Graycliff X-Factor
Graycliff’s new cigar, called the X-Factor, actually has no name yet. They are letting the retailers come up with the name for the cigar and the winning name will get a trip. Here’s the video from the IPCPR.
The Espresso versions of the Graycliff are good but the others are not great. Hopefully, this new one is more like the Espresso versions.
IPCPR Preview
What do porn stars, comic book readers, dentists and cigar smokers have in common? They all have conventions! And this is the time of year for the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) to have theirs. They even have a culturally sensitive mascot, seen below.
According to IPCPR, their annual convention has hundreds of retailers handing out free cigars and other goodies in a couple hundred thousand square feet of space. It’s going to start August 8th and end on the 12th in New Orleans. Yes, it starts tomorrow. So, unless you are already planning on going, you probably won’t be. That means no free cigars but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to know what is going on.
What follows are some links to coverage of IPCPR:
Stogie Review has continuous coverage through their Twitter page. They will be physically attending the shindig but, hopefully, they will leave out the bathroom breaks from their coverage (I hope!).
If you’re a fan of Oliveros cigars and want to see Kinky Friedman then you can go to the Oliveros booth on the 9th, 10th or the 11th to see him.
CAO is going to unveil its new line, La Traviata, which is kind of similar to my first name, at this year’s IPCPR. Here’s a review.
Chief Hava is going to have a Twitter BOTL event on August 11th. And you might also want to check out his post on how the Texas smoke Nazis, in tandem with duplicitous business interests, are stomping out cigars in Galveston, Texas. TEXAS!!!
Want to know what Padron, Patel, Tatuaje, Casa Magna and others will be unveiling at this years IPCPR? Then head on over to The Stogie Guys! They have a short description of all the new cigars.
Alright, that’s enough. Go smoke a cigar!
IPCPR Dismisses ‘Third-Hand’ Smoke
Finally! Some group has the gonads to make fun of something as ridiculous as “third hand smoke.” Here are my favorite takeaways from IPCPR’s Press Release:
When it was originally introduced in mid-2004, it was just another obscure survey. No one paid much attention to it because it was regarded as silly as saying we should ban nail polish because it smells bad long after it is applied. Now that it has been given a catchy name and its publication in the January issue of a magazine about children has been reported on by international news sources, Google is showing nearly one million results for ‘third-hand smoke’ occurring almost overnight.
McCalla suggested tongue-in-cheek that studies may next be done on fourth-hand and fifth-hand smoke, where people who touch the clothes worn by people who have touched the clothes worn by people who went to a cigar bar a week ago might be the object of scrutiny.
The Surgeon General’s report in 2006 called most of its findings inconclusive regarding the effects of secondhand smoke, so how could they move against so-called ‘third-hand smoke’ when the recent survey had nothing to do with its scientific aspects? Also, if ‘third-hand smoke’ should be of concern to anyone , why has OSHA not addressed the subject? In fact, OSHA issued allowable standards for secondhand smoke in the workplace that far exceed that which one may find in a typical cigar bar or restaurant.
And my favorite…
Relax. These are stressful times. Enjoy a good cigar.
Good advice
Smoking Ban Threatened in Virginia
Gary Pesh, the incoming president of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association, recently made some comments defending the right of bar and restaurant to be smoke-friendly establishments in the state of Virginia (living in Southern California, I’m kind of surprised that there are any such places left in the “Free World”). Here are some of his comments:
“No less an independent economic authority than the Federal Reserve Bank has concluded that smoking bans, wherever they occur, hurt businesses, especially bars and restaurants. Their findings include studies based on data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics regarding areas impacted by legislated smoking bans that found ‘statistically significant employment declines at bars, with loss estimates in employment ranging from four percent to 16 percent’.”
And here’s some comments from Chris McCalla, the IPCPR legislative director:
“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is charged with protecting the well-being of employees in the workplace, has established secondhand smoke standards well above the range which might be found in any bar or restaurant,” McCalla said.
“In fact, secondhand smoke air quality testing in such workplaces conducted by the American Cancer Society shows typical secondhand smoke concentrations up to 25,000 times safer even than those already-liberal OSHA standards. And testing by the prestigious Oak Ridge National Laboratory confirms that results of air quality testing of secondhand smoke in bars and restaurants was ‘considerably below limits established by OSHA’,” he said.
My God. Even in Virginia we are fighting a losing battle. Wherever we turn we are hounded like some kind of monster. The only thing that separates us from Frankenstein is that instead of pitch forks the villagers are threatening us with taxes, regulations, and eventual prohibition. Ain’t it great living in the last beacon of freedom on this planet?
