Schwarzenegger against banning smoking in films

Actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger has spoken out against anti-smoking campaigners trying to rid Hollywood films of cigarettes and cigars.The California governor, a renowned cigar aficionado, insists children need to be warned of the dangers of tobacco but argues that filmmakers who wish to feature smoking should be able to exercise their artistic freedom, particularly in period settings, according to FoxNews.com.

"I personally don't believe that we should erase cigarettes in movies," he said. "I don't believe that we should erase when someone smokes a cigar in a movie. I think that we should remind people and kids all the time about the dangers of smoking."To all of a sudden tell actors not to smoke a cigarette in a movie when they portray a character ... is ludicrous. I think this is going too far."

Cuba's Cigar Sisterhood

ON an island where folks normally don't buck the system, Zudlay Napoles is breaking an unwritten rule: she is a woman and she smokes cigars.
Not only does Napoles love to light up her favorite Romeo y Julieta No. 4: the diminutive 31-year-old has become the face of Cuba's cigar industry for countless international visitors.
In doing so, Zudlay Napoles has confidently charged into this man's world, pursuing a passion that requires her to endure the stares when she smokes.
She is a sommelier at La Floridita, a restaurant that supposedly served Ernest Hemingway's favorite daiquiri and is now a tourist spot.
In this capacity, Napoles helps customers match each cigar with the perfect after-dinner drink. And last month, she took first place in a worldwide competition at Cuba's 10th annual Festival Habano – as Cuban cigars are known here. The only woman and only Cuban in the contest, she proved her prowess in matching cigars with alcoholic drinks.

Although women are part of cigar-making in every step of the process, the final taboo has long been smoking them, Napoles said.
"Even girlfriends of my generation look at me strangely and say, 'You're going to smoke that? And the smell?' I tell them that it tastes good," Napoles said. "Once you enter into this world," she added, "you don't want to leave."
However, this world, if the cigar festival was any indication, has a hefty dose of testosterone.
A gala at the Karl Marx Theatre had the taste of a guy's trip to Vegas as jet-setters posed for photos with an army of tall, slender Cuban women who wore sport coats over bikini tops.
A few women participated but the festival has been so male-dominated that the awards handed out in the early days went to "Man of the Year". Only recently have they been given more gender-neutral designations.
"Being a woman in the cigar industry, you feel like a tiny grain of rice on the beach," said Hilda Baro, director of the Partagas cigar plant. But Zudlay Napoles feels at home here, gliding through the halls and getting hugs and pecks on the cheek from burly men in crisp white guayabera shirts.
Napoles says she never found cigars to be off-limits.
Her 82-year-old grandmother, Juana, smoked them at home and still is known to puff on one after dinner, she revealed.
But Napoles didn't smoke her first cigar until seven years ago when she realised it would help her advance at La Floridita, advice offered by her husband, then the matre d'.
"With my first one, the first seconds were a little hot," Napoles conceded. "But it wasn't disagreeable. By the second cigar, I was on top of the situation."
Baro and other female industry executives said women smoking should not be a rarity, given that so many work in cigar production. At most plants, nearly every cigar-roller is a woman.
As Napoles put it: "The Cuban cigars, since their formation, are in the hands of women. They are built with the muscles of women.
"In reality, they already have the female heat, the female touch.
"Now all that's left is overcoming this taboo of smoking."
At the Casa del Habano cigar shop, a pack of male employees and their friends pondered the gender gap as they smoked and awaited customers.
Alexis Abreu, who rolls cigars at the store, said he couldn't explain why women were left out of the cigar-smoking experience.
He said women often smoked cigarettes in public but that smoking cigars was kept behind closed doors.
The exceptions, Abreu said, were older women, those in rural areas, and priestesses in Santeria – a religion with African roots which incorporates cigars in its rituals.
Abreu praised women willing to smoke cigars because "in most situations, if society criticises you for something, you aren't going to do it".
It's clear that Napoles gives cigars respect, and even affection. After her shifts at the restaurant, she and her male co-workers serve splashes of cognac and other drinks, and then experiment with companion cigars.
Her winning entry at the cigar festival paired a 25-year-old Santiago brand rum with a Cohiba Maduro 5, a new line from the iconic manufacturer.
Napoles said this kind of knowledge ultimately earns her respect from men in the industry. She admits a certain pride at not toeing the line in a country where citizens generally do.
Still, she said, "This shouldn't be so unusual. It's something that we Cubans have in our blood. It's ours. It wasn't difficult falling in love with the cigar."

Wait, Don't Burn the Cigars!!!!

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard plans to have Michigan National Guard members and Reservists help him incinerate some evidence found in a recent drug bust.

About 1,500 cigars recovered from a marijuana dealer will be torched, one at a time, by Michigan military members serving overseas. "Rather than have them destroyed in an incinerator, it would make more sense to give them to our heroes deployed across the globe," Bouchard said Thursday. The move isn't designed to encourage smoking. But for military members who partake, the smokes could provide a respite from a stressful routine, Bouchard said. The stogies carry sought-after Cuban labels such as Cohiba, but Bouchard said the labels are counterfeit; the cigars actually are from the Dominican Republic. "If they were real Cubans, we wouldn't be able to give them away," Bouchard said. The cigars, valued at around $15,000, were in a car stopped as part of a January drug bust along M-59 in the east end of Oakland County.

by http://www.freep.com

Cigars used to aid officer's loved ones

BY JOSE PAGLIERY
jpagliery@MiamiHerald.com
Miami-Dade County Police Detective Jorge Perez, who was killed in a motorcycle accident while riding on Florida's Turnpike last month, was an avid cigar smoker.
Now, his friends are turning to the cigars he loved as a way of celebrating his life and helping the longtime girlfriend and children he left behind.
A fund-raiser at Puros Fine Cigars, 10792 Coral Way, will be held 5 p.m. Sunday, said Alejandro Alcorta, owner of the shop.
''He was a cigar smoker and a regular at our store. And he was a good friend of ours,'' Alcorta said.
Proceeds from the event will be donated to Carolina Montoya, Perez's girlfriend, and their children, 3-year-old Jorge and 3-month-old Teresa Perez-Montoya. Because Perez and Montoya were not legally married, she and their children are not eligible for full benefits, according to Miami-Dade police spokesman Roy Rutland. Perez was riding his motorcycle in late January when he was thrown from it. He died two weeks later from injuries sustained in the accident. After hearing of his death, Alcorta notified many of Florida's biggest cigar manufacturers, including 601, Don Lino, Alec Bradley and more, which donated almost 5,000 cigars for the event. Guests who give a minimum donation of $20 will receive a variety cigar gift pack to accompany food and beverages. ''The response that we've been getting from this is unbelieveable,'' said Alcorta, who met Perez soon after he opened the store last June. Within a few months, the detective had become a regular, constantly trying out different cigars. Friends and fellow officers recall Perez as a hard-working motivator and relentless law enforcement officer, obsessed with his health, yet the casual social smoker. Perez was with the county police department for eight years, working with Road Patrol and the Robbery Intervention Detail before joining the Hammocks Gang Unit. Detective Chris Garcia met Perez when he was a rookie. Garcia remembers his friend's dedication to family and law enforcement, recalling a string of robberies that occurred near Blue Lagoon Drive in 2005. As many vigilant police officers neared the end of their 12- and 14-hour shifts, it was Perez who picked up the police radio and said, ``Hey guys, it's game time. It's time to dig deep and get the job done. We gotta catch these guys.''
Soon enough, Garcia remembered, both men were caught. ''He managed to find anything and everything in this county. It was unbelievable how good he was at his job,'' Garcia said.
"All you'd do is send Jorge out to get them.''

Cuban woman excels at matching drinks, cigars

Cuban woman excels at matching drinks, cigars
HAVANA - On an island where folks normally don't buck the system, Zudlay Napoles is breaking an unwritten rule: She is a woman who smokes cigars.
Not only does Napoles love to light up her favorite Romeo y Julieta No. 4. The diminutive 31-year-old has become the face of Cuba's cigar industry for countless international visitors.
In doing so, Napoles has confidently charged into this man's world, pursuing a passion that requires her to endure the stares when she smokes.
She is a sommelier at La Floridita, a restaurant that supposedly served Ernest Hemingway's favorite daiquiri and is now a tourist spot. In this capacity, Napoles helps customers match each cigar with the right after-dinner drink.
And last weekend, Napoles took first place in a worldwide competition at Cuba's 10th annual Habano Festival, as Cuban cigars are known here. The only woman and only Cuban in the contest, she proved her prowess in matching cigars with alcoholic drinks.
Though women are part of cigar-making in every step of the process, the final taboo has long been smoking them, she said.
"Even girlfriends of my generation look at me strangely and say, 'You're going to smoke that? And the smell?' I tell them that it tastes good," Napoles said.
"Once you enter into this world, you don't want to leave."
But this world, if the cigar festival was any indication, has a hefty dose of testosterone.
A gala at the Karl Marx Theater had the taste of a guy's trip to Vegas as jet-setters posed for photos with an army of tall, slender Cuban women who wore sport coats over bikinis.
A few women participated but the festival has been so male-dominated that the awards handed out in the early days went to "Man of the Year." Only recently have they been given more gender-neutral designations.
"Being a woman in the cigar industry, you feel like a tiny grain of rice on the beach," said Hilda Baro, director of the Partagas cigar plant.
But Napoles feels at home here, gliding through the halls and getting hugs and pecks on the cheek from burly men in crisp white guayabera shirts.
Napoles says she never found cigars to be off-limits. She said her 82-year-old grandmother, Juana, smoked them at home and still is known to puff one after dinner.
But Napoles didn't smoke her first cigar until seven years ago when she realized it would help her advance at La Floridita, advice offered by her husband, then the maitre d'.
"With my first one, the first seconds were a little hot," Napoles conceded. "But it wasn't disagreeable. By the second cigar, I was on top of the situation."
Baro and other female industry executives said women smoking should not be a rarity, given that so many work in cigar production. At most plants, nearly every cigar roller is a woman.
As Napoles put it: "The Cuban cigars, since their formation, are in the hands of women. They are built with the muscles of women. In reality, they already have the female heat, the female touch. Now all that's left is overcoming this taboo of smoking."
At the Casa del Habano cigar shop, male employees and friends pondered the gender gap.
Alexis Abreu, who rolls cigars at the store, said he couldn't explain why women were left out of the cigar-smoking experience. He said women often smoked cigarettes in public but smoking cigars was kept behind closed doors.
The exceptions, Abreu said, were older women, those in rural areas and priestesses of Santeria, a religion with African roots that incorporates cigars in its rituals.
Abreu praised women willing to smoke cigars: "In most situations, if society criticizes you for something, you aren't going to do it."
It's clear that Napoles gives cigars respect, and even affection. After her shifts at the restaurant, she and her male co-workers serve splashes of cognac and other drinks, and then experiment with companion cigars.
Her winning entry at the cigar festival paired a 25-year-old Santiago brand rum with a Cohiba Maduro 5, a new line from the iconic manufacturer.
Baltimore Sun

Ending ban on Cuban cigars would boost prices, maker says

By Thomas Mulier GENEVA, Switzerland (Bloomberg): Premium Cuban cigars would jump in price if the US were to end an embargo on trade with the island nation and permit their sale in its cigar market, the world's largest, according to Swedish Match AB. Demand for Cuban cigars might double overnight if the ban were lifted, a step Swedish Match managers view as "inevitable," Chief Financial Officer Lars Dahlgren said on Wednesday. The Stockholm-based owner of the Macanudo brand has drawn up plans to prepare, he said in a telephone interview. Speculation about an end to the ban arose on Tuesday as Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president after 49 years, though the US State Department said no policy changes are imminent. American smokers buy two-thirds of the world's premium cigars, according to Swedish Match, the industry's second-largest member, which has contested ownership of the Cohiba brand with Cuba's government. "There's no way you can serve Europe and the US if Cuban cigars became big in the US," said Dahlgren, who declined to say when the ban might be lifted. "If consumers would demand the same quality of cigars, prices would skyrocket."The entire industry eventually would benefit from an end to the embargo, which would create more interest in smoking cigars, according to Dahlgren. The ban, which was imposed in 1962 by John F. Kennedy and tightened by later US presidents, has sparked a dispute between Swedish Match and Cuba's government over the rights to the Cohiba brand. It also was the cause of a legal battle between Bacardi Ltd. and Pernod Ricard SA for the Havana Club rum trademark. Cigars sold now under the Cohiba name in the US are made in the Dominican Republic. Cuban-made Cohibas are sold outside the US by Corporacion Habanos, a partnership between the Caribbean nation's government and Madrid-based Altadis SA. Handmade Cohiba Corona Especial cigars from the Dominican Republic cost about $7 each on the website of Burlington, North Carolina-based JRCigars.com, which bills itself as the world's biggest cigar store. A Cuban Cohiba costs 23.40 Swiss francs ($21) at the Davidoff cigar shop in Geneva. Altadis has been taken over by Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the Bristol, England-based maker of John Player Special cigarettes. Imperial might get a boost of as much as 2 percent to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization if the US were to end the embargo, said Jonathan Fell, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG in London. "We are prepared for this to happen sometime," Dahlgren said of a lifting of the ban. "The US is our most important premium cigar market. If the US consumer wants Cuban cigars, we will seek to share that segment of the market."Swedish Match may lose market share initially if the ban were ended and Cuba kept its monopoly on production, he said. In addition to its own brands such as Garcia y Vega, the company owns Cuban heritage trademarks including Partagas and Hoyo de Monterrey that were bought from exiles. "The first few weeks we wouldn't sell a single cigar because everyone would be buying the forbidden fruit," the CFO said. Swedish Match, the world's second-biggest maker of smokeless tobacco products, reported a 31 percent gain in fourth-quarter profit today after tax increases in Sweden prompted it to boost snuff prices.

http://www.caribbeannetnews.com

When Is a Cigar Not a Cigar? When It Tries to Kill Castro

Now that Fidel Castro has resigned as president of Cuba, it seems likely that illness and age will finally be allowed to accomplish what two generations of Cuban exiles have been unable to, despite obsessive zeal and the help of the American government. For a quick and entertaining roundup of their attempts, Sundance Channel is offering the well-timed American television premiere of “638 Ways to Kill Castro,” a 2006 British documentary being shown Monday night.
The title refers to the number of assassination plans that Fabián Escalante, the former director of Cuban intelligence, claims to have evidence for and, in many cases, to have thwarted. Mr. Escalante breaks it down by administration: Eisenhower, 38; Kennedy, 42; Johnson, 72; Nixon, 184; Carter, 64; Reagan, 197; Bush Sr., 16; Clinton, 21. (That adds up to 634, but we can forgive him for losing track of a few poisoned diving suits.)
The film doesn’t try to prove those eye-catching figures (and Mr. Escalante is also known for propounding a theory of the John F. Kennedy assassination involving Cuban counterrevolutionaries and the Chicago mob). But it covers more than enough on-the-record plotting and scheming to show just how preoccupied Castro’s enemies have been with removing him.
The more freakish ideas — the poisoned fountain pens and milkshakes, the exploding seashells and cigars — are mentioned in passing, but the focus is on traditional methods like guns and bombs, and much of the story is told in the words of the prospective assassins. The filmmakers track down a number of men known or suspected to have plotted against Castro and interview them on camera, generally in what appear to be comfortable Florida homes.
Some speak guardedly, some openly, but they all project the same aura of righteousness and pride, often echoed by their wives and children: they define themselves through their hatred of Castro and their willingness to do something about it. Luis Posada Carriles, who has been linked to bombings of hotels in Havana and a Cubana Airlines flight, is unusual among the men in this group because he is in jail, facing immigration charges, when the filmmakers find him. But in a telephone interview he sounds the same defiant, if slightly pathetic, note: “I don’t want to be the one to say it, but I think he feels safer when I’m in jail, don’t you?” (Mr. Posada has since been released, even though the Justice Department has labeled him an “admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks.”)
“638 Ways to Kill Castro” is not an objective accounting: the ruggedly handsome Mr. Escalante, who kept Mr. Castro alive for so long, is its action hero, and its primary sources, including the former American diplomat Wayne Smith and the journalist Ann Louise Bardach, are clearly critical of America’s treatment of Cuba. At 75 minutes, the film doesn’t have the time to substantiate themes like the Bush family’s cozy relationship with anti-Castro Cubans in Florida. But it’s hard to doubt the depth of that group’s hatred, and the lengths to which it would go, when you see men in fatigues staging war games in the Everglades, complete with a mock execution of a stand-in Fidel. It’s enough to make you wonder whether he’s safe even now.
638 WAYS TO KILL CASTRO
Sundance, Monday night at 9:15, Eastern and Pacific times; 8:15 Central time.
Directed by Dollan Cannell; Peter Moore, executive producer; Kari Lia, producer; original music by Samuel Sim; cinematography by Petra Graf and Michael Timney.

http://www.nytimes.com

Fidel Castro Resigns

Fidel Castro has resigned as the President of Cuba. This does NOT mean that Cuban cigars are now legal in the United States. To find out what Castro's resignation does mean for U.S. foreign policy, visit Keith Porter's US Foreign Policy Blog for more details, including a list of useful background resources.

BRITISH CONSIDER “LICENSE” TO SMOKE

Los Angeles, February 20 – The state of Maine said it was worried about underage purchases of tobacco products – primarily cigarettes – so it enacted a law five years ago that required delivery firms such as Federal Express and United Parcel Service to only deliver tobacco products shipped by retailers licensed by the state. Moreover, the carrier was allowed to release them only to the addressee and that person had to show identification to prove they were of legal age.For that reason, some mail-order and Internet-based cigar merchants simply stopped shipping to Maine. That all changed on Wednesday.In a rare unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a lower court holding that the federal statutes controlling interstate commerce nationwide trump Maine’s individual law on the shipment of tobacco products. [read more]

Tax on Candy Cigars and smokeless tobacco?

Anti-smoking forces upset over little cigars and candy-flavored tobacco marketed to kids said Tuesday they will push for a 55-percent tax on all non-cigarette tobacco products.
The Investing in Tobacco-Free Youth Coalition said when legislators raised the state cigarette tax in 2003 and 2005, they did not include smokeless products.
'Tobacco products like little cigars, cigars and smokeless tobacco are cheap and come in candy flavors that appeal to kids. Their appeal to youth and the tobacco industry's aggressive marketing of them in Ohio have led to a growing problem in the state,' Shelly Kiser, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association of Ohio, said in a statement.

{READ MORE}

Up in smoke

Up in smoke: California's stogie-loving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has become persona non grata at Sacramento's Tower Pipes and Cigars store.
Schwarzenegger, who set up a smoking tent outside his office to get around the state's smoking ban, fell out of favor with store owner Mark Just for backing an ill-fated health care bill that would have raised tobacco taxes.
"When you raise the tax on cigarettes, it really raises the taxes on high-end cigars, which is what I specialize in," Just said.
As for banning Arnold, "he's never actually been here, but his people call every once in a while to make an order," Just said.
The last time they called, however, Just told them, "Thanks - but no thanks."

www.sfgate.com