Hi, guys! I've been lurking here for a few days, mostly reading the pass threads, and I decided to register.
I probably won't participate in many cigar passes, but you folks have too good a thing going here in the forums for me not to try to horn in on it.
Hmm...what to tell you about me? Well, it seems that at almost every turn, circumstances have placed me in anti-government positions.
It might have started in 1998 with the guns. Mostly by accident, I discovered that I was a firearms enthusiast (or, if you prefer, a "gun nut").
As a consequence, I also discovered that the government hates gun nuts: it immediately bent all its considerable power to the task of converting me from a nominal, apathetic Republican to a wild-eyed hair-on-fire activist libertarian--a task which it accomplished with commendable alacrity. Of course, the government hates libertarians as well.
So a couple of years ago, I finally got the opportunity to indulge a life-long fantasy and became a private pilot. Guess what? The government hates general aviation too, especially after 9/11. Hmm.
Well, for a long time I've enjoyed buying Swisher Sweets--the kind with the wooden tips--and keeping them in my car, just sucking air through them unlit and enjoying the tobacco taste (what you folks call the "pre-light aroma"). I'd...ah...not smoke--suck?--a single cigar for several days until it dried out so badly that the taste was gone. I tried actually lighting one a couple of times, but was emphatically unimpressed with both the taste and the smell it left on my clothes and in my car.
But a few months ago, a friend of mine persuaded me to try a "real" cigar--handmade, long filler, Robusto size, Maduro. (I don't know any more than that, because there was no band; but I didn't even know that much at the time.) He showed me how to light it and how to smoke it. I liked it, although it made me dizzy, which I didn't like. So I did a little research about cigars and health issues and decided to experiment on my own. Now I'm a pretty steady stick-per-week cigar smoker (preference medium-bodied full-flavored Robusto Maduros, surprise surprise), with a small desktop humidor and a tiny body of experience. And what do I find out? The government hates cigar smokers, too, especially if they like Cubans.
What's a guy to do? I didn't ask to be a seditionist; it just happened that way. (Oh--I'm a conservative Christian fundamentalist, too, which doesn't serve to endear me to the government, and a happily married man in addition, which subjects me every year to the IRS's marriage penalty.)
I have, of course, found ways to honk people other than the government off as well (I like to hang around with Messianic Jews, for example, and I play the electric bass), but looking around at the group of you (especially Pepe), I find hope that I can arrange to be largely inoffensive in a bunch like this.
I probably won't participate in many cigar passes, but you folks have too good a thing going here in the forums for me not to try to horn in on it.
Hmm...what to tell you about me? Well, it seems that at almost every turn, circumstances have placed me in anti-government positions.
It might have started in 1998 with the guns. Mostly by accident, I discovered that I was a firearms enthusiast (or, if you prefer, a "gun nut").
As a consequence, I also discovered that the government hates gun nuts: it immediately bent all its considerable power to the task of converting me from a nominal, apathetic Republican to a wild-eyed hair-on-fire activist libertarian--a task which it accomplished with commendable alacrity. Of course, the government hates libertarians as well.
So a couple of years ago, I finally got the opportunity to indulge a life-long fantasy and became a private pilot. Guess what? The government hates general aviation too, especially after 9/11. Hmm.
Well, for a long time I've enjoyed buying Swisher Sweets--the kind with the wooden tips--and keeping them in my car, just sucking air through them unlit and enjoying the tobacco taste (what you folks call the "pre-light aroma"). I'd...ah...not smoke--suck?--a single cigar for several days until it dried out so badly that the taste was gone. I tried actually lighting one a couple of times, but was emphatically unimpressed with both the taste and the smell it left on my clothes and in my car.
But a few months ago, a friend of mine persuaded me to try a "real" cigar--handmade, long filler, Robusto size, Maduro. (I don't know any more than that, because there was no band; but I didn't even know that much at the time.) He showed me how to light it and how to smoke it. I liked it, although it made me dizzy, which I didn't like. So I did a little research about cigars and health issues and decided to experiment on my own. Now I'm a pretty steady stick-per-week cigar smoker (preference medium-bodied full-flavored Robusto Maduros, surprise surprise), with a small desktop humidor and a tiny body of experience. And what do I find out? The government hates cigar smokers, too, especially if they like Cubans.
What's a guy to do? I didn't ask to be a seditionist; it just happened that way. (Oh--I'm a conservative Christian fundamentalist, too, which doesn't serve to endear me to the government, and a happily married man in addition, which subjects me every year to the IRS's marriage penalty.)
I have, of course, found ways to honk people other than the government off as well (I like to hang around with Messianic Jews, for example, and I play the electric bass), but looking around at the group of you (especially Pepe), I find hope that I can arrange to be largely inoffensive in a bunch like this.
