Saturday at the Hut - 7/14/12

We had a full house at The Tobacco Hut today, so let's jump right in with the roll call. In addition to Lou and myself, we had Joe K, Don W, Arnie, Vic and his cousin Russ, Bryan, and Aaron. The jokes were as thick as the smoke and we all got a lesson in grammar too. More on that later.

This will be Don's last Saturday for awhile as he begins training for his new job (congrats and good luck to Don). Fellow pilot Arnie was in town as well, so to celebrate he and Don both tried an Opus X for the first time. Vic and I and others warned them that it can be a strong smoke, but they both threw caution to the wind and lit up. Within about ten minutes Don had to let his go out as he was feeling a bit light-headed. He decided to smoke it at a much slower pace. Arnie was fine with it until the last third or so when little beads of sweat started to break out on his forehead. They both agreed that the Opus does not live up to its reputation as a top shelf cigar and that they would never smoke another. We did tell them that Tom L occasionally brings some aged Opus cigars that he's stored for the last dozen years or so and that they are completely different from a fresh, out-of-the-box specimen.

Russ T wins the award for traveling the farthest for a cigar. He's down visiting from Rochester, NY although he had some difficulties in departing from the airport a week ago. Russ was evidently under the impression that he could just arrive at the airport without a ticket or boarding pass and get right on the plane. The ticket agent had different ideas, so he had to delay his trip by a day. Seriously, Russ had purchased the ticket six weeks ago but when he got to the airport they had no record of him in their system. Russ, maybe you were supposed to fly out of Buffalo...

Readers of this space will recall the last blog posting from June 16 where Aaron recounted his romantic tale of him and his friend attending the critically acclaimed movie, "Brokeback Mountain" when it came out a few years ago. Speaking of "coming out", Aaron announced that he - no, no. I'm only kidding. Anyway, since there were some folks in attendance today that didn't hear the original story, we persuaded Aaron to give us his impressions of the movie, with full animation, of course. I passed around the Photoshop image I had prepared of Aaron living his dream of actually being in the movie, to everyone's enjoyment.

It was around that time that the typically sophisticated level of discourse took a downward turn. Russ ingratiated himself to us by telling some extremely distasteful jokes. I, for one, was deeply offended. Of course, you couldn't tell that because I was howling with laughter. There was one about three missionaries being faced with Yanye or Death, but since this blog's wide readership(!) reaches many women and children, I won't go into the full joke here.

So what's this about a grammar lesson? Oh yes, let me explain. One of the regulars at the Hut, Paul O (not to be confused with Scott R's brother-in-law, Paul V), had a very public hissy-fit on Facebook over a comment I left on one of his posts. Rather than explain it all, I submit the evidence from this past Monday and let my gentle readers come to their own conclusions:

Paul O wins the "I Can Dish It Out But Can't Take It" Award for 2012
(Click to enlarge)

Yes, you read that correctly, Mr. O gave me a thorough thrashing (and his wife even got in the act) over six words that I left for him. Not only did he "unfriend" me on Facebook (oh, the horrors), he even removed himself from The Tobacco Hutters. One can only hope that this means he has removed himself from the Tobacco Hut as well. I am quite sure that his "wit" will not be missed. Moving on...

Had a great day at the Hut with so many folks in attendance. 'Til next time!

Saturday at the Hut - 6/16/12

We had a nice crowd at The Tobacco Hut today - I'm glad I got there when I did, as there was only one good chair left. Peter G and Don W were already there, but I sat in my usual chair so all was right with the world. Later Bob B came in, as well as Aaron C, Joe K, and Paul O.

I was smoking my Neerup pipe, one of two that I own, and a bowl of Erik Nording's Hunter's Blend, a very nice combination. Aaron showed Lou his collection of cigar bands and, get this, Lou gave him a book specifically for saving cigar bands and making notes in. That's right, Lou gave away something. Now, he admitted that at the height of the cigar craze back in the 90s he sold dozens of them and that was the last one and he had marked it down several times, but still! Um Lou, there's probably a pipe or two that you've had in stock for a long time...just sayin'.

Snack alert! We are officially out of the peanut butter pretzels. I'll try and get my mother to buy some more for us, but don't know how soon she's going to Sam's Club. So if someone is headed there, feel free to buy a bag.

Congratulations to
Scott R on the publication
of his book!
(Click to enlarge)

Hey, a shout out to our own Scott R, who published his latest book on Amazon this week! I'm a little proud of it myself as he asked me to edit and proofread it, and design the cover. He's written a small volume aimed at would-be writers who are having trouble overcoming the inertia of not writing. Scott outlines some good tips on how to get started on writing. Highly recommended if you have that budding author inside of you! Check it out on Amazon here! And once you get that book written, let me know if you need any editing services or a cover designed!

By the way, a welcome to The Tobacco Hutters' newest member, Bob B! When I got home his application for membership was waiting in my inbox. That makes 26 members which I think is pretty good for a forum that isn't open to the public. I'd like to keep it that way - making it by invitation only - but I would like to see a bit more participation from folks. I pledge to be more active on it, especially as I curtail my blog postings, but I don't want to be talking in a vacuum.

Good luck to Don W as he was telling us about an interview he had with an airline company in Houston this past week. Hope you get good news soon, Don!

And a quick bon voyage to Peter. He's heading to the wild northwest for an Alaskan cruise next week. Have fun, Peter! Post pics to the Hutters!

OK, now to the highlight of the day. Don persuaded his friend Aaron to tell the "Brokeback Mountain" story and, with great reluctance, he did. Apparently when the film first came out several years ago a friend of his - Adam, I think - asked if he wanted to go to the movies. Sure, Aaron replied, what do you want to see. Adam answered that he'd like to see the new film, "Brokeback Mountain". Aaron hadn't heard anything about it, so Adam described it in very general terms: Two guys, the great outdoors, etc. without going into the plot at all.

Once in the theater, Aaron noticed that all the moviegoers were men; not a woman to be seen. Hmm, that's strange, he thought, but no matter. He and Adam sat down, observing the "Man Rule" in theaters: an empty seat between them. He then noticed that nobody else was observing said rule and were sitting next to each other. Aaron still didn't think too much of it and was just looking forward to seeing a rugged, outdoorsy kind of movie.

So he settled in with his popcorn and soda (Aaron, did you share a tub of popcorn with Adam or did you each have your own?) and began watching. About halfway into the movie the two lead characters, played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, take a little walk in the woods and, as Aaron tells it, they spend an inordinate amount of time in the woods.

Later, in the penultimate scene of the movie, one of the characters decides to share a tent with the other and Aaron witnesses an apparently very graphic scene of man love. As this is a family blog, I won't repeat some of the more lurid descriptions that Aaron used in describing the carnal proceedings.

We, of course, were in stitches hearing him tell the story, especially when he finally realized what his friend had talked him into seeing. In describing his climax - I mean, in describing the climax of the movie - Aaron proved himself a master pantomimist, displaying every grind and thrust he had witnessed. Again, we were falling over ourselves laughing. When we had calmed down, I began thinking how I can best memorialize Aaron's tale. When I got home, I fired up Photoshop and found a picture I had of Aaron taken a few months ago.

It's been said that pictures are worth a thousand words, so after I've now wasted a couple hundred, I present to you the never-before-seen movie poster of "Brokeback Mountain" starring none other than Aaron C:

With just a little Photoshop magic, Aaron isn't
just watching his favorite movie, he's starring in it!
(Click to enlarge)

Thanks for being a good sport about the "revised" movie poster, Aaron!

I had planned on skipping this week's blog to work on some of the other writing projects I have in the hopper, but I couldn't let this go!

See everyone on the Hutters!

Saturday at the Hut - 6/9/12

It's been a few weeks since I've made a blog posting, and I'll explain at the end why I've been AWOL from the blog and what my plans are. In the meantime, today at The Tobacco Hut we had a decent assemblage of the regulars: Peter G, Aaron C, Paul O, Joe K, Tom L, Lou and myself. Not everyone at once though - attendance was spread over several hours.

Aaron told us about his recent trip to Key West and the cigars he picked up there. He's got a great picture of the Ashton VSG, his go-to cigar, with blue skies and palm trees in the background. Hopefully he'll post it to the Tobacco Hutters site. You are a member of the Tobacco Hutters, right? If not, just click on the link and join up! I'll explain why it's important to do so at the end of the blog today.

I announced some bad news about NPR today. Joe and Tom immediately thought that they were going off the air or merging with Fox News or something equally calamitous. No, the Car Talk guys are retiring. Tom and Ray, aka Click & Clack, are hanging up the microphone after 25 years on the air. Someone asked why, and Tom immediately responded with, "Low ratings?". Sorry Tom, Car Talk is the most popular program on NPR, and can be heard locally on Saturdays at 10am on WUSF 89.7 FM.

Joe said that he made a donation to NPR. I got excited that he'd finally seen the light, but I should have known better. He said he sent them a check made out for $0 and he didn't sign it. Thanks Joe - your support is much appreciated. See how quickly I order those business cards for you!

Shortly after Tom arrived, he made a TV programming request. After three hours of watching the endless loop of Bay News 9 news, I was ready for any change. Tom wanted to see the Canadian Grand Prix qualifying which was coming on at either 12:30 or 1:00 on the Speed Channel. Unfortunately, Lou's cable package doesn't include the Speed Channel, at least he didn't think so.

Tom made it his mission to re-program the TV to try and tune in Speed. First he consulted the 2004 channel guide under the TV, then tried to just scan for all available channels. For awhile the TV was locked on a Christian broadcasting station, then all we could get was Telemundo or Jewelry Television. Finally, I consulted the Brighthouse website and determined that although the Speed Channel was included in Lou's package, a converter box was required to tune in.

Lou then tuned to the Golf Channel and Paul and I promptly fell asleep. Even Lou was bored with what was being proffered as entertainment; it was some sort of Golf Channel series that made no sense whatsoever. So back to channel surfing we went. We finally settled on Olympic men's gymnastic preliminary trials, which actually wasn't half bad.

Paul kept rooting for someone to fall on their face and he finally got his wish when the lead gymnast missed his grip in his high bar routine. All of us were actually quite impressed with their athleticism and muscles. Tom especially seemed drawn to a couple of them. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I left a little early as I had a couple stops to make and then it was off to Carrabba's for dinner with Paula. When I left it was just Peter and Lou, so not sure if anyone else made it in late.

So, what's up with my absence from the blog? Well, I started this blog in late 2008 - my first post was December 21, 2008. And after three and a half years of writing almost-weekly blog posts, I'm feeling a little burnt out. This is my 130th blog post and, although it may not show it, it takes time to put these together each week. I'm simply not feeling the passion for reporting the goings-on at the Hut week in and week out.

I still love spending my Saturdays at the Hut each week (as much as Paula loves having me out of the house for the afternoon) and I've made some great friendships over the years, and have no plans to quit going. I just can't continue to write a regular recap of what happened each week.

I do have a passion for writing and I'm actually exploring some other writing projects. For instance, I write a marketing blog focused on small businesses called Bullseye Marketing Tips. It's gotten decent traffic but, unfortunately, I've neglected it and want to build it back up again. In fact, I've started writing a book that is based on the blog. It expands greatly the marketing principles and tips that I've begun to explore in the blog.

There are a couple other book ideas floating around in my head that I'm anxious to get started on. I've already got a title for one of them: Saturdays with Lou. I envision it as kind of a memoir of Hut happenings over the years. I've got a lot of the material already written, on this very blog. In my mind, it just needs to be expanded to a narrative form. I'll probably have to fictionalize everything, from names and location to the type of shop, just to avoid a lawsuit from you guys or a demand for a cut of the royalties. Yeah, maybe I'll just rethink that whole idea.

Anyway, that's why it's important to join - and participate in - the Tobacco Hutters. I won't be writing in this space as much as I have been and the way to keep up with what's going on is to visit the Hutters group regularly. It's also vitally important, if it's to succeed, for folks to participate.

I want to sincerely thank the people who have contributed status updates, photos, forum and blog posts to the Hutters. I need to get better about participating myself, and pledge to be more active on it. My hope is that rather than writing this blog, which is a "top down" form of you reading my endless drivel, that we can have full, "round-table" types of discussions on the Hutters.

I'm not abandoning this blog - in fact I have some ideas for how it should evolve in the future. But instead, let's move over to the Hutters and have some great back-and-forths and debates. Talk about whatever you want to. See you there!

Saturday at the Hut - 5/12/12

We had quite a full house at The Tobacco Hut today. I thought I was getting there early enough to get a chair but alas, no. Fortunately Aaron was kind enough to give up his comfy club chair for the fold-up one he brought with him. Thank you, Aaron, for respecting your elders.

While I puffed on my Ascorti Peppino pipe filled with Tinder Box Reserve 1928 I tallied up the roll call (see how I slipped in what I was smoking today?): Lou, Joe K, Don W, Paul O, Aaron C, Peter G, Tom L, Vic, Blake, Tony, and myself.

Nice to see Vic making the trip up from Bradenton. It looks like we might see some more of him as he's squirreled his nuts away for the summer. Vic also recounted a story from a recent conversation with Mike G. Many of us probably remember Mike's old pick up truck...well, he's had it for sale in Tennessee for awhile and finally sold it to a young lady up there. Well, apparently, the night she actually took possession of the vehicle, just several hours later, it broke down on her.

If yer in need of a good car or truck that'll git
ya a mile or two down the road, call Mike!

Mike had to go and push it off to the side of the road, I guess, but rather than declaring simply, "Let the buyer beware", Mike went the extra mile and offered to refund the woman's money. Good on you Mike for doing the right thing! In honor of your integrity, I've created the logo above for your next company if you should decide to open a car dealership...

Today the topics revolved, strangely enough, around birds. Aaron told a story, complete with pantomime, of two seagulls engaged in coitus on a street light. Aaron's hip gyrations, arm flapping and gull-like squawking presented quite the entertaining vision.

Joe remarked that in his younger days he often went to the beach with his parrot on his shoulder and attracted flocks of ladies (pun intended). After bragging about his exploits for a time, Vic commented to me quietly that I should inform Joe that that wasn't exactly Christian behavior. So I started to say something, but before I did, Joe reminded me that he had just fixed my mother's computer which I had taken delivery of not an hour before. He also implied that the wizardry he employs to repair the computers can also be used to disable them, so I kept my mouth shut. Vic said I wussed out, but I prefer to think that I merely took the high road and adopted the very Christian principle of "judge not, lest ye be judged."

Vic helping Don ease his big rig
safely out of the parking spot
(click to enlarge)

Don cashed out and said goodbye, and we were then all treated to his driving prowess as he backed out of his spot, pulled forward a little, backed up, came forward again, backed up again, pulled up, back and forth, back and forth. It was all quite dizzying, but he finally managed to clear his parking spot, with a little help from Vic. For some unknown reason, he did a U-turn behind the building and drove past giving us all the "one-finger salute". I think some bikers in the barber shop noticed and we may not be seeing Don for awhile.

Blake made a rare Saturday appearance and met some of the guys for the first time. Tom was especially glad to meet a fellow pipe smoker. Paul feigned boredom with the whole topic of pipe smoking, but sure asked a lot of questions about it, as did Tom. I think they are both considering coming over to the right side of tobacco, but for some reason want to keep it on the DL. As Blake was leaving, Vic offered him a cigar from his recent purchases, in a last ditch effort to switch teams. As magnanimous as the gesture was, I don't think Blake will abandon his true calling as a pipe smoker. And, Vic, where was my cigar? Don't you want me on your team?

Other topics included some sports talk between Peter and Tom, and some politics/current events, but nothing too intense. I do like having Vic around as he and I are on the same page on a lot of issues, so I don't have to hold the Progressive flag by myself. Finally, Vic regaled us with tales from his days as a correctional officer in the New York State Prison system.

Have a good week everyone!

Saturday at the Hut - 5/5/12

Aaron digging into Don's delicious BBQ
(click to enlarge). For other photos,
see The Tobacco Hutters.

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo in style on Saturday at The Tobacco Hut. Well, we didn't really celebrate Cinco de Mayo per se, but we did have some fantastic BBQ and other fixins from Don W. He announced on Thursday on The Tobacco Hutters that he was bringing his world famous BBQ on Saturday and it was well worth it! Don urged folks to bring Coronas for the minor Mexican holiday, but nobody obliged. But no matter, his BBQ'd pork butt and shoulder was out of this world! He supplied buns and his secret sauce, as well as boiled peanuts (yechh!) and I brought some potato salad. It was all very well received and we had a full house enjoying the feast. A big thank you to Don for supplying this and all his preparation - 12 hours to smoke it properly!

So who was there chowing down? Peter G, Joe K, Scott R, Jeff D, Bob (not me, and not Bobby M, but another Bob), Aaron C, Don of course, Tony, Lou, and myself. Paul O probably would have been there but he's in Vegas on some company junket.

Paula and I enjoying the Rays game
from the Times suite Friday night
(click to enlarge)

Allow me to back up a little...Paula and I hosted the Times suite at Tropicana Field on Friday night and watched the Rays beat up the Oakland A's, 7-2. David Price was on fire with 12 strikeouts, striking out every batter in the lineup at least once. Looks like they're playing okay without Evan Longoria who's out for several weeks with an injury. I would have strolled over to the Cuesta-Rey Cigar Bar to enjoy a smoke but, as host, I had to stay in the suite for the duration of the game. In any case, we had a great time, even though the food and beer tab was outrageous. A thousand dollars to feed 15 people wings, hotdogs, peanuts, and beer.

A little discussion came up on The Tobacco Hutters recently about attendance at the Trop and the reasons why it's so low. There are a lot of factors involved, ranging from the lousy economy to every game being televised to a short tradition of the game in the area. All I know is that right now the Rays have the best record in baseball and are playing exciting ball and to be ranked 28th out of 30 teams in terms of attendance is pretty crappy. They deserve better from the Tampa Bay area.

So if you're not a member of The Tobacco Hutters and have missed the e-mails I've sent out about it, you might be thinking, "What is this 'Tobacco Hutters' he keeps mentioning?" Well, it's our own social network, just for customers and friends of The Tobacco Hut. As of this writing, we're up to 22 members after just a week and participation and content is growing steadily.

It's a virtual space that is intended to be an extension of the real Tobacco Hut, a place that friends can come together, talk to one another through forums, write their own blogs on topics important to them, post status updates, upload photos and more.

How is it different from the blog you're reading right now? Well, The Sweetest Smoke is my blog where I write seemingly endless drivel and a handful of people read it. But there's very little room for discussion and the commenting mechanism is clunky and problematic. The Tobacco Hutters, however, is easy to participate in and is not meant to be just me creating content. It's your space, your community. Use it in whatever way you want.

It's free to join, but is not open to the public. To become a member, simply click on the highlighted links above, or right here: http://bit.ly/TobaccoHutters. I'll get notified that you've clicked on the link and approve your membership. Feel free to invite your friends if you like what you see. I encourage everyone to sign up though, if you haven't already - the more the merrier!

(The group is limited to 150 members - after that I have to go up to the next level which is quite a bit more of an investment. But that's a good problem to have and I'll cross that bridge when we come to it. If it comes to that, I'll probably lay out the cash for it and then accept advertising on the site to defray the cost. No worries about that now, however.)

Toward the end of the afternoon, most of the folks had split for the day and who remained were Don, Peter, Scott, Lou and myself. We started talking about the "good old days" in radio and music, got into a debate about who the greatest guitarist ever was (Scott's vote was for Eddie Van Halen, Lou voted for Les Paul, and I topped them all with Jimi Hendrix), and finished with an informal game of "Name That Tune". We all tried stumping each other by naming a song and the others trying to guess the artist.

Scott stumped us a couple times with some April Wine songs (didn't know Scott was such a fan of the Halifax band), Peter tried to stump us with the song "96 Tears" but I immediately shouted out the answer - ? and the Mysterians. A little aside, there was a customer that wandered in during the quiz show segment of the afternoon and he said that Todd Rundgren wrote the song "96 Tears", but I can find no evidence of that, no connection whatsoever between him and ? and the Mysterians. The group formed in 1962 and the song was written by band member and lead vocalist Rudy Martinez. The only connection I could find between Todd Rundgren was that he covered the song in 1998 with his band Utopia.

Peter stumped us with "Come On Down to My Boat" by Every Mother's Son, which frustrated me because I have the song on my iTunes collection.

Scott maintains that Kansas was a one-hit wonder with "Dust in the Wind". Peter and I vehemently objected to the notion that they were a one-hit wonder but when Scott challenged us to name another song of his, we had to quietly agree with his assertion.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun shouting out song names and artists, especially the one-hit wonders, and even employed my iPhone to play samples of the songs. Lou was feeling a little left out so I played the opening couple notes of Glen Miller's "In The Mood" and he nailed it right away.

We were having so much fun playing Name That Tune that something happened for the first time ever, I think, at the Hut. I failed to finish my pipe. When it was closing time, I had about a third of the bowl left. I was so busy looking up songs on my iPhone and racking my brain trying not to be stumped by what Peter and Scott were throwing at me that I simply neglected my Ser Jacopo filled with G.L. Pease's Westminster tobacco. It was a fine smoke but, alas, I got too wrapped up in the fun to finish it.

And that brings me to the finish of this week's blog. See everyone next week, and see you around The Tobacco Hutters!

Saturday at the Hut - 4/28/12

We had a full house today at The Tobacco Hut and let me start off by stating, for the record, the official record, that Coast Guard Don was in attendance. He was there in the morning and couldn't stay long as he was flying a client to Atlanta (what a job!). Anyway, hope to see you next week, Don!

Also in attendance were Joe K, Paul O, Peter G, Tom L, and - all the way from Bradenton - Vic. Now Vic didn't bring his nuts along but he did not arrive empty handed. He surprised us with wings and apple fritters.

Peter enjoying some of Vic's wings
(Click to enlarge)

Lou devoured one of the fritters straightaway and Joe was trying to be good so just cut a piece off. But it was so good that he returned and cut another piece off, vowing that that would be it for him. But the temptation was too great for Joe, and Joe was weak and he finally returned for the whole thing. I didn't have one of my own, but I did have a bite of Joe's fritter and it was delicious. Um, that didn't sound too good. Let's just say that I liked the fritter that Vic brought more than I liked the taste of his nuts that Tom delivered a few weeks ago. That didn't sound good either - just forget the whole thing.

Peter announced that he was going to return to the theater to see the Three Stooges movie for a second time. The rest of the gang kind of pounced on him. Evidently they're Stooges purists and cheap Hollywood remakes are like a eye jab to the memory of Larry, Curly and Moe. Peter tried to gamely argue that the Stooges heirs had given their blessing to the movie but Tom and company were having none of it.

My favorite comedy team, Laurel & Hardy
(Click to enlarge)

I tried to argue that while I was neutral on the subject of a modern Three Stooges movie, I would view a modern version of my beloved Laurel & Hardy as sacrilege. As Tom and his minions heaped derision on me for favoring Stan and the Babe over the Stooges, Peter was able to take a breath from defending his preferred movie comedy team.

Peter's favorite comedy team, The Three Stooges
(Click to enlarge)

There was some discussion over who got their start first, the Stooges or Laurel & Hardy, and then it just got silly as Charlie Chaplin, Abbott & Costello and the Marx Brothers were brought into the mix. Annie Oakley was mentioned in the frenzy of famous names being tossed out, which made not sense at all. I argued that without Laurel & Hardy there would be no Three Stooges and Peter maintained that the Stooges were around in the 20s. That was news to me and I consulted that bastion of Internet wisdom, Wikipedia, and learned that, in fact, the Stooges got their start in 1925. Laurel & Hardy did predate them by four years, but I wouldn't say that they were responsible for the likes of the Stooges. Peter knows his Stooge history - well done sir!

Vic was lamenting his challenges with selling his nuts at the flea market, and their draconian restrictions, so we were all tossing out ideas for additional items he could sell. Someone mentioned that there were lots of Germans in the area around Bradenton and maybe Vic should market something to them, like bratwurst. It's kind of a blur, but at some point Tom and Paul and I were spitballing some marketing ideas like the SS Dog, or an experimental sandwich - the "Mengele Burger". Unfortunately, we just kept going down that road (use your imagination) and didn't return until we offended whole swaths of the population. Sorry we weren't much help with your business, Vic.

Tom helping Vic with how to best market his business and
offend German customers at the same time.
(Click to enlarge)

Finally, this very blog was brought up and I, your humble narrator, had all guns trained on him. Hell, I didn't think anyone read the damned thing but evidently passions run deep when the few readers I do have attempt to leave a comment. Paul and Tom were the most vocal about it, accusing me of censorship because their comments never make it to the page.

I explained that it is very easy to leave a comment, just follow the directions on the left rail toward the bottom of the page. So they tried on their phones and their test comments didn't appear. I explained that I moderate the comments because I was being inundated with spam but, I pledged, when I got home I would publish their comments.

Tom insisted that the comment function was completely, well, non-functional and issued me a challenge. He wanted me to ask Paula to comment on a blog post unassisted. I forgot about that or ignored it and Paula's asleep now so it's too late anyway but, I must confess that none of their test comments appeared in the queue awaiting my approval.

I know Mike G has had problems posting comments in the past and he has since merely e-mailed me his comments and I post them as they come in. I erroneously assumed it was simply operator error on his part because I do get other comments (Ed B and Aaron C, for example) through the normal channels.

To answer Tom, the absence of comments is not some vast liberal conspiracy of the mainstream media, but some sort of technical glitch and I pledge, as the administrator of this apparently wildly popular blog, that I will get to the bottom of it and allow for the free and robust exchange of ideas.

That being said, I think I am going to create a Facebook Group ("People of the Hut"?) where we can all gather and discuss things of great import. I realize that not all of us are on Facebook, but I think more of us are on Facebook than Google+, the only other really viable alternative. I looked into other social network sites like Ning and they cost money and don't get good reviews, so unless there are any big objections, I'll probably set something up on FB soon.

Oh, one more thing (and I feel like a disc jockey)...a shout out to Russ T, Vic's brother in Rochester. He is a faithful blog reader and hopefully will make it down soon for another visit.

I lied, one more item before I close. I have to tell everyone what I was smoking in my pipe today and which one I was smoking. Oh, who am I kidding, no one cares. Hell, I've even forgotten.

Until next week...

================

ADDENDUM!

For the first time ever, in the interests of a transparent, "fair and balanced" blog, I am adding something to an existing post. I am adding the photo that Tom sent with his comment (see below).

Here is Tom's quote: "It is official, photos don't lie, all pipe smokers are evil." Tom sent the photo of Josef Stalin smoking a pipe. Thereby, all pipe smokers are evil. 


My rebuttal? Tom, Mark Twain, the great American humorist, was a famous pipe smoker. Are you saying that Mark Twain, beloved American writer, was evil? Sounds a little unpatriotic to me. Why, you might just be a closet Communist, what with pictures of Stalin at the ready. If only Senator McCarthy was still around - you would be found out. Names would be named!

Saturday at the Hut - 4/21/12

Hey, look at me - two weeks in a posting to the blog! I should win some sort of award or something. Today was a fun day at The Tobacco Hut. In attendance were Joe K, Paul O, Tom L, Don W, Peter G, Lou, and myself.

It didn't take long for the talk to turn political - not that I had anything to do with that. I was simply the lone liberal taking potshots from the posse of conservatives surrounding me. We had to invoke Joe's "Kitty" rule once or twice when it got too heated. It actually wasn't too contentious - what was more intense was when Don asked for a good local restaurant for his wife and him to go to tonight.

Many of us recommended Rusty Bellies in Tarpon Springs, but Don's not fond of seafood. Peter and Tom suggested Currents, also in Tarpon, and I concurred, only after having Tom shoot down completely my recommendation of Casa Tina's in Dunedin.

What a place! It's not your typical Tex-Mex taco joint with salsa from a jar and heavy sauces slathered over burritos. It's actually coastal Mexican, all fresh homemade recipes. It's a fun atmosphere and the service is outstanding (ask for Laura).

Tom was poo-pooing the place, but I don't think he's ever eaten there. I think he was just steering Don away from it because I liked it.

So Don, where did you end up going for dinner?

Toward the end of the day a regular customer came in and bought a couple cigars. While Lou appreciates the guy's money (naturally), he is less than enthusiastic when he sits down to talk. And what did Peter do? Started talking to the guy. Now, to be fair, Peter had no idea that Lou prefers this customer to pull an Adrian, i.e. dash in and dash out. Lou gave him the high sign though after 20 brutal minutes of banal conversation and Peter did his best to not engage the guy anymore. He finally left and, of course, we heaped all sorts of grief on poor Peter.

Don was dishing out lots of his own grief today. He gave me hell because I had brought in the replacement bag of peanut butter pretzels and they came from Sam's Club, part of the Wal-Mart empire. Knowing my disdain for all things Wal-Mart, Don was quick to point out my hypocrisy. I remarked that, actually, my mother bought them and I bought them from her. This did not appease my critics, especially when I admitted that I actually never paid my mother the $6. Note to self, pay Mom.

I asked Don about Arnie and Aaron. Arnie is supposed to be in town sometime soon, so hopefully he'll stop by for a visit. And Aaron is busy working all the time on Saturdays, so obviously he has his priorities screwed up.

After watching 3 hours of the Bay News 9 endless loop of stories, we finally convinced Lou to change the channel. He loved the idea so much, he switched it to the Golf Channel. Paul was already napping but this put the rest of us out like a light.

Don asked a question about race drivers - are they athletes? Don doesn't think just driving a car and turning left requires any sort of special athletic ability, but Tom and I disagreed. Tom is more familiar with Formula 1 racing, but the same holds true for NASCAR and, I would posit, every other type of racing. The amount of conditioning the professional drivers go through, and the punishment their bodies take, plus the mental acuity, skill, timing, reaction times, etc., all point to their being as much of an athlete as any football player, swimmer, basketball player, runner, or golfer. Well, scratch that, golfers aren't athletes. Neither are bowlers.

Today saw me smoking some Tinder Box Reserve 1928 in a Mauro Armellini, a pipe I purchased in Savannah years ago. I'm not sure what everyone else was smoking, but Joe only smoked one cigar. See last week's posting for why this is significant.

That's it for this week - see you next Saturday!