Sunday, May 22, 2005

What This Country Needs...

Tobacco, here at Bloody Nib Manor, is a welcomed commodity. We realize the physically deleterious effects of the weed, but we also realize that the world would be a much more peaceful place if more people lit up a Camel instead of rode one. The ever lovely Lady Nib is still known to light up a fag, as are Countess Nib and Sir Dannnny. Yours truly gave up ciggies some years ago, but I still enjoy a pipe of good tobacco that is able to drive the faint hearted from the room while I and my real friends enjoy a pint or two.

Until about ten years ago yours enjoyed cigars regularly. During a time of young marriage I regularly bought boxes of Punch Maduro Rothschild cigars on a regular basis. At that time a box of fifty cost fifty cents per cigar, or twenty-five dollars. At that time, young in my trade, young as a man and making enough to cover my rent with one week's pay, twenty-five dollars did not seem extravagant. A good cigar at the end of a long day at the mill was the icing on the cake.

But now, in my middle age, I find the cost of a good cigar prohibitive. I don't know if it is because I've grown older and wiser, or because the cost has just gotten to be too much since cigars have become acceptable in a way that they weren't and cigarettes aren't. Even cheap cigars cost too much. It's a sad commentary on modern life that the combination of taxes and the increased of cost due to trendiness have driven the cost of cigars so high.

From the porch of the Manor it's a sad thing to see. Those who have no business smoking cigars can afford them and those who really appreciate them can't afford them.

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