Blowing Smoke

Late one night, seven guys are sitting around at a cigar club in Beverly Hills, smoking cigars, playing high-stakes poker and complaining about how men always seem to get screwed-over by women. Suddenly, there is a knock at the door.  1st Trailer 

 The movie is about what men talk about when women aren’t around. In the end they get fucked but not exactly the way they wanted it… You can love this movie or you can hate it. You might get it and enjoy it or you might get it and say a smart ass comment like “nothing here that I didn’t know about”. That’s fine, we can take it.  2nd Trailer  
Oh, and we have used some really groovy digital technology making this movie, which should make any movie geek go weak in the knees.  3rd Trailer 

The movie is now released on the blog .

Cigars & Academia

The Hallowed Halls of Higher Learning Often Contain a Whiff of Cigar Smoke

by Gene Crume

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The new president of Huxley College prepares to take the podium to deliver his inaugural address to the trustees, faculty and students of that fine institution. He  doesn’t hesitate to take his freshly lit cigar with him. However, the past president of the college disrupts his successor’s presence by stating, “It would please the faculty if you would throw your cigar away.” President Quincy Adams Wagstaff promptly replies to this pompous suggestion in his usual style. “The faculty members might as well keep their seats,” he says with a smirk as he glances out of the corner of his eye. “There will be no diving for this cigar!”

Of course, this wry bit of humor can only be delivered by the incomparable Groucho Marx, and the fictitious Huxley College is merely the setting for the Marx Brothers movie Horse Feathers. While those who work in the hallowed halls of higher education today may not be actually “diving” for cigars, the popularity of cigars continues to be as accepted as robes and research.

So, what is it about cigars that make them so enticing to those who labor on campuses across the country, these same bastions of intellectualism where buildings are adorned with Smoke-Free Facility signs? The answer, quite simply, is culture.

To a cigar smoker, culture means the environment in which one savors a good smoke. To those on college campuses, culture means intellectual discovery, inspirational research and enriching philosphy. In other words, the ability to reflect, ponder and gain insight. What better environment to smoke a cigar. And what better person to start examining these compatible cultures than a professor of philosophy.

“Aristotle said that without leisure you can’t have philosophy,” says Reginald Lilly. “Cigars are an experience of a qualitative difference in life.”

Lilly should know. He is a professor of philosophy at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. His specialty is nineteenth- and twentieth-century European philosophy, and with degrees from the University of Vermont and Duquesne University, he has all the makings of a traditional academician and intellectual. What inspiration does a man this worldly find in cigars? His quotation from Aristotle hints at the answer–leisure and culture.

“You think about the cigar when you smoke it,” Lilly says. “And it goes along with reflecting on other things. I find academic culture to be pretty hospitable to cigars. In some very real senses, I’m probably intellectually closer to my cigar smoking academic friends than those who are specialists in my field.” Or, summing it up nicely for us laymen, he says, “It’s sort of: Light up and let’s see what you’re made of.”

Let’s ride this intellectual wave by consulting with a cultural anthropologist on the subject.

Professor Don Pollock of the State University of New York at Buffalo has always enjoyed the flavor of tobacco. His mother was a cigarette smoker and he can recall the “delicious aroma” whenever she would light up. It was natural for him to be curious about, and experiment with, tobacco. His taste runs to cigars, not cigarettes, and being a part of the college scene only enhances his pleasure.

Even though there’s only one other regular cigar smoker among the 22 professors in the anthropology department, Pollock realizes that cigar smoking requires the more leisured study that academics can give to anything. The image of smoking a cigar conjures up associations of mahogany-paneled smoking parlors or attending the faculty club at an Ivy League school.

“The self-image of an anthropologist is of a bit wilder and unbridled person, perhaps bearded and dripping with native decorations from research locations,” Pollock says. “The cigar feeds into that sense of self-certainty for an anthropologist. It is the extension of university life and the kind of freedom it offers, unlike cigarettes, which are corporate tobacco–simple, neat and efficient, and you’re done.”

Pollock welcomes the new wave of younger cigar smokers. Similar to the increased access to higher education in the 1960s and ’70s in the United States, cigar smoking allows people the opportunity to refine their tastes and their own sense of style.

Former professor Jivan Tabibian notes the paradox between the increasing popularity of cigar smoking and our no-smoking culture. “McDonald’s and America’s interest in gourmet cuisine go hand in hand,” he says. “Education is not that much different.” Tabibian notes that academicians often feel that culture begins and is fostered at colleges and universities, then it moves into the masses and becomes watered down. The debate about political correctness is perhaps the most recent example. He claims that the culture of higher education is more elite than it ever was, but at the same time applications to institutions of higher learning have also increased. This sense of elitism is part of the university culture. We can see the seasoned line worker commenting about the “he-thinks-he-knows-it-all, smart-aleck college boy.”

Tabibian taught political science at the University of Southern California, the University of California, Los Angeles and the California Institute of the Arts during the same period. He has since traded the academic life for a consulting practice and entrepreneurial interests in Southern California, including part ownership of Remi, a hot (and cigar friendly) Los Angeles restaurant. Still, the lure of the college setting is as enticing for Tabibian as a fine cigar, and he enjoys studying this same relationship in the masses.

“The relationship of academics and cigars is one of context,” he says. “Many of us in academia are not at the top of the economic heap. We’ve traded dollars for psychic activity. In that environment of the self-made poor, we have subtle signals to reveal our indulgences.”

Sometimes it’s much simpler than that.

Smoking cigars “is something that I like to do if I’m doing paperwork, reading or writing. I don’t get metaphysical about it,” says Theodore Hesburgh, a priest and former president of the University of Notre Dame, who is known by many as the “elder statesman” of American higher education.

Hesburgh joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 1945. Seven years later, at the age of 35, he was named president. During his 35-year tenure from 1952 to 1987, the number of students, faculty and degrees awarded doubled, Notre Dame’s endowment climbed from $10 million to $400 million, the number of library volumes increased fivefold and the total of buildings on campus went from 48 to 88. During all of this academic progress, the school’s football program produced four national champions, outstanding coaches and some of the finest players the sport has ever seen.

Hesburgh now enjoys an occasional Macanudo–when someone gives him one, because he thinks they’re too expensive to be a personal indulgence. A native of Syracuse, New York, Notre Dame’s president emeritus was a cigarette smoker for many years. However, he gave them up for health reasons, and also because he didn’t think that smoking cigarettes was setting a good example for his students. He toiled with pipes briefly, but found them to be too much trouble, so he settled on cigars. However, just to prove to himself that he’s not addicted and because of his religious commitment, he gives up cigars every year during Lent.

 ”Life is full of checks and balances,” Hesburgh says, “and it’s important not to go overboard on anything–except God, if you will. It’s like asking someone why they like caramel custard. I suppose it’s because he likes it. I don’t want life to be defined by a cigar.”

There’s little chance of that. In addition to his academic achievements, Hesburgh helped start John F. Kennedy’s Peace Corps, has been awarded more honorary degrees than any person in the world (133) and was the recipient of the Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson.

Hesburgh’s desire to be defined by his service rather than his pleasures is shared by an ally from across the Atlantic. Robert Eisenthal is a biochemist at the University of Bath in England and his progression to cigars mirrors Hesburgh’s. Although he prefers to smoke an inexpensive Hamlet cigar as a daily indulgence, Eisenthal won’t turn down a fine Cuban if offered. However, he, too, keeps his cigar smoking in perspective.

“I do actually enjoy it, but I have to admit it’s an addiction as well,” Eisenthal says in his acquired British accent. Born in England but educated at Amherst College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he has made his home in England since the mid-1960s, when he fell in love with a British woman while completing a fellowship at Cambridge.

Still, Eisenthal appreciates the residual benefits that accompany a cigar, like sharing a smoke and a pint of ale with a friend in a local pub. He doesn’t see a cigar smoking craze in England like the one that is sweeping the States, but he does see the allure that a cigar has to conversation when enjoyed among friends.

It’s an allure that attracts students as well. “I like to dive into debate both pro and con,” says Rodney Cohen, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College in Nashville. “This kind of debate helps me look at life through different lenses. The cigar is somewhat soothing and stimulating for intellectual discourse.”

Cohen is a well-dressed, articulate young man who speaks like a professor of 25 years tenure. His academic experiences have assisted in his cool, comfortable demeanor. Cohen earned his undergraduate degree in biology from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University). He remained at his alma mater to teach freshman chemistry and conduct biomedical research. After picking up a master’s degree in student affairs (higher education administration), Cohen moved to Nashville to conduct his doctoral work. He hopes to parlay these experiences into a position in university administration.

He remains quite philosophical about his cigar passion, one that he has maintained since he was an undergraduate in Atlanta. “The cigar is artistic itself,” he says. “It’s not the act of smoking, but what the smoking represents. It’s an act of pleasure.”

Cohen also believes that where you buy your cigars is as important as what you smoke. After all, it is difficult to pick up the newest $100 biology book at Waldenbooks, as opposed to the campus bookstore. The same goes for the choice of tobacco shop. “At the tobacco shop I frequent, there is almost always a game of backgammon or chess,” says Cohen. “I find myself smoking my first cigar there and getting into a conversation with the others in the shop.”

Some 60 miles to the north at Western Kentucky University, talk flows just as freely at the Bowling Green Pipe and Tobacco Shoppe. Lee Davis has been selling cigars to faculty members and administrators of Western for several years. On any given day, her shop is full of conversation from many of the local townsfolk, who are often waxing philosophical. Some of them linger, while others add their two cents worth while purchasing their cigars and then leave.

English professors, development officers and even the men’s basketball coach wander in and out of her establishment and its walk-in humidor, much like undergrads frequent the campus student center. This scene isn’t unlike that of many tobacco shops around other college campuses. It is the culture of college.

Ron Beck has been prowling this small university town for more than 25 years. After graduating from Western in 1968, Beck attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. Shortly thereafter he came back to Western Kentucky, where he has served as the assistant dean of student affairs, associate director of alumni affairs and director of planned giving, his current position. The one constant in this mix is his love of cigars.

“Actually, I started smoking cigars when I was a junior in college during finals week,” Beck says as he enjoys a Rolando Perfecto outside the Craig Alumni Center on Western’s campus. “My roommate was a cigar smoker, and we sat out on the lawn late one April day and smoked cigars while we were cramming for our finals.”

Beck almost always wears a serious expression that is punctuated by a firm brow and deep, inset eyes. However, his expression warms and his eyebrows lift when the subject turns to his passion for cigars. “One of the unique things about working in the university environment is the freedom that it offers for individual expression,” he says. “That is one of the hallmarks of university life.”

With the passion of a preacher gliding into the crescendo of a Sunday sermon, Beck warms to his subject. “Working in this environment for almost 26 years, you have the opportunity to work with young people who are generally highly motivated and a more inquisitive type of people. In the process, you set higher standards for yourself in all facets of life–and that would include cigars.”

The cigar has served Beck in other ways. It isn’t uncommon for him to make note of a donor’s love of cigars and share a smoke upon subsequent visits. The art of donor relations is the process of cultivating friendships. While the relationship may be as much professional as it is personal, the cigar enhances the bond much like fine conversation between old friends. Beck agrees: “The cigar is a currency of friendship among fellow cigar smokers.”

A few years back, Patricia A. Cooper published an interesting study of the work culture of American cigar factories in her book, Once a Cigar Maker: Men, Women and Work Culture in American Cigar Factories, 1900-1919 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987). Cooper defines work culture as “the patterns of daily work into which any newcomer would be initiated after a time–the unwritten rules, the ways of doing the job, and how one thought about his or her work. But work culture is not simply a collection of interesting traditions. I found a coherent system of ideas and practices, forged in the context of the work process itself, through which workers modified, mediated and resisted the limits of their jobs.”

Practices that “modified, mediated and resisted the limits of their jobs.” Cooper could have easily described the university lifestyle and its cultural affair with the cigar.

Article from Cigaraficionado, Gene Crume is the director of alumni affairs at Western Kentucky University and a regional freelance writer.

Cigar Rights of America

FIGHTING TO PROTECT YOUR FREEDOM TO ENJOY CIGARS

These are the principles on which America was founded. Unfortunately for cigar enthusiasts, the age-old pleasure of enjoying a cigar is under attack. On a daily basis, your freedom to enjoy a cigar is being stripped away by an overzealous, anti-smoking movement. Their tactics are varied; be it through supporting onerous cigar taxes or lobbying government for restrictive smoking bans. The anti-smoking movement will stop at nothing short of the complete prohibition of tobacco.

The Declaration of Independence of the United States ensures that all men and women have the freedom and the right to the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, cigar enthusiasts have slowly allowed these rights to be removed. Over the past twenty years, the anti-tobacco movement has broadened their reach and scope and are moving towards abolishing ALL forms of tobacco including cigars. Until recently there has essentially been very little organized opposition to their actions. And why should there have been? Most of us assumed that their attention was directed towards cigarettes.

Unfortunately, we were wrong.

Forty-eight states in America have enacted cigar taxes. Some states have gone as far as taxing cigars at a rate of 80%. Currently, the entire cigar industry is threatened by the Federal Government’s State Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) that threatens to increase the Federal cigar tax by as much as 6,000% (no this is not a typo). If it weren’t for President Bush ’s veto of the bill proposed by the House and Senate last fall, you would currently be paying exorbitantly high prices for the cigars you enjoy so much and nearly every cigar shop in America would have been forced out of business. The proposed bill, which will tax cigars to fund SCHIP, is not dead yet. After the upcoming 2008 November election, the House and Senate will again attempt to increase the Federal tax on cigars to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan.

In addition to a tax increase on cigars, regularly introduced anti-smoking legislation has made it close to impossible for cigar enthusiasts to enjoy cigars. In many states, you are not allowed to enjoy a cigar at your local restaurant or bar. Cities around America are now proposing bans which will, if enacted, stop you from enjoying a cigar outside of public buildings. Who would have thought that the day would come when you cannot legally enjoy a cigar walking down the beach or sitting in your local park?

There is a war against cigar enthusiasts everywhere. To combat the very influential anti-smoking movement, we need your help NOW . Join CIGAR RIGHTS OF AMERICA (CRA) and join the fight to protect your rights. Cigar Rights of America has been formed to fight unjustified tax increases and halt smoking bans. For years, cigar enthusiasts have been trampled on by all levels of government. With increasing risk of further local, State and Federal government intervention, now is the time for the cigar community to UNITE and have a powerful voice to protect our rights.

Sexy Blonde Cigar Smoker

Ron Perlman, Hellboy & Neighbor Selma Blair

Naked Women Cigar Calendar

If you find naked women and cigars a fine art together, you might want to take a look at this naked women calendar. Naked Women

Fire up the victory cigar! Stogies back in vogue

GOLF: U.S. OPEN -Tiger Woods- can he play again?

Woods finds a will and a way
World No. 1 wins 14th major in dramatic playoff, but has to fight through pain and a never-say-die opponent

LORNE RUBENSTEIN
rube@sympatico.ca

June 17, 2008

It wasn’t long after Tiger Woods had won the U.S. Open Championship yesterday in a playoff over Rocco Mediate when he said it was his most meaningful victory. That says something, given he’d already won 13 other major tournaments and 51 PGA Tour events.

Woods didn’t say his win meant so much because of the pain he was in because of a sore left knee. He chooses not to speak publicly about his physical problems, but he had to feel the win meant that much more because he had to play through intense pain.

Woods had surgery on the knee on April 15. He was hurting during the 72 holes of regulation play and the 19 holes he went yesterday to overcome Mediate. His win was a function of will as much as it was of pure talent. Or, to put it another way, it was a matter of won’t, as in, “I won’t let the knee stop me.”

When it was all over, Woods said as much.

“I wasn’t going to bag it,” Woods said. “That’s not my nature. I don’t know how to do it.”

Woods wasn’t wincing or in evident pain the final nine holes of regulation play on Sunday or during yesterday’s playoff, which was scheduled for 18 holes but went an extra hole because he and Mediate had remained tied. Woods had said on Sunday that he had taken something for the pain. Presumably, he did the same yesterday.

Whatever his pain level, it only served to help him demonstrate how much game he has, which isn’t to say he had control of his driver during the U.S. Open. He hit just seven of 14 fairways yesterday, for example. Still, the shots he hit on the par-5 18th hole on Saturday, more than any of the others, were improvisational wonders. They defined his determination and the vast range of shots at his disposal.

Woods was in serious pain playing down the stretch on Saturday. He wanted to put the ball into the fairway to have a chance to go for the 18th green over a pond. But his normal swing would put too much pressure on his left knee. Woods twists that knee hard through impact and straightens his leg when he wants to go after a drive. But he couldn’t do that then.

And so he elected to play a big cut with a 5-wood. His caddy, Steve Williams, said it was a 50-yard slice. Woods had 225 yards to the hole, for which he would probably hit a 4-iron under normal circumstances. He’d usually play the shot way up in the air and on a straight line.

His knee wouldn’t allow him to hit the shot, so he aimed far to the left. Even Woods can easily double-cross such an out-of-the-box shot and send the ball flying into parts unknown, in this case way to the left. Woods hit the shot anyway. The ball finished 25 feet or so behind the hole, and he made the putt for a closing eagle that got him into the final twosome on Sunday with Lee Westwood. It also gave him the lead in the championship.

That was sheer will. He then stood on the same 18th green on Sunday, the last man on the course and needing to hole a 12-foot birdie putt to tie Mediate and force the playoff yesterday. Woods seemed to go into a trance as he studied the putt and then he made it.

He was the overwhelming favourite to win the playoff. But Mediate, the David to Woods’s Goliath, relished the situation and distinguished himself from start to finish. He isn’t exactly lacking in will himself, and he had the U.S. Open in his grasp when he stood over an 18-foot birdie putt on that 18th green yesterday.

The putt didn’t go down, and then Woods holed his four-footer for a birdie to tie Mediate and extend the playoff. He parred, Mediate bogeyed and Woods had won his third U.S. Open.

What now? Woods all but admitted to the Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner yesterday that he went against medical advice by playing. He said he plans to re-evaluate his health and didn’t indicate when he will play again. The British Open will be played from July 17 through 20. He would hate to miss it, but he refuses to divulge the extent of his knee problems and so it’s impossible to know whether he will play.

As for Mediate, he proved that, as he said, “I can handle the unbelievable heat this man will put on you.”

Mediate won fans all over the world, but Woods won the trophy. He won it on one leg, and he won it with will. Tiger Woods is a force of nature.

Q & A About Cigar Smoking and Cancer

What are the health risks associated with cigar smoking?
Scientific evidence has shown that cancers of the oral cavity (lip, tongue, mouth, and throat), larynx, lung, and esophagus are associated with cigar smoking. Furthermore, evidence strongly suggests a link between cigar smoking and cancer of the pancreas. In addition, daily cigar smokers, particularly those who inhale, are at increased risk for developing heart and lung disease.

Like cigarette smoking, the risks from cigar smoking increase with increased exposure. For example, compared with someone who has never smoked, smoking only one to two cigars per day doubles the risk for oral and esophageal cancers. Smoking three to four cigars daily can increase the risk of oral cancers to more than eight times the risk for a nonsmoker, while the chance of esophageal cancer is increased to four times the risk for someone who has never smoked. Both cigar and cigarette smokers have similar levels of risk for oral, throat, and esophageal cancers.

The health risks associated with occasional cigar smoking (less than daily) are not known. About three-quarters of cigar smokers are occasional smokers.

What is the effect of inhalation on disease risk?
One of the major differences between cigar and cigarette smoking is the degree of inhalation. Almost all cigarette smokers report inhaling while the majority of cigar smokers do not because cigar smoke is generally more irritating. However, cigar smokers who have a history of cigarette smoking are more likely to inhale cigar smoke. Cigar smokers experience higher rates of lung cancer, coronary heart disease, and chronic obstructive lung disease than nonsmokers, but not as high as the rates for cigarette smokers. These lower rates for cigar smokers are probably related to reduced inhalation.

How are cigars and cigarettes different?
Cigars and cigarettes differ in both size and the type of tobacco used. Cigarettes are generally more uniform in size and contain less than 1 gram of tobacco each. Cigars, on the other hand, can vary in size and shape and can measure more than 7 inches in length. Large cigars typically contain between 5 and 17 grams of tobacco. It is not unusual for some premium cigars to contain the tobacco equivalent of an entire pack of cigarettes. U.S. cigarettes are made from different blends of tobaccos, whereas most cigars are composed primarily of a single type of tobacco (air-cured or dried burley tobacco). Large cigars can take between 1 and 2 hours to smoke, whereas most cigarettes on the U.S. market take less than 10 minutes to smoke.

How are the health risks associated with cigar smoking different from those associated with smoking cigarettes?
Health risks associated with both cigars and cigarettes are strongly linked to the degree of smoke exposure. Since smoke from cigars and cigarettes are composed of many of the same toxic and carcinogenic (cancer causing) compounds, the differences in health risks appear to be related to differences in daily use and level of inhalation.

Most cigarette smokers smoke every day and inhale. In contrast, as many as three-quarters of cigar smokers smoke only occasionally, and the majority do not inhale.

All cigar and cigarette smokers, whether or not they inhale, directly expose the lips, mouth, tongue, throat, and larynx to smoke and its carcinogens. Holding an unlit cigar between the lips also exposes these areas to carcinogens. In addition, when saliva containing smoke constituents is swallowed, the esophagus is exposed to carcinogens. These exposures probably account for the fact that oral and esophageal cancer risks are similar among cigar smokers and cigarette smokers.

Cancer of the larynx occurs at lower rates among cigar smokers who do not inhale than among cigarette smokers. Lung cancer risk among daily cigar smokers who do not inhale is double that of nonsmokers, but significantly less than the risk for cigarette smokers. However, the lung cancer risk from moderately inhaling smoke from five cigars a day is comparable to the risk from smoking up to one pack of cigarettes a day.

What are the hazards for nonsmokers exposed to cigar smoke?
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), also known as secondhand or passive smoke, is the smoke released from a lit cigar or cigarette. The ETS from cigars and cigarettes contains many of the same toxins and irritants (such as carbon monoxide, nicotine, hydrogen cyanide, and ammonia), as well as a number of known carcinogens (such as benzene, nitrosamines, vinyl chloride, arsenic, and hydrocarbons). Because cigars contain greater amounts of tobacco than cigarettes, they produce greater amounts of ETS.

There are, however, some differences between cigar and cigarette smoke due to the different ways cigars and cigarettes are made. Cigars go through a long aging and fermentation process. During the fermentation process, high concentrations of carcinogenic compounds are produced. These compounds are released when a cigar is smoked. Also, cigar wrappers are less porous than cigarette wrappers. The nonporous cigar wrapper makes the burning of cigar tobacco less complete than cigarette tobacco. As a result, compared with cigarette smoke, the concentrations of toxins and irritants are higher in cigar smoke. In addition, the larger size of most cigars (more tobacco) and longer smoking time produces higher exposures to nonsmokers of many toxic compounds (including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, ammonia, cadmium, and other substances) than a cigarette. For example, measurements of the carbon monoxide (CO) concentration at a cigar party and a cigar banquet in a restaurant showed indoor CO levels comparable to those measured on a crowded California freeway. Such exposures could place nonsmoking workers attending such events at significantly increased risk for cancer as well as heart and lung diseases.

Are cigars addictive?
Nicotine is the agent in tobacco that is capable of causing addiction or dependence. Cigarettes have an average total nicotine content of about 8.4 milligrams, while many popular brands of cigars will contain between 100 and 200 milligrams, or as many as 444 milligrams of nicotine.

As with cigarette smoking, when cigar smokers inhale, nicotine is absorbed rapidly. However, because of the composition of cigar smoke and the tendency of cigar smokers not to inhale, the nicotine is absorbed predominantly through the lining of the mouth rather than in the lung. It is important to note that nicotine absorbed through the lining of the mouth is capable of forming a powerful addiction, as demonstrated by the large number of people addicted to smokeless tobacco. Both inhaled and noninhaled nicotine can be addictive. The infrequent use by the average cigar smoker, low number of cigars smoked per day, and lower rates of inhalation compared with cigarette smokers have led some to suggest that cigar smokers may be less likely to be dependent than cigarette smokers.

Addiction studies of cigarettes and spit tobacco show that addiction to nicotine occurs almost exclusively during adolescence and young adulthood when young people begin using these tobacco products. Also, several studies raise the concern that use of cigars may predispose individuals to the use of cigarettes. A recent survey showed that the relapse rate of former cigarette smokers who smoked cigars was twice as great as the relapse rate of former cigarette smokers who did not smoke cigars. The study also observed that cigar smokers were more than twice as likely to take up cigarette smoking for the first time than people who never smoked cigars.

What are the benefits of quitting?
There are many health benefits to quitting cigar smoking. The likelihood of developing cancer decreases. Also, when someone quits, an improvement in health is seen almost immediately. For example, blood pressure, pulse rate, and breathing patterns start returning to normal soon after quitting. People who quit will also see an improvement in their overall quality of life. People who decide to quit have many options available to them. Some people choose to quit all at once. Other options gaining popularity in this country are nicotine replacement products, such as patches, gum, and nasal sprays. If considering quitting, ask your doctor to recommend a plan that could best suit you and your lifestyle.

What are the current trends in cigar smoking?
Although cigar smoking occurs primarily among males between the ages of 35 and 64 who have higher educational backgrounds and incomes, recent studies suggest new trends. Most new cigar users today are teenagers and young adult males (ages 18 to 24) who smoke occasionally (less than daily). According to two large statewide studies conducted among California adults in 1990 and 1996, cigar use has increased nearly five times among women and appears to be increasing among adolescent females as well. Furthermore, a number of studies have reported high rates of use among not only teens but preteens. Cigar use among older males (age 65 and older), however, has continued to decline since 1992.

How are current trends in cigar smoking different from past decades?
Total cigar consumption declined by about 66 percent from 1973 until 1993. Cigar use has increased more than 50 percent since 1993. The increase in cigar use in the early 1990s coincided with an increase in promotional media activities for cigars.

What additional information is available about the effects of cigar smoking?
The 1998 NCI monograph Cigars: Health Effects and Trends can be ordered from the Cancer Information Service (see below). U.S. residents can order the monograph online at http://www.cancer.gov/publications on the Internet. (The monograph can also be viewed and downloaded from this Web site.)

Additional information on the health effects of tobacco is available from the CDC’s Tobacco Information and Prevention Source (TIPS) at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco on the Internet. This program collects and distributes reports and news about tobacco, lists services available for people trying to quit using tobacco products, and produces publications about tobacco and the dangers of its use.

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National Cancer Institute (NCI) Resources

Cancer Information Service (toll-free)
Telephone: 1–800–4–CANCER (1–800–422–6237)
TTY: 1–800–332–8615

Online
NCI’s Web site: http://www.cancer.gov
LiveHelp, NCI’s live online assistance: https://cissecure.nci.nih.gov/livehelp/welcome.asp

Famous Cigar Smokers

WINSTON CHURCHILL
Throughout his long life, Churchill nourished England with his battlefield bravery, political courage and prolific writing, and nourished himself with the best food, drink and cigars he could find. The man for whom the imposing Churchill cigar size is named smoked eight to 10 cigars a day, primarily Cuban brand. Not even the necessity of wearing an oxygen mask for a high-altitude flight in a non-pressurized cabin could prevent Churchill from smoking. As the story goes, the prime minister requested that a special mask be created that would allow him to smoke while airborne. Naturally, the request was fulfilled. On another occasion, Churchill hosted a luncheon for King Ibn Sa’ud of Saudi Arabia, who did not allow smoking or drinking in his presence. Rather than submit to the king’s wishes, Churchill pointed out that “my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.” The king was convinced.
Favorite cigar: Romeo y Julieta

FIDEL CASTRO
Until he gave up the habit in 1985, the man who has ruled Cuba with an iron fist for 40 years was synonymous with cigars. Only a rising national concern over the health risks of smoking would lead to Castro’s unequivocal decision to stop smoking cigars, even in private, to set an example for his people. Just because he abandoned a pastime that he had relished for 44 years doesn’t mean he doesn’t still think about cigars. He would occasionally dream that he was smoking a cigar, though he would admonish himself for doing so. “Even in my dreams I used to think that I was doing something wrong,” he said in a 1994 Cigar Aficionado interview. “I was conscious that I had not permitted myself to smoke anymore, but I was still enjoying it in my sleep.” Years earlier, when Castro and the rebels were plotting how to topple the Batista regime, the only time he did without cigars was when he ran out of them. Anticipating those infrequent occasions, he would hoard his last smoke, lighting it only to celebrate a victory or console himself over a setback.
Favorite cigar: Cohiba Corona Especial

KING EDWARD VII
“Gentlemen, you may smoke.” With those simple words, spoken shortly after his coronation in 1901, Britain’s Edward VII ended the tobacco intolerance that had marked Queen Victoria’s reign. Yet Edward’s pro-cigar stance was nothing new. In 1866, as the high-living Prince of Wales, he had quit his London gentlemen’s club over its no-smoking policy (the final straw was when a servant admonished him for lighting up). He took 20 percent of the membership with him, and they soon established a club where smoking was heartily encouraged

MARK TWAIN
The author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn smoked at least 22 cigars a day, maybe as many as 40. Twain, nיe Samuel Clemens, supposedly once declared, “If smoking is not allowed in heaven, I shall not go.” Twain’s penchant for cigars didn’t necessarily mean he smoked the best cigars. He knew that even his closest acquaintances were reviled by his stogie selections. Once, as he would later relate in his essay “Concerning Tobacco,” he pilfered a handful of costly and elegant cigars from a friend’s house, removed the labels, and placed the smokes in a box identified by his favorite brand. He then invited the man and 11 other friends over for dinner, offering each a cigar afterward. Everyone shortly excused themselves, and the next morning Twain found the cigars sprawled outside–except for the one left on the plate of the man from whom the cigars had been filched. “He told me afterward that some day I would get shot for giving people that kind of cigars to smoke.”
Favorite cigars: Anything except a Havana

JOHN F. KENNEDY
When you’re the president of the United States, you can get just about anything you’d like. What the 35th president wanted in early 1962 was a bunch of Cuban cigars, 1,000 Petit Upmanns to be exact. He gave his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, less than 24 hours to round them up. Short notice for such a big request, but then JFK had a pressing reason for procuring the stash in such a timely fashion. He was about to sign an embargo prohibiting any Cuban products from entering the country, including his beloved cigars. The embargo was born of a nasty spat that the United States was having with Cuba and its fears that Fidel Castro represented a growing threat to America’s security. But before Kennedy could act, he needed Salinger to complete his assignment. The press secretary didn’t let him down, as he managed to scrounge up 1,200 cigars. Kennedy then signed the embargo, and Cuban tobacco has been off-limits to Americans ever since.
Favorite cigar: Petit Upmann

GEORGE BURNS
From an impromptu singing gig in a candy store at the age of seven, to his enduring partnership with Gracie Allen, to solo stand-up comedy acts into his late 90s, Burns kept American audiences in stitches through most of the twentieth century. Invariably, he smoked his trustworthy El Producto cigars during his act, not because he couldn’t afford a more expensive cigar, but because they stayed lit on stage longer than the more tightly packed Havana smokes. “If you have to stop your act to keep lighting your cigar, the audience goes out,” he once cracked. The legendary star of vaudeville, radio, TV and film resurrected his movie career in the 1970s with starring roles in The Sunshine Boys and Oh, God! Burns, who lived to 100, credited his 10- to 15-cigar-a-day habit over a 70-year span with not only keeping him spry on stage but also with helping him outlive his physician. “If I had taken my doctor’s advice and quit smoking when he advised me to,” Burns quipped at age 98, “I wouldn’t have lived to go to his funeral.”
Favorite cigar: El Producto

SIGMUND FREUD
The father of psychoanalysis saw phallic symbols everywhere, but nevertheless conceded that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” He began smoking at 24, enjoyed an average of 20 cigars a day, and was rarely photographed without his tobacco companion. He often stated that he couldn’t work without cigars and that “smoking was one of the greatest pleasures in life.” A lifetime smoker, he favored Don Pedros, Reina Cubanas and Dutch Liliputanos.

MILTON BERLE
Most men would be thrilled if their wives relished the smoke wafting from their cigars. Berle must be ecstatic, as all three of his spouses supported his hankering for Havanas. Even Marilyn Monroe, with whom the entertainer had a short fling before she became a star, savored the aroma of his cigars, and Uncle Miltie, who regularly tried to wean his friends off cigarettes and on to cigars, once bought a box of small cigars for the blonde bombshell, hoping to persuade her to switch. Berle’s second wife, Ruth, not only supported his cigar habit, she showed ingenuity in doing so. During their honeymoon in Paris, Ruth went shopping for an evening bag, trying larger and larger sizes until she found one that could fit four of Miltie’s mammoth Cubans. Before flying on to Rome, Berle packed some 500 Havanas, but customs officials there informed him that visitors were limited to 100 cigars. Nonplussed, Ruth pulled out a cigar from her bag and asked Berle for a light. “She nearly choked to death smoking it,” Berle recalled, “but it enabled us to bring another hundred cigars in.”
Favorite cigar: H. Upmann

CHE GUEVARA
Although he was asthmatic, Argentinian-born Che took up cigar smoking as one of his first Cuban customs. While serving as Fidel Castro’s right-hand man during the Cuban revolution, he allowed himself two indulgences: books and cigars. But good tobacco was scarce in the mountains of Cuba, so any cigars they got were highly prized. After taking his share, Guevara used cigars as incentives for his soldiers because, as he wrote, “a smoke in times of rest is a great companion to the solitary soldier.”

GROUCHO MARX
A cigar sometimes got the comedian into trouble. Once, his third wife, Eden, objected to his “stinky old cigar” and ordered him to extinguish it or get a new wife. On an earlier occasion, Marx splurged for a 10-cent pure Havana after spotting an advertisement that promised “thirty glorious minutes in Havana.” When the cigar lasted only 20 minutes, Groucho demanded a replacement. Somehow, each subsequent cigar met the same fate, until after the fifth one the merchant wised up and tossed Groucho out.

Some smokers from the sport world

BABE RUTH 
His larger-than-life persona, his considerable girth, and his zest for excess couldn’t disguise the fact that George Herman Ruth was one of the best baseball players of the century. A standout pitcher for the Boston Red Sox before being traded to the New York Yankees, Ruth was the greatest slugger of his time, and perhaps of all time. Off the field, the Babe loved the good life: food, drink, women–and cigars. While still in Boston, he invested in a local cigar factory that produced nickel smokes with his picture plastered on the wrapper. “I smoked them until I was blue in the face,” he once lamented. On a road trip, he snuck a woman into the room he was sharing with Ernie Shore, a fellow Red Sox pitcher (who once combined with Ruth to pitch a perfect game against the Washington Senators). Not surprisingly, Shore couldn’t sleep, as the sounds emanating from the Babe’s bed were hard to shut out. The next day, Shore noticed four or five cigar butts next to a sleeping Ruth. The Babe’s explanation later: “Oh, that! I like a cigar every time I’m finished.” 
Favorite cigar: “Babe Ruth” perfecto 

MICHAEL JORDAN 
When the NBA legend made a move on court, few opponents could stop him. Off the court, it was much the same way. Case in point: Jordan would be smoking, say, a Cuban Montecristo No. 2 on the Bulls’ bus. Would any of his nonsmoking teammates ever ask the five-time league MVP to snuff out his cigar? As former teammate John Salley once put it: “We were just apostles. Jesus was smoking, that’s all there is to it. What are you going to say?” 

RED AUERBACH 
“I didn’t want to rub anything in or show anybody what a great coach I was when I was 25 points ahead. Why? I gotta win by 30? What the hell difference does it make?” To Auerbach, sitting down on the bench to smoke a cigar in the waning minutes of a Boston Celtics triumph was his way of exuding humility. No one else saw it that way, though. To opposing fans, the “victory cigar” symbolized smugness in being able to administer such an awful beating to their team. Opposing players would be motivated by the cigar, doubling their intensity level until the final buzzer. Even Red’s own players suffered from the fourth-quarter fumigation. According to guard Bob Cousy, the sight of Auerbach sitting calmly smoking a cigar only served to increase the fans’ hostility and the abuse they heaped upon the Celtics. Auerbach’s victory ritual was so reviled that the Cincinnati Royals management once handed out 5,000 cigars to its fans, instructing them to light up when the Royals won. Instead, the move backfired, as a fired-up Celtics squad blew the Royals off the court. 
Favorite cigar: Hoyo de Monterrey 

WAYNE GRETZKY 
The hockey great prefers a mild smoke such as a Macanudo or an Ashton 898. He and his wife, actress Janet Jones, are frequent guests at gala cigar events.

ANDRE AGASSI 
When he’s not blowing smoke past his opponents on the court, the tennis ace, who won his second U.S. Open title in September, is stalking premium smokes in his hometown of Las Vegas.

Some smokers from the politics world

BILL CLINTON
Does he or doesn’t he? The 42nd president is known for chewing cigars on the golf course, but there have been only a few reports of his actually smoking a cigar. It’s well known that the first lady bans tobacco smoke from the White House, but does the chief executive light up somewhere else–say, for instance, on a state visit overseas? Perhaps if Hillary makes her way to the Senate, she’ll entrust her husband with the authority to set the smoking regulations in their new home in New York.

HARRISON FORD
The reluctantly hunky Hollywood heavyweight has been dubbed “Star of the Century” for his reign as the all-time top box office draw. Revered for his honest and moral on-screen presence, Ford has appeared in an eclectic mix of films such as the Star Wars trilogy, Witness and Clear and Present Danger. A member of the $20 million-per-picture club, Ford shies away from the Hollywood scene, preferring the company of his family on their large Wyoming ranch, where he can puff in peace.

Tom DeLay
American politician who has long been known as a strong supporter of the trade embargo against Cuba. In a photo, published in 2005 by Time Magazine, DeLay is seen smoking a Cuban cigar.

Ulysses S. Grant
18th President of the United States and American Civil War hero. Some Historians say that he smoked 20 cigars a day. He began smoking cigars at Fort Adelson in 1862. When a reporter commented that Grant liked cigars, people began sending him cigars. He received over 20,000.

RUDOLPH GIULIANI
As mayor of New York, Giuliani has focused on quality of life issues and watched crime rates plunge. The former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York has a sophisticated palate for cigars, preferring full-bodied smokes from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. He came upon his predilections after having been tutored in cigars by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, maker of La Gloria Cubana. He is a frequent guest at Cigar Aficionado Big Smokes and enjoys cigars late at night. Some

FIORELLO LA GUARDIA
The New York mayor known for fighting corruption and organized crime generally left his cigar band on while smoking

Ken Clarke
British politician, once Deputy Chairman of British American Tobacco, lobbying the developing world to reject stronger health warnings on cigarette packets.

Some smokers from the movies world

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
It never hurts to have a father-in-law who smokes cigars. Sargent Shriver, the father of Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria, the TV correspondent, offered him a cigar after a dinner, shortly after Schwarzenegger and Maria met in 1977. Now, any complaints Maria might make about her husband’s cigar smoking can be parried with a quick reference to her dad. “You can always say, ‘Look, honey, your father wouldn’t have introduced me to something that’s bad,’ ” the ex-bodybuilder once cracked.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG
If there’s anyone who’s hard to pigeonhole, it’s Goldberg. She has been nominated for an Oscar for her performance in The Color Purple and been named best supporting actress in Ghost. Her screwball stand-up routines are renowned, but she has also hosted a talk show in which she explored serious subjects. She’s just as difficult to classify when it comes to cigars. While she prefers small cigars, she’s been known to light up a big Cohiba now and then.

JACK NICHOLSON
The three-time Academy Award winner had been a longtime cigarette smoker when he took up golf in the early 1990s. He found himself smoking half a pack during a round to calm his nerves, so he decided to switch to cigars from around the fifth hole on. The change helped relax him, and eventually Nicholson got down to a 12 handicap. The actor first became enamored of Cuban cigars in 1973, when he was making The Last Detail, insisting that the petty officer character he played be a cigar smoker. The picture was shot in Canada, affording easy access to Havanas. When he resumed cigar smoking in the ’90s, one of Nicholson’s favorite haunts was the Forum in Los Angeles, where he would attend most of the Lakers’ home games. At one time he was able to light up right on the arena floor, but as California antismoking laws got tougher, he found himself relegated to a hallway and, eventually, outside the building itself. “But I get around it,” he said in 1995. “I sneak into the men’s room at halftime, like when I was in high school, and take my drags there.”
Favorite cigar: Montecristo

BRUCE WILLIS
Willis, who first gained attention as the wisecracking David Addison on ABC’s “Moonlighting,” has electrified worldwide audiences in a number of big-budget blockbusters that usually have him, if not saving the world (Armageddon), then saving the day (the Die Hard trilogy). He has demonstrated a flair for comedy as well, as shown in The Player. During the mid-1990s, Willis frequented Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Monday night cigar dinners at Schatzi on Main.

MICHAEL DOUGLAS
The award-winning actor-producer has a proclivity for playing flawed heroes and antiheroes. Douglas received an Academy Award for Best Picture as producer of the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a corporate high roller in Wall Street. He also starred in Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses and everyone’s favorite cautionary tale on the dangers of adultery, Fatal Attraction. He enjoys smoking Montecristo No. 2s on the golf course.

TOM CRUISE
The star of Top Gun, Mission: Impossible and Eyes Wide Shut has been a cigar aficionado throughout most of the 1990s. A scene for his 1996 hit, Jerry Maguire, was filmed at the Grand Havana Room in Los Angeles. During the middle of the decade, Cruise reportedly had a standing order for Cuban Cohibas with London and Geneva tobacconists. He and his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, once presented their friend, Demi Moore, with a travel humidor for her birthday.

CHARLIE CHAPLIN
The perceived connection between cigars and wealth was one that actor-director Chaplin used to great effect in his films. Having survived a poverty-stricken childhood, Chaplin’s sympathies were always with the underdog, famously symbolized in his character, the Tramp. Although the Tramp was not above picking up the cast-off cigar butts of the rich, in City Lights Chaplin used a big cigar both as a symbol of the upper class, with its wealth and power, and as a spear to harpoon it.

JOHN TRAVOLTA
The actor who first came on the public’s radar screen as Vinnie Barberino in TV’s “Welcome Back, Kotter” and then skyrocketed to star stature as the disco-dancing Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever has a long-standing affection for cigars. Some of his fondest memories are of his father smoking White Owls during his childhood in New Jersey. As a film star, Travolta can afford to reward himself with less pedestrian smokes: Davidoffs, Dunhills and Montecristos are his favorites.

MEL GIBSON
Even if Gibson were not a famous movie star, his name would be well known to habituיs of some of the country’s better cigar-friendly establishments–Club Macanudo, Grand Havana Room, etc. His name is etched there in brass on humidor boxes for all to see. The winner of the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Braveheart didn’t mind risking his clean-cut image and rankling the Morals Police by announcing he would play a tobacco lobbyist in Thank You for Smoking

BILL COSBY
There’s something about winter that doesn’t seem so funny to the man who has made millions laugh. In 1994, Cosby was watching the ladies’ figure skating finals in the Winter Olympics on TV, puffing away on an Ashton. Suddenly, Tonya Harding began to cry during her routine. No, Nancy Kerrigan hadn’t just blasted her with a bazooka; rather, the problem was a wayward shoelace. Mesmerized by the drama, Cosby took his cigar, which he had placed in an ashtray, and stuck it in his mouth–ash end first. His tongue told him he had “instantly made a very serious mistake.” Two winters earlier, the comedian experienced another tobacco tribulation. As he walked about Manhattan with a cigar, the 38 degree chill “turned my warm, succulent corona into a piece of cold, soggy rutabaga.” Stopping in a store that sold expensive gadgets for the Man Who Has Everything, as he described it, Cosby hoped to find some device that would keep his cigar warm. No such luck. “What kind of store was this?” he ruminated. “How could a man have everything if he didn’t have a thing to keep his cigar warm?”
Favorite cigar: Ashton Maduro No. 60

DEMI MOORE
Moore is partial to small cigars, such as the Montecristo Joyita, but also enjoys a Cohiba No. 2 or a Montecristo No. 2.

SYLVESTER STALLONE
Somewhere between Rocky and Rambo lies Stallone the connoisseur. While most of his more famous on-screen personae do not suggest a reflective side, that is exactly what the private Stallone pursues in his love affair with premium cigars (paired with Armagnac or vintage wine). He’s most nettled by acquaintances who cadge rare cigars only to let them go out after four or five puffs. We know the tough-guy thing is just for the movies, but do you really want him mad at you?

ALFRED HITCHCOCK
The master of suspense, who gave us such thrillers as North by Northwest, Psycho and The Birds, was frequently seen with his trademark bowler hat and cigar.

DANNY DeVITO
After being turned on to cigars by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor-director-producer moved over the years from Cuban Cohibas to Partagas Serie D No. 4s, Diplomaticos and Bolivars. His favorite cigar coup occurred on a flight from Europe after filming The War of the Roses in the late 1980s, when he asked every passenger if they would mind if he smoked his cigar. He got their permission. “It was,” he recalled, “the most enjoyable transatlantic flight I ever had.”

SAMMY DAVIS JR.
A member of the smoking Rat Pack, Davis entertained audiences with his singing, dancing, acting and impressions.

JIM BELUSHI
The actor has likened cigar smoking to marbles: a guy kind of thing. He says some of his best conversations with men have been conducted over a cigar, such as a Por Larraסaga Nacionales.

ROBERT DE NIRO
What’s scarier than a pathological homicidal ex-con stalking your family all over Cape Fear, South Carolina? A pathological homicidal ex-con who’s chewing on a Casa Blanca Half Jeroboam Maduro. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

Some smokers from the business world

J. P. MORGAN
The legendary business tycoon and robber baron was a painfully shy and private person. But in his professional dealings, John Pierpont Morgan was ruthless. During his long career as head of J.P. Morgan & Co., he helped save the U.S. government from bankruptcy (at a price) and helped to create U.S. Steel. He loved to travel, collect art and smoke cigars, of which he consumed dozens a day. He was known to favor Cuban smokes, particularly Meridiana Kohinoors.

RON PERELMAN
When the multimillion dollar businessman and former owner of Consolidated Cigar Corp. wants to eat out, he naturally looks for a cigar-friendly establishment. As he explained in a 1995 interview, “I think I pretty much gravitate toward restaurants that allow cigar smoking, partly because it’s so important to me to smoke, particularly after dinner. But from a purely financial point of view, if somebody is not going to support my business, I’m certainly not going to support their business.”

ZINO DAVIDOFF
“If your wife doesn’t like the aroma of your cigar, change your wife,” said the late Swiss-based cigar-industry icon, who began his illustrious career in the 1930s as a worker in his father’s tobacco shop in Geneva. The Russian יmigrי was instrumental in creating the high-end Hoyo de Monterrey “Chateaux” series of cigars and launched his signature line of Cuban smokes in 1970. He was the author of The Connoisseur’s Book of the Cigar, widely regarded as the bible of the industry.

MILTON HERSHEY
The famed candy maker smoked eight to 10 cigars a day, a habit he continued when he moved to Cuba to produce sugar.

LOU GERSTNER
IBM’s smoking chairman initiated a partnership with 21 states and school districts in which students benefited from the firm’s technology and technical assistance

AL LERNER
This Montecristo No. 2 connoisseur was given the unenviable task a decade ago of turning around MBNA Corp., a Maryland bank saddled with underperforming real estate loans. Lerner began to pay down debt and took the parent company public, and today it is one of the nation’s biggest credit card issuers. Part of MBNA’s success is due to Lerner’s introduction of affinity credit cards, which benefit the group issuing them. A football fan, Lerner bought the new Cleveland Browns last year.

Some smokers in the media world

DAVID LETTERMAN
An on-again, off-again smoker, Letterman has brought cigar notoriety to late-night television. He would frequently sneak puffs from a double-corona-sized smoke during commercial breaks. Often the camera would catch him in the act, smoke rising past Letterman’s face as he wore a “Who, me?” expression. Guests would arrive on his show bearing (Cuban) gifts, but few made more of an impact than Madonna, who in a 1994 appearance used a cigar and colorful language in a way that needed no clarification from Freud.

DAN RATHER
In a world of blown-dry newsmen anchored to their studio desks, Rather enjoys being out in the field, smoking a cigar. But he admitted that one of his smokes nearly killed an indoor plant that his wife had labored to keep alive. Almost caught by his wife sneaking a smoke indoors, he had stuck the half-smoked cigar in the plant’s pot. It wasn’t until he extracted the forgotten stub weeks later that the plant regained its health. Among Rather’s most cherished smokes: cigars from Fidel Castro.

WILLIAM S. PALEY
The archetypal media mogul, who headed CBS, grew up in the Philadelphia cigar industry: his family made the La Palina.

ERNIE KOVACS
The ’50s TV genius smoked 20 Cuban double coronas a day, and his commercials with his wife, actress Edie Adams, for sponsor Consolidated Cigar’s Dutch Masters and Muriel cigars are considered classics. Nothing about Kovacs, a TV writer, director, producer and star, was halfway: he lived extravagantly and worked so frenetically that he had shows on all four of the 1950s TV networks. When he died, his philosophy of excess was extolled on his tombstone: Nothing in Moderation.

STEVE FLORIO
The president of media giant Condי Nast has been a cigar aficionado since his late 20s and loves to savor La Gloria Cubanas and Hoyo de Monterrey Excaliburs while sailing.

RUSH LIMBAUGH
The outspoken radio and TV commentator was a latecomer to cigars, but he was a quick learner. Starting out with Macanudos, Ashtons and Fonsecas, Limbaugh soon gravitated toward Havanas. On a trip to London, he became acquainted with Punch Double Coronas, Partagas Lusitanias and Monty No. 2s, but, alas, he couldn’t find any Hoyo de Monterreys. The disappointment was short-lived, however; on a yachting holiday, he found a rare box of Hoyo Double Coronas on St. Maarten

Some smokers in the music world

PAUL ANKA
The 1950s teen idol and composer of “My Way” likes his cigars one way, and that’s Cuban. Cohibas are his favorite.

ARTUR RUBINSTEIN
The legendary pianist loved Cuban cigars, especially Montecristo No. 2s and 3s, so much that he owned a tobacco plantation in pre-Castro Cuba.

LUCIANO PAVAROTTI
The larger-than-life tenor puffs the occasional Cuban, but prefers surprisingly small cigars, Swiss-made Villigers, which he first bought on a whim 22 years ago.

HOWARD COSELL
The polysyllabic TV sports journalist was a fixture on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” telecasts. Known for his blunt and often harsh rebukes–in his words, “telling it like it is”–of athletes and fellow sportscasters, Cosell was both loved and hated by viewers and peers alike. And Cosell wouldn’t have had it any other way. He wasn’t averse to bumming cigars off the same colleagues he often ridiculed, according to writers H. Paul Jeffers and Kevin Gordon.

Whether your image of the “cigar smoker” is someone famous, the product of the famous merged together (perhaps a Sigmund Freud and Grouch Marx love child), or someone completely unknown, avid cigar smokers have two things in common: they enjoy what they’re smoking and (as attested in the above quotes) they certainly can’t complain.

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