Saturday at the Hut - 11/5/11

We had a great crowd at The Tobacco Hut on Saturday, consisting of weekly regulars and a couple folks we haven't seen in a long time. The regulars in attendance were Joe K, Peter G, Paul O, Bobby M, and Ed B. And we welcomed back some, er, irregulars - Scott R and Barry C. To be fair, Scott showed up last Saturday but had to leave as soon as he arrived, but this week he stayed and smoked two cigars (not at once, of course).

Scott's recent acquisition
(Click to enlarge)

It was show and tell time as Scott brought along a very special knife he reviewed recently on his blog. This is the Sunset Smooth Bone Moon Pie Trapper by Canal Street Cutlery. Quite the impressive knife and Scott generously passed it around to fondle and smudge up with fingerprints. Fingerprints? No matter, as soon as it was passed back, he took out his handy polishing cloth and lovingly buffed all the smudges off, carefully placing it back in its box.

Scott is living the snowbird's life, having recently returned from summering in New York, in the same region that Paula and I traveled to a couple months ago. We compared travel notes and talked about how spectacular the scenery is in upstate New York (see my blog from a few weeks ago for photos).

We had an Oliva Cigar rep join us for awhile. Very nice guy (unfortunately, I can't remember the fellow's name) who knows a lot of the same people that Scott knows since Scott used to work at Blue Smoke in Clearwater. We all commiserated about the sorry state of FDA regulations over tobacco and insane tax rates on cigars and tobacco. Unfortunately, it's only getting worse.

Snack Alert! Snack Alert! The beloved peanut butter pretzels are now gone. Paul and I finished off the last of them. So whoever wants to go to Sam's Club to replenish our supply, please try and go before next Saturday. I, of course, am philosophically and violently opposed to all things Wal-Mart, cannot patronize such an establishment. But will gladly consume products purchased from there.

Bobby arrived and it was show and tell time again. He was describing his new invention, which I won't go into here since it's still in the development stage, but he brought along a cardboard mock-up to demonstrate the concept. Paul, whose mind apparently never leaves the gutter, instantly saw the mock-up not as what it truly demonstrated but, in his words, "a paper airplane with an erection." It didn't help that Bobby was using terms like "shaft" and "penetration".

Some of you may remember that a few weeks ago I called some of our no-shows out on the carpet. A virtual "Wall of Shame" for those who seem to have forgotten that Saturdays are for gathering at the Hut. Honey-do list? What honey-do list? There are cigars to be smoked with the boys at the Hut! Well, my gentle admonition seems to have had an effect on one used-to-be-weekly visitor...Barry C arrived. Great to see you, Barry! Your picture comes off the Wall of Shame!

Peter wasted no time trying to engage Barry in a debate about the Dallas Cowboys, but sparks didn't fly as much as they have in the past. The laughter did ensue when Lou told us his pants size. I can't for the life of me remember how we got to discussing what size Lou's pants are, or what prompted him to reveal this, but apparently he wears a 44/27.

Could this be Lou?

Barry burst out laughing, asking Lou to confirm that his inseam measures only 27". Bobby made some mention about his own sleeve length being longer than Lou's inseam. Bobby later sent me this photo to demonstrate approximately what a 27" inseam would look like. Lou was definitely a good sport about it, having eased himself into the proverbial barrel.

A couple of reminders about upcoming events...Coast Guard Don will be here next Saturday, November 12th, Veterans Day weekend. And February 3rd of next year is Scott's 50th birthday. How about we throw him a Tobacco Hut party on Saturday, Feb. 4th? I know it sounds like a long way away, but we can put together something nice, like we did for Joe's son James when he came back from the west coast a few years ago. You remember all the various caterers we had plus the dancing girls, right?

A big thank you to everyone who came on Saturday! It's nice to have a full house. See you next Saturday!