Cigars & the End of a Decade
The decade comes to a close as the Mayan Calendar tells us we only have 2 more years to live. That’s just a peachy thought. I bet right about now, Tiger Woods doesn’t think that’ll come fast enough. I’ve talked many times on this blog how time flies by… but ain’t it the truth? I remember very vividly sitting on my friends couch, counting down with Dick Clark as we entered the new millennium. I blinked my eyes and then ten years has blown by and my 4 and 8 years-olds are now in high school and college.
I’m not going to do some memory lane thing because over the course of a decade – even in just a year, way too much has happened. So since this is a blog that resides on a cigar website, I figured I’d focus on the cigar – the one thing that stays constant and withstands the test of time. Sure it costs more than it used to and the fascist anti-smoke Nazi’s are hammering harder than ever at the industry’s thinly worn armor, but the cigar itself truly remains the same. It’s is a piece of artwork, a thing of beauty, completely unpretentious and exists only to do the thing it was born to do – bring an hour or so of pleasure to the person on the receiving end of its smoky existence.
The decade didn’t start with a boom – in fact, it started with the end of a boom… the cigar boom of the 1990’s. The hoopla had finally died down and the charlatans and knuckleheads went back to selling insurance or whatever the hell they did before calling them selves “cigar experts” as their brand, the proverbial “Don Nobody” disappeared into the oblivion from which it came. All of those next great brands rolled by supposed authentic Cuban torcedors, ended up as bundled specials in the famed JR catalog for ten cents on a dollar. Who can forget everybody’s favorite Filipino brand of the boom, Fighting Cock? Little did the creators of the ill-fated brand realize that the name lost a whole lot in the translation. I so much wanted to be in charge of their marketing… “Say Smoker – Have you put one between your lips, today?”
I started writing for Cigar Magazine in 2004, in their second issue. The article was a 5,000 word epic entitled: The Cuban Mystique and it took me a month to research and then write. There are many incredibly cool things about writing for CM, as you might imagine. Of course, the very first is hanging with Lew Rothman, which is one hell of an experience. I have never met a more straight forward person in my life – a guy who would tell the Pope to STFU if he was talking during a movie. I have gained an incredible amount of cigar knowledge from the man, the kind of stuff you could never learn in a book, the web, or a magazine. The guy took me to the DR and Honduras for a week and as James Earl Jones said in Field of Dreams, “The memories are so thick, I’d need a brush to wipe them 
from my face.”
Then there’s the industry people I’ve met, interviewed, and befriended – Christian Eiroa and Dylan Austin of Camacho, Bobby and Eric Newman of JC Newman Cigars, and not a finer gentleman in this world than former General Cigar CEO, Daniel Nunez (who I hung with as well on my Honduras and DR excursion.)
I started this here bloggy in October of 2007 and have fraternized with all of you. Writing this thing once a day, five days a week was an unbelievable challenge and I can’t believe I was able to come up with something every single day. Not sure how the bloody hell I did it.
Last year I got to go to the Cigar Show in Vegas, the former RTDA Show, now the ICPCR. That was a hell of an experience, meeting tasting, talking, and comparing. Going home with about 200 premium sticks was a wonderful thing, for sure.
But now we’re all aware that the cigar industry is in the fight of its life as legislators and Smoke Nazis look to put an end to out happy time. Between that and the smoldering taxes, the pastime we love is in serious trouble, my amigos. I just found out that the famed Villazon Factory that I spent three days at in Cofradia, Honduras has shut down all operations and moved it’s product six hours away in Danli. I met every worker in that facility and those hard working, dedicated people are all out of jobs. And of course our legislators don’t give a rat’s ash, as long as they retain votes and public favor by riding the PC wagon.
Who knows what the next decade brings for those of us who light the leaf. With the FDA in charge of tobacco, this just might get brutally ugly like it is in Canada and parts of Europe. We CAN NOT let that happen, my brothers. This is the land of the FREE and we can never forget that. It’s hard to even comprehend that a man can be shipped to a foreign desert to defend our freedom, but he soon may not have the freedom to smoke the cigar that he loves.
Thanx for all the support from the readers of the Blog and I really do hope those Mayans were stoned out of their fucking minds when they created that calendar. Oh yeah… my birthday is Wednesday December 30th, so wish me a happy, happy!
Til we meet again in 2010!
Tommy Z,
JR CIGARS Blog With the Zman
December 28th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
ovWe Americans, are losing our freedoms incrementally; it’s like the “Smoking Man” on the X-Files said: ” Take one piece off of the board at a time… by the time it’s noticed what’s happened it will be too late”. (paraphrased).
F++k the FDA, Nicotine is not the goal or object of cigars; even if it was, so what?
Many “legal” substances are MUCH more harmful: ALCOHOL (in excess) is one of the worst. Caffeine IS habit-forming, but what the fu&k, so what!?!
Elephants get drunk on rotten melons, and they seek them…this is evidence that conciseness needs an occasional “break”.
I do not want a “nanny state” (like Joe Jackson said in CM) telling me what I can or cannot put into my, MY body.
I don’t know why we fought the “cold war” just to give-in to socialism , and totalitarian government practices… did we “really” win?
Our government is no-longer “for us” or “by us”.
People will ALWAYS smoke, drink and eat “unhealthy foods” et-cetera; The idiots that are foisting these shackles upon our freedoms are hypocrites : even Waxman is a JR customer!!!
Politics is a business… each and every one of them has sold-out, and cashed-in.
Cigars are a gustatory art, passed down from many previous generations; cigars are for the savoring, but even if cigarettes are for the nicotinic effects.. who REALLY has the right to tell ANYONE what they can put into their body???!
Tobacco played a large part in this nation’s prosperity.
The disdain of BIG GOVERNMENT is PRECISELY why the United States Of America was formed.
-T
December 28th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Me, me, me! Come on Z-man, think of us once in a while! Where are the tits? Let’s makes a New Year’s resolution…at least one good set each week! Seriously…its been a good year. Happy Birthday.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Weeks and weeks and weeks with no tits on this blog. I think that Zman has switched sides on us.
December 29th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Zman! You said it!!!!! We’ve lost our balls and forgotten how to fight for our rights. We can’t even smoke outside at many places any more! Kids can go to war at 18, but can’t drink a beer with their Dad until 21 and can’t smoke a stogie at that bar when they can!
Second, I take a lot of crap for being anti-cigarette and pro-cigar – people don’t understand the difference. Thanks for educating folks as you have in the past – tho the cigar smokers know this stuff, the rest of us should do our part as well.
Third, you educate us all on the art of the cigar, the sophistication of a great smoke (tho Tommy Z and the word sophistication rarely are said in the same sentence!) and the other great attributes associated with a fine cigar.
All the guys who read your stuff love it – it’s funny, educational, heartfelt and real.
Keep it up!!!
December 29th, 2009 at 4:06 am
Wow… I am blessed!
And Mr. Winget didn’t even attempt to plug his new book that just hit the streets…
Your Kids are Your Own Damned Fault
What a freakin eye-opening read! Another NY Times Best Seller for sure.
December 29th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Zman, I believe that Wingman’s summation is just about perfect. I would add that at our local VFW the sign on the inside says, “Smokers – Outside!” At least the acrid stench of a cigarette doesn’t cause a choking, eye-watering paroxysm there, outdoors.
And to Zman, a happy birthday! A wish for you:
May the Jackpot in the Mega Millions Lottery be yours. Hey, you never know!
December 29th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I would take that, today. Thanx!
December 30th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Hell Zman, the Mega millions jackpot, cash option is only $16 million for Friday’s drawing. Hardly worth the trouble.
December 30th, 2009 at 4:47 am
Yeah, I’d have to force myself to collect it.
December 30th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
First of all, Happy Birthday, Z!!!
Sadly, this is no longer the home of the free. Its the home of special interests, big business, drug lords, gangs and advertisers. What happened to the USA? People are more interested in Tiger Woods and his beotches than they are in being free. Wow. Talk about sheep.
I hope 2010-2019 sees an awakening in the youth of America to take back the freedoms the politicians have taken in away in the name of big business and those sticking money in their re-election coffers.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Well said, Dude from Detroit!
December 30th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Happy Birthday, Z!
December 31st, 2009 at 2:44 am
I second what DiD said.
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:07 am
Jesus, guys… only 14 comments on the last cigar post of the decade?
Come on…
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:50 am
Hey Tommy, give us a break. We’ve been a bit busy being festive. lol
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:08 am
You actually think Garfiend gets festive?
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:09 am
probably when he drops a duece.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:22 am
How about those Giants. Another outstanding performance. Now if the Jets lose tonight, the Texans are in the playoffs after their defeat of the Pats. Go Cincy. Beat the Jets!
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:25 am
Of course if Indy hadn’t laid down last week and given the Jets a win they didn’t earn, we’d already be in. I hope with basically a 4 week layoff before Indy plays again, that they fall flat on their faces and get eliminated their 1st playoff game.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:26 am
BTW, Happy New Year to all y’all.