New Cigar, Heart month & Eviction by Frank Seltzer
Pro Cigar 2012
With Pro Cigar over, my guess last week on a new cigar being introduced was pretty close. The Quesadas, who showed off their new factory, did add to their Q D’Etat line. I knew they were smoking the first release, the Molotov, but I did not know that the newest one would be the Howitzer in a 6×60 format. The Q D’Etat is a play on the term Coup D’Etat and the Quesadas have made an all Dominican limited cigar of 1,000 boxes for each size. The brand is designed to generate awareness for the Cigar Rights of America. The Molotov has already sold out and the Howitzer is scheduled for release around Memorial Day and has a suggested retail price of $9.50. The final one size will debut at IPCPR in August.
Happy Heart Month
I did my part for Heart Month (Feb) by having mine totally revamped. I obviously made it or you wouldn’t be reading this. But it has caused me to think even more about what our medical professionals tell us.
A recent study came out which found that smokers lie to doctors. This comes as news? The study founded by Legacy—an anti-smoking group so I am happy they spent money on this junk—says one in ten smokers are ashamed. Really? The study says smokers don’t like the stigma of smoking. Well Legacy…whose fault it THAT? The anti-smoking groups who seek to punish smokers.
Anyway, they say patients will not talk candidly to their health providers. That is probably true but there is another reason. When health professionals hear the word smoking, that’s about as far as they go. “Well, there’s the cause.” Remember when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.
I know because years ago when I smoked cigarettes, I heard it from my doctors. Further in an article back at the end of January where the numbers did not add up on lung cancer, they never let the idea of smoking go.
When the Lung Cancer Foundation of America reported 60 percent of new lung cancer cases were in non smokers…it included people who had quit 10, 20 or even 30 years ago. Bottom line once a smoker….
Now let’s get look at how those statistics get reported. When they were taking my medical and family history, they asked a lot of questions naturally, but these stood out.
Did anyone in my family suffer from heart disease? Yes, my grandfather died in his 60s and my father in his 40s. Next question….Did they smoke? Well yes, my father smoked cigarettes and my grandfather cigars.
Moving on….wait a minute. They both died in 1963 and EVERYONE smoked. Watch the news and John Cameron Swayze had the Camel News Caravan on NBC…hello…. Mike Wallace was smoking…and Edward R. Murrow smoked. Hell even Walter Cronkite had his pipe. Not to mention Johnny Carson. See in their eyes, heart disease equals smoking (especially at Baylor Hospital here in Dallas which now refuses to hire smokers or even people on nicotine replacement therapy). However, they never asked about the smoking habits of my mother who smoked a lot longer than my dad and she lived into her 90s with very few heart problems except as she got into her 80s with her blood pressure. That did not fit their preconceived attitude about smoking and heart disease.
They picked on the wrong old lady
Finally speaking of people in their 90s, Jane O’Grady may be kicked out of her apartment. (Odds are she won’t but we’ll see) O’Grady moved into the Lakes at Pointe West in Florida in 2005. The Lakes is an independent and assisted living facility which at the time had no problem with Jane’s smoking. Then, three years ago, the complex went non smoking, except for Jane O’Grady who continues to smoke in her apartment. She has been a smoker for 77 years and does not plan on stopping.
The facility suggested she smoke outside which Jane tried until it got cold and she could not stand it so back inside she went.
According to the executive director of the complex in a brilliant media release:
“We cannot ignore the safety issues presented by this situation or the effect it has on our residents’ health and living environment. Consequently she had made the decision that is is to be required to move out by eviction.”
She is 97 years old and they are talking about evicting her. However, here is a line that warms the heart.
How did O’Grady react when she was told she would be evicted if she didn’t stop smoking in her apartment?
“I was absolutely stunned,” she said. “I didn’t see it coming at all.”
The first thing she did was call her son, Liam O’Grady, who is a federal judge in Virginia.
“I needed a shoulder to cry on,” she said. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll take care of it.’ “
Yeah good plan try to kick out the mother of a federal judge. The matter is now between the lawyers wanna bet Jane gets to stay?
