downside to letting them be whatever they want to be. Live and let live works for me. It's also a polite way of saying mind your own business.

Slow month for cigars for me. UME AGO 14 CORO. I've had better but this one was pretty good .

I think Doctor Zhivago when I was about 7. I have a vague memory of the trains. I watched it a few years ago, Julie Cristie, well..........And there is no such thing as a bad David Lean movie. The one I really remember was No Way To Treat a Lady. At the Wellfleet Drive-In when I was about 10. I'm getting old.

I like them. Cost makes them a special occasion cigar for me. They aren't in the "rotation" and that makes them easier to age than other cigars. I think Cohiba ages well and are best after 5 years.

Looking at my smoking diary, courtesy of Cuban Cigar Website, MUR FEB '13 RASS have been consistently good. The cigars are regular production so the price is similar to all RP robustos. The RASS has been a go to staple for me for a while. Monte Cristo #4 and of course, the PLPC are also great and not too dear and with time can develop into tremendous smokes. But I don't find the PC vitola has the bang of the robusto so I'll throw in with the RASS for bang for the buck.

Rob should put you on the pay roll. Great reviews, John. Thanks.

My novice traveler opinion is that Italy is everything it's cracked up to be and more. Looks like a great trip. The giant statue of the naked guy in the Academy is worth a look.