Sunday, September 24 2006
Cigars and celebration go together. Just ask the New York Mets.
Newspapers across the country and especially in New York carried dozens of pictures of happy Mets celebrating their National League Eastern Division title-clinching win against Florida on September 19, most with champagne and plenty with cigars.
An Associated Press photo captured Mets slugger Carlos Beltran mugging for the camera while enjoying what appeared to be a La Gloria Cubana Serie R. Another AP photo captured third baseman David Wright with a nice-sized cigar that was identified in some reports as a La Flor Dominicana.
And Mets second-year manager Willie Randolph told reporters last week that his celebration cigar would be a very special Fuente Fuente Opus X Forbidden X: a gift from assistant team trainer Mike Herbst. Or maybe it was a Cohiba, as Steve Popper of the Bergen Record reported last week after interviewing Randolph before a prior weekend game in Pittsburgh, noting that the manager "had splurged to upgrade his choice of victory cigars, packing a humidor on his desk, filling the top with water to keep it ready, and jamming a Cohiba in."
So far as we know, anti-smoking New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has not yet issued instructions to any city department to issue citations for smoking to any of the Mets players or coaches. Yet.
Already a hit with collectors, S.T. Dupont's line of Fuente Fuente Opus X-themed accessories will reach a new level with the release of a new collection in early October.
This version presents five different pieces in a striking two-tone arrangement of red and white with the Opus X logo presented on a white lacquer background. The collection includes a humidor (only 150 made), a giant table lighter (100), a standard-sized Line 2 lighter (700), cigar cutter (200), a large ashtray (300) and two pens: a fountain pen (250) and rollerball (300). Dupont is also introducing a special set themed around the new James Bond film, "Casino Royale" which will premiere on November 17.
Continuing reports of significant increases in cigarette smuggling due to high taxes in Canada, England, Romania and other countries are no surprise to law enforcement groups including the National Association of Police Organizations, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and others have come out against Californias Proposition 86, which would raise cigarette taxes by $2.60 per pack and increase cigar taxes to 135% of the wholesale price. Proponents of the measure, which include the usual do-gooder groups such as the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association, are led by the California Hospitals Committee, which has donated a hefty $8.9 million to try and get its hands on most of the more than $800 million in funding that would be raised by the initiative if passes.
Polling in early August showed the measure passing by a comfortable 63-32% margin, but the start of a heavy television ad campaign against Prop. 86 brought the spread down to 56% for and 42% against by the end of the month.
Short fillers: While the debate rages in California about Prop. 86, Amendment 3 in Missouri, which would raise cigarette taxes from 17 to 97 cents a pack and add 20% to the tax on cigars and pipe tobacco to fund a variety of health-care initiatives, was ripped in a study by University of Missouri economist Joseph Haslag. "My calculations indicate that the expected cost of providing these health-care services will be $900 million if I include only those Missourians currently not served by Medicaid who also meet the income threshold," wrote Haslag. "Yet, the expected monies generated by the tax for this purpose will only be around $100 million. The unanswered question is what does the state do to make up this $800 million shortfall?" . . . find our latest tasting review, of nine blends of the C.A.O. line, in our News & Views archives.
- Rich Perelman in Los Angeles
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Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company.
Copyright 2006; All rights reserved.
