planetary

I'm not a R&J enthusiast, so to my utter amazement my cigar of the year so far has been the R&J Wide Churchill, specifically from a LUB SEP 14 box which Rob rated at PSP. His notes at time of sale: At this age, they have been amazing - every single example from this glorious box. Wish I'd bought the whole mastercase!

OPA AGO 09, a PCC Vintage box. This is one of the few remaining sticks I have left. Normally I wouldn't choose a Partagas to smoke in the morning, but with the mellowness of a decade's aging, it's quite wonderful. Hope you are all doing well!

Siglo III, PLM NOV 06, from a locker sale. Just getting into it. The box has been consistently very good. All signs positive with this example. My first cigar in a while!

Been away too long, my friends! Warmer weather and a reprieve from work have brought me back.

+1 on the Mag 50. I've gotten it from HQ+ examples, especially.

[Adding here, as the closest proxy to a "new automobile acquisitions thread" -- which we might want to create!] My 535i was totaled a few weeks ago in a 4-car pileup, and so I needed a new daily driver. This past weekend, I brought home a Tesla Model 3, dual-motor AWD. The mixture of zero emissions, crazy tech, and linear EV thrust with a 4.3 second 0-to-60 time was too much to pass up when mixed with a US$7500 Federal tax credit which was about to get cut in half. Fun little car, great 310mi (500km) range, and the autonomous driving improvements are really starting to get meaningful. It's far from full self-driving, but it's getting closer and closer. And here the car is with its Carerra sibling. I call this photo "fighter jet and USS Enterprise shuttlecraft".

Different opinion, just to throw it out there, since most people are offering advice well over @stogieluver's stated budget. Also, to expand on @Philc2001's final sentence. tl;dr - In 2018, Chromebooks are a good, live option at the $500 price point, if you are willing to go online for your productivity apps. At your price range and with your use case, if you are willing to go online for your spreadsheet use (e.g. Google Docs, or Office 365), consider a Chromebook. Cheap, small, light computers for people who don't want or need to run heavyweight local apps, and they tend to offer all-day battery life. Disclaimer: I am employed by a company whose name letter begins with the letter "g". This isn't an attempt to shill, but to report on a few years of solid dogfooding. I'm pretty discerning about hardware, and have preferred Macbooks (except for the latest gen keyboards -- good heavens) and Thinkpads, for reference. After some rough early generation machines, Chromebooks are much better these days -- quite capable of getting the job done **if** most of your life is in the cloud and you play well with the Google ecosystem. These machines are all over the edu market (at least around my neck of the woods), due to price/performance, and use case fit. With most people going online to do much of anything these days, the use case for machines like this is if not fully materialized, at least 80% of the way there, for most people. General advice, if you want to consider this option: * Get a model with an Intel Core processor of some kind. * 4 GB RAM is reasonable for this OS, and for most people. * Don't go below 1920x1080 (full HD) on the screen! Specific models I might suggest: * Pixelbook, if you can find a screaming deal -- maybe for a bit more than you're willing to spend. But the hardware is top notch. Keyboard beats the Macbook (not hard to do), and even the trackpad rivals the Macbook, IMO. And I'm super picky. * Samsung Pro. 12.3" QHD (!) screen. * ASUS Flip, particularly the C302CA-DHM4 model. 12.5 inch full HD screen. Smaller trackpad. There are some 15" models out there if you want the screen size. My >40 year-old eyes are starting to favor such machines, so I would understand. Any of these (generally, touch screen models) will also run Android apps, if that's your jam. I don't make much use of that feature, but it's nice to run the occasional game which wants to grab the full screen, or etc.

Yes! I had game 10 on this morning (streaming over YouTube --> Chromecast onto the TV), instead of the usual parade fare. Terrific match! Even someone terrible at the game like me was able to limp along and enjoy the twists and turns in the game. From what I understand, a world championship series starting with 10 draws is unusual? Unprecedented? As an American of Scandinavian descent, it was good to see an American give Carlsen a run for his money! The kids got into it a bit, too.

@MoeFOH - Would Club posts roll up to the global unread posts list? I.e., this: https://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/discover/unread/?&view=condensed This seems pretty essential for most people to keep up with goings-on!

Oh, here's one, and it's from a recent cold war film: Hardly compares to Bond, but Charlize Theron's Lorraine Broughton, in the film Atomic Blonde, made a point of ordering Stoli straight up. Also: not a cocktail, but (just) a signature drink.

Where else in novels or the big or small screen were specific cocktails deployed as a character trait? There must be examples! But none leap immediately to mind.

If I had to choose just one, probably Patton.

Highly variable. If the format (vitola) is acceptable, and the blend is interesting, I'll consider buying some, just to add a little diversity to the humidor. But they're once-in-a-while purchases for me. I consider high quality regular production cigars a better value and lower risk.

A goal of mine for longer than I can remember: to own what is, to me, possibly the most special arcade game ever produced. The condition on this beauty is phenomenal for its age. It was a home use-only cabinet, sitting unused in a basement for almost all its life. Fully restored and with a few improvements (including brass bushings on the spinner, which are downright buttery!), it takes me right back to the old pizza parlor & arcade I used to frequent after school and on weekends, in the early 80s. My wife is going to need to make some adjustments to the decor in the surrounding space. 🤩 Maggie and Peanut are skeptical.