A Great Cigar for the Tillerman

Well hello friends, the Cigar Man Dan is back Poolside Humidor 1 and looking forward to another fun filled, action packed summer Cigar season.  Although the Cigar season lasts longer than most of the year here in Central Florida, only 90-minutes from the Cigar Capital of Ybor City, it does get cold and the your favorite Cigar Man has developed a significant case of “Florida Wimpy”, so my winter Cigar volume is curtailed a bit with both visits to Garage Humidor 2 and the local Cigar Bars within a reasonable distance.

So much to discuss, but let’s kick it off with the nice Alec Bradley Prensado Cigar paired with another glass of the fine Teddy Roosevelt Rough Rider Straight Bourbon that I posted up to Face Book last Friday.  What a pair, so perfect together.  Alec Bradley is a Cigar Company founded by Alan Rubin, who started back in the lean days of the mid-90s while trying to hawk his Cigars on Golf Courses and outdoor events.  After shooting a pretty low financial score on the greens, and realizing he needed to break into the higher-end Cigar shops, in 2007 he created the industry’s first triangular shaped cigar called the Tempus which put him solidly on the Cigar manufacturing map.  He named his company after his sons Alec and Bradley and has really grown since 2007.  In 2009 he created this evening’s Prensado which is in my opinion one of the best Cigar values on the market today. This is one gorgeous Cigar, beautiful dark wrapper, square shaped, finely shaped head.  It provides deep, rich, flavor that has been described as nutty, coffee, and a hint of chocolate.  I simply get lost in these flavors and completely enjoy the clean and easy burn of a great tasting well crafted Cigar.

Quick shift.  Ok, let’s talk about that Malaysian airliner.  I really feel deeply for the families that lost loved ones.  I would love nothing more than to find the wreckage, retrieve the boxes, and identify where the pilots went wrong.  The odds of that happening were practically nil from the start. This does not look like a terrorist act.  There are far too many indicators here that simply don't support it.  The biggest evidence that this was an accident is that to date, there has not been a crazy, deranged, psychopathic, fanatical group coming forward to lay claim to it as an act of terrorism.

I have flown over the Indian Ocean no less than a dozen times.  Believe me when I tell you that this ocean is massive.  It is not uncommon for navigational equipment to malfunction or fail.  If electronic equipment became unusable, in that ocean it would not be difficult to lose bearings, miscalculate the horizon, and chart a course to open sea oblivion.  So sad.

Having worked at Diego Garcia, a very strategic British territory no more than 5-miles long and 1-mile wide for almost two years of my life. I can tell you that the chances of locating this aircraft is slim at best, even with strong batteries delivering a clean consistent ping.  The search areas, those little rectangular shaped outlines drawn on an aerial overlay map, are over 1,000 square miles each with hundreds, if not thousands, of square miles between them.  If that isn't bad enough, the ocean floor can be up to 20 miles deep.  We currently have limited technological options for submersing that deep, let alone accessing the wreckage and dealing with potential shifting of aircraft pieces, strong undersea currents, silt and floor material, and near zero visibility available to retrieve the boxes.  

Let me explain why this whole thing really irks me, and believe me it took some time to figure this out.  It has been several weeks, with one claim of hope, followed by a period of calm, only to be repeated with another claim of hope.  I feel for the people managing this incredibly difficult multinational mobilization, but they did no service to themselves by not explaining the odds up front, announcing ping transmissions before validating them as craft authentic, and failing to explain what would really need to occur if they were lucky enough to locate the aircraft. This is not fair to the families of the victims, after having suffered such terrible losses already, they deserve honesty. They do not deserve to have their chain pulled repeatedly by political figureheads pressured to declare bureaucratic victories. That just plain sucks, and really pisses me off.  

Speaking of Diego Garcia, that is one interesting place..  As a Dept. of Defense contractor trying to depart the island, it was always a bit of a shell game adventure.  You literally have to pack all your luggage nightly, head down for a midnight flight, only to find out you had been bumped by a soldier, or pallets of garbage, or even by empty water buffaloes (water trailers). The last straw was getting bumped by a horse, which was pretty darn humiliating.  The best part is that when you were bumped, you had to hope that there was an available BLQ to move back into for the night, or you got to enjoy the friendly comforts of a cold gymnasium floor while sleeping on a luggage pillow.  Eeeek.

One interesting quirk, imagine 10,000 male sailors from two different Naval commands, and 120 service women total inhabiting the same small patch of island, ya; exactly.  The mismatch between the hunky guys and the band-camp looking service women made little sense, well not until you are there for a few weeks.  Then they went from burly, to “not too terrible”, to downright attractive.  

Since I was always there temporarily, no women would even speak to me, they had the obvious pick of full timers, and the Filipino girls were mostly looking for a better living arrangement than the mundane trailer camps provided.  It was a pretty lonely existence there.  I did get hit on, but ironically it was by a British Naval Security girl on my way out to a waiting C-151 bound for Singapore blasting ice cold air and hard rocking Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild".  This of course was my last trip to the island.  God has a really interesting sense of humor.

While we are covering great music, I have Yusuf Islam playing in the background.  Not familiar with his work?  Well you may know him by his stage name, Cat Stevens.  He is one of my greatest musical influences, and was the reason I learned to play the guitar.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week which is a well deserved honor for this talented and peace loving artist.  You have to admire his resolve, as one of the largest and biggest selling acts of the 1970s, and he at the very height of his world wide fame, he simply walked away from the music industry.  Why did he do it? Well, that is Cigar column material for a future article, but it was astonishing. 

I have always respected what he did, and I am really not sure that I would have that type of courage, hell I’m sure I wouldn't.  I have been enjoying his music since my cousin Kat played Tea for the Tillerman, his defining album, while cruising around in her early 70s Camaro.  The hits kept coming, Moonshadow, Father and Son, Morning has Broken, Peace Train, all pure classics.  I never realized it till now, but it was "Kat" that turned me onto "Cat".  Well, thank you both; it has made a great difference throughout my life.

Cat Stevens was inducted into the Hall on the same stage as KISS last week. Could we find a greater mismatch of musical styles and influences?  Well, I'm glad to see that God still has a really interesting sense of humor.

Thank you to editor Rick, as he really helped me with this one.  Till next time, keep em long and lit.