The Cigar Diary

At a time when smoking a cigar in a movie can get you a full-blown protest or at least an "R" rating, it's nice to see a movie about cigars...

By Alexander Britell

While Cuban cigars are renowned the world over for their quality and their history, the process of how Cuban cigars are made – and just what they mean to the Cuban people – have remained largely unexplored, particularly in film. But thanks to the efforts of James Suckling – one of the world’s leading experts on cigars (and wine), viewers of his new film, Cigars: The Heart & Soul of Cuba, get a unique glimpse into the culture and production of habanos.

Well, that wasn't what the headline said, but it was what it should have said...

SEATTLE, Jan. 11, 2012 -- Voters reject effort to undermine law that protects families from secondhand smoke

Contrary to Michael Moore's assertion that Cuba is a socialist paradise with the best health care in the world, the average Cuban earns about $20US / month. They need to supplement their income to survive, and they supplement it by selling cigars on the black market...

The Italian-style dry-cured cigars made by the Avanti cigar company in the United States (which my Italian grandfather used to smoke and we called "guinea stinkers") are finally going to be available in Italy...

Fulfilling a lifelong goal of its immigrant forebears, the family that owns Avanti Cigar Co. has established its famous Parodi cigars in Italy.

Well, since I give myself a haircut every morning with a badger hair brush, soap in a cup and an double edged safety razor loaded with an Israeli blade, I would not have any need of their hair cutting services, but this will be great for guys with hair...

THE MEN'S Hair Salon and Spa, located upstairs from Stadium Brewing Company, offers a full-service salon to its male clientele.

I'm getting real sick and tired of nannies telling people what they can advertise and to whom...

Several public health organizations are calling on the Orange Bowl and the NCAA to pull a three-year deal with Camacho Cigars, saying tobacco promotions like the Florida cigar company's sponsorship of the football games have no place in sports and shouldn't be allowed under federal tobacco marketing restrictions.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Cancer Society and eight other groups sent a letter on Tuesday to game organizers and officials with the collegiate athletic group that raised concerns over the deal.

It's time to get these destroyers of commerce "off the playing field". If you want to advertise a legal product to legal customers, you ought to be able to. I don't prefer the Camacho Corojos, but I really like the Baccarats. :)

Who would pay 3000 pounds for a cigar?

Just out: A guest at The Lanesborough Hotel near Buckingham Palace recently paid 3,000 pounds for a Cohiba Behike cigar made by the personal roller to former Cuban President Fidel Castro, said bar manager Giuseppe Ruo.

The black market is regular market forces exerting themselves against a repressive regime...

(Reuters) - Packing long cigars into a white box picturing Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, a Cuban man delicately places a thin wax-paper stamp of quality inside.

He then finishes the job with an official guarantee.

Now, no one will be the wiser that these stogies are black market cigars.

I wish we had something like this where I live...

In the dim light of a Bronx cigar shop, Al Bryant stretched out on a brown leather couch, watching TV and taking long, slow drags from a fat cigar as a passing No. 6 train rumbled on the elevated tracks nearby.

Holy cow! Talk about a long cigar!

Cuban cigar roller Jose Castelar Cairo, known as Cueto, will get his fifth Guinness record certificate for rolling a 81.80-meter long cigar, the longest in the planet, in a ceremony at the Morro-Cabana historical, military complex on Nov. 24.

Can you imagine how long it would take to smoke that baby?