COPY FROM OLD BOARD:Having a little too much time on my hands at work today, I was perusing some old posts here, specifically the Best Box Pass Idea thread. It got me to thinking, and I have a proposal. Be patient, and read it through. I think it’s a good one, and would love to get some feedback, and hopefully some volunteers. Here goes

arryl, in that thread, suggested a birthday pass, where people would mail you cigars on your birthday. I propose an inside out revision of that idea, based on the writings of my favorite philologist turned author, J.R.R Tolkien. He wrote about a race of little people, called Hobbits. Hobbits, in addition to having been the first to smoke tobacco, had an unorthodox way to celebrate birthdays. Instead of getting presents on their birthdays, they GAVE presents to friends and family.In the spirit of Professor Tolkien, I propose the Hobbit Birthday Pass. It would work as follows: each person who signs up (and I’d like to get an even twenty participants) will, a week or so before his or her birthday, send one cigar to the other 19 participants. Then, on the birthday in question, we all smoke the same cigar in celebration of the giver’s birth. This offers a significant advantage over the original proposal, in that each participant only has to remember one date (and it should be an easy one), and only has to make one visit to the post office a year. In return, everyone will get 19 cigars in the mail over the course of the year. Another attractive feature of this is that it can continue indefinitely. If someone drops out for some reason, I’m sure we could find a volunteer to take his or her place.I envision buying a birthday box and letting the cigars rest peacefully in my humidor until the appointed time; others might want to budget their purchases and buy a few at a time. Either way we will have twenty days during the year on which all of those participating will share a quiet moment and a good cigar.If any among you find this to be an idea you would like to see realized please let me know. If it takes off I will maintain the addresses and birthdays (unless you want to be surprised) on a web page for reference.