New Cigars, Hypocracy and a Smoking Robot by Frank Seltzer
As we near the annual IPCPR trade show, more details are coming out about new cigars. First up from MATASA is the Quesada Jalapa. The name comes from the Jalapa valley of Nicaragua and it was there that Nestor Plasencia grew an experimental hybrid wrapper in 2002. There were only a few hundred bales of the wrapper and Manolo Quesada (maybe best known for his Fonseca line) bought the bulk of them.. This special wrapper is going over what is known as the Quesada Espana (a cigar made primarily for the Spanish market. Because of the rarity of the Espana wrapper, it has made production for the U-S market damn near impossible. Which is a shame because the corona is terrific.)
This one time limited release will replace the Ecuadoran Arapiraca wrapper on the Espana with this special hybrid. The release will be 1,000 ten count boxes in three sizes—Robusto, Prominente and Belicoso — with suggested retail prices running from $7.75 to $8.75. The cigars are still being made but expect a medium-bodied smoke with lots of flavor and as they put it, “a change of pace from the spice bombs.”
The Quesadas also are partnering with My Father Cigars on another limited cigar. It will be called Tres Reynas, or three queens. It commemorates the special friendship between Patricia and Raquel Quesada and Janny Garcia. The cigar is being made at the My Father Cigar factory in Esteli, Nicaragua and will come in three sizes – Robusto, Belicoso and a Toro Grande.
The highly popular Oktoberfest cigar also is making a limited comeback in the Bavarian (5.5” x 52) and Uber (6”x65) sizes along with Das Boot (a 6” x 52 Belicoso or torpedo…get it?), Kurz a 4’x 50 and a Kaiser Ludwg (6”x49). They will come out in the fall.
Smoking Bans for Three, But Not Me.
We’ve always known that the politicos have ways of exempting themselves from the rules meant for the little people. That is, us. Here is a classic example. In St. Louis, a smoking ban went into effect Jan 1 2011. It was to protect the workers, of course. The only exemptions were private residences ( how nice), casino gaming floors, tobacco shops, small bars that only serve “incidental” food and private clubs with no employees. Yeah well in downtown St. Louis there is the Missouri Athletic Club. This is a well-heeled and well-connected club that is frequented by judges, attorneys and politicians. Membership is by invitation only. The MAC as it is called was fined and cited by the city two times for violations of the smoking ban. It seems that the club has thmbed its nose at the law by:
“openly leaving ashtrays in the lounge, hosting hazy boxing matches and allowing men in suits to gather weekly at the bar with tumblers in one hand, cigars in the other.”
Sounds pretty good to me. Anyway the city went to Municipal court to try to enforce the citations. That was when attorneys jumped in to work out a deal. The city health director said the MAC is a “special” club and basically should have exemptions. In order to get them, the club will ban smoking in the employees’ lounge but not for the members. If you are elite, you can get exceptions, for the rest of us…tough.
“This is the whole problem with government,” said Joe Finn, owner of Pat’s Bar & Grill in the city’s Dogtown neighborhood, adding that the ban is killing his business. “All things are equal, but some things are more equal than others. “I don’t have the money — I don’t have the clout — to make these backroom deals.”
“I’m not against the MAC, but I think what they’re doing is illegal,” said Keep St. Louis Free Director Bill Hannegan, who lobbied against the smoking ban. The state constitution, he said, bars ordinances that single out businesses. “We’d like to see the MAC fight the law, not get themselves an exemption.”
There is no word on if the deal has been put into effect.
Meet Elektro
And on this Fourth of July week, here is a palate cleanser to give you an idea of how much New York has changed. At the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, Westinghouse built a robot. His name was Elektro. He was a “smart fellow” with a “fine brain”. The brain actually was a bunch of telephone relays. But besides speaking and walking Elektro has one other novelty—he smoked. Gasp the horrors! A smoking robot. Anyway Elektro toured the country and eventually faded from sight. Then the Mansfield Memorial Museum in Ohio found him and put him on display as the oldest surviving American robot. The museum’s curator spent three painstaking months putting building a replica which will tour museums this year.
You can actually watch Elektro do his stuff here on You Tube.
Imagine what Mayor Bloomberg would do if he saw this in his city.
