Blue Dragon
Can't Re-Member
Yesterday was a busy day. I had my bosses in town and we took them out on a couple of account calls. Then we met up with one of the vendors we do a lot of business with to introduce them to the local team. My partner took my bosses to the airport and we met back up with the vendor for dinner and some drinks.
We went to a mexican resturant and ordered some food and drinks. I ordered a "El Jefe" margarita, w/ Don Julio (I know it is a sacralige); I wanted something I could drink instead of sip with dinner and a 24 oz. margarita would do the trick. Well when she showed up with the drink, she tells me it is 2 for 1 margaritas tonight. So by the time dinner is done, I'm already a little lit.
Then we headed to "Humpin Hannahs" for a few more drinks, and it is one bar that never says anything to me for smoking cigars. Carl really likes it to do a little oogling, and I can enjoy my cigar. Its a win win. However, one of my competitors likes hanging here too and likes to meet up with Carl. But he really doesn't like it when I'm there, where as I could care less if Paul shows up.
So last night he must have known that we were out to dinner with Carl before Hannahs. I never have seen Paul smoke a cigar in the years that I have known him, and I always seem to run into him somewhere downtown where cigars are allowed. So I figure he planned on showing off to Carl and more likely to try to get under my skin.
The first thing he does after he shakes hands with everyone, is to set a Cohiba on the table in the ashtray. He lets it sit there for about 5 min, sticks it in his mouth for a bit, and then puts it back in the ash tray. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention because I was playing pool, and its Paul. But something about the cigar caught my eye, so I grabbed the ashtray to take a closer look. And sure as shit it was a fake. It had only 2 rows of dots above the name, the white dots were cut off at the top (no black line), the "Habana, Cuba" was the wrong font, size and offset incorrectly, and to top it off the Cohiba name was in black lettering and the font seemed a little off. A poor job at a fake in my opinion, and I did't even look at the cigar.
All the while I'm checking out the cigar, Paul is chattering away at how this is a real Cuban cigar ... you can't get it in the states ... blah blah blah. I just kind of nodded and handed it back to him. After my pool game, I just couldn't let it sit anymore. I had another couple shots of Cabo Wabo, so I really didn't care anymore if I offended him. So I proceeded to tell him it was a fake and why it was a fake. He got very defensive, and told me all about how he got it from this trusted source on his cruise through the Carribean, and how expensive it was. I obviously wasn't getting through to him, so I pulled out my wallet and showed him a real Cohiba band. (After I smoke a cigar, I'll take off the band and stick it in my wallet to flatten it) Then he just turned into a stuttering fool trying to back peddle ... he did research on the internet and this is one of the most faked cigars and he knows what he is talking about and blah blah blah.
I had my little chuckle for awhile, and then I see that he started smoking it. He sure as hell wasn't going to believe what I said, and prove that he thought he was right by smoking it. What a loon. And after a few minutes I couldn't stand to sit by and watch a man suffer. I grabbed two sticks and let him choose one; he grabbed the Party Short. I told him I wasn't trying to mess with him, just trying to help him out, and he could try a real Cuban cigar later.
Maybe I was a little bit of an ass, but I still think it was funny as hell. I really like hanging out with Carl and Chris; we always have a good time. But this was the king of evenings (Plus Paul said that he was quiting his job in two weeks). :thumbs: I wish him luck wherever he goes, and hope he can be a little more honest in the future.
But thanks CP for giving me the tools to see the real deal and enjoy my hobby!
Cheers!
- C
