Louisiana Risks Losing Cigar & Pipe Retailers Convention Over Anti-Smoking Bills

And it serves them right!

The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association says it probably will not come back to Louisiana for conventions if the Legislature passes anti-smoking bills.

1 of the bills - a big tax increase on all tobacco products - failed before a House committee Tuesday.

The tobacco association also opposes bills that would ban smoking in any restaurant or bar.

The Georgia-based association says it expects more than 5,000 delegates to its August convention in New Orleans.

The group’s legislative director - Chris McCalla - says business owners should be able to choose whether to allow smoking in their establishments. He also says customers and employees can choose which establishments to patronize or work in.

Peterson Rock of Cashel Rustic Pipe #68

Peterson Rock of Cashel Rustic Pipe #68. This pipe measures approximately 5″ Long x 1 3/4″ High with a bowl diameter of 1 1/4″ and a maximum bowl width of 1 1/2″.

Click Here for more information

Edward’s Pipe & Tobacco Tampa FL

If I were a selfish man, I would never write this article as I would like to keep Edward’s Pipe & Tobacco my own little secret … just for me. You see they have so many beautiful one-of-a-kind pipes and I want to buy them all for myself. However, the secret was out a long time ago. The flagship location of Edward’s Pipe & Tobacco in Tampa is not a huge store, but they have been in business for 50 years and they really know pipes and tobacco. I am writing this as I am smoking my new Smitty hand-made Algerian briar bent with Acrylic mouthpiece. It smokes as beautiful as it looks.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pipe Smoking Makes You Smarter

An amazing discovery was made this morning. It was reported on Fox News that a study by Baylor College of Medicine showed that pipe smokers scored higher on a standardized test and got better grades than the non-pipe-smokers. Pipe smoking can reduce stress, leading to enhanced concentration and thus better academic performance.

Pipe smokers have long known about the health benefits of pipe smoking. Some of the best thinkers and geniuses of all time, like Albert Einstein and Mark Twain were pipe smokers.

It was also reported that, "Pipe smoking is safe for adults and children of all ages. It does not cause cancer or have any negative health effects. As a matter of fact, men who smoke pipes live 33.7% longer than those who don’t. Women who smoke pipes are 27% thinner, better looking and have bigger boobs than those who don’t."

Actually, only part of the above is true. The part that is true is that pipe smokers have long known about the health benefits of pipe smoking. Some of the best thinkers and geniuses of all time, like Albert Einstein and Mark Twain were pipe smokers. Pipe smoking does in fact relax you. The funny quote above is from Kill Brain Cells.

The part about the Baylor College of Medicine study was paraphrased from a ridiculous news item I saw on Fox news this morning saying that chewing gum improved academic performance.

You can read about that here: Web MD. (Of course, the study was funded by Wrigley).

I can’t wait for Altadis to fund a study on the benefits of pipe smoking. There really are health benefits from pipe smoking and we will have an article about that here in the coming week. I am not joking about that.

Common Sense Rules in Nebraska

Heineman signs cigar bar bill

LINCOLN - Omaha Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh planned to fire up up a celebratory cigar sometime Wednesday evening. Make it an Excaliber, with a dark madura wrapper.

That’s because Gov. Heineman signed into law Lautenbaugh’s measure, Legislative Bill 355, allowing cigar and pipe smoking in licensed cigar bars in Nebraska.

For now, Lautenbaugh said, he’ll have to smoke outside. But three months after the end of this year’s legislative session - sometime in early September - it will be legal for cigar smoking inside bars that obtain a special liquor license.

Common Sense Isn’t So Common in Vermont

The International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association today urged Vermont egislators to use common sense when considering an extreme tightening of the state’s current smoking ban which has been in place since 1987. The proposal now before the legislature includes the banning of smoking in tobacco shops and other such adult oriented locations.

Montpelier, VT - The International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association today urged Vermont legislators to use common sense when considering an extreme tightening of the state’s current smoking ban, which has been in place since 1987.

The proposal, now before the legislature, includes the banning of smoking in tobacco shops and other such adult oriented locations.

"No one goes into a tobacco store without expecting to encounter secondhand smoke," said Chris McCalla, legislative director of IPCPR. "These are adults-only workplaces whose air quality falls within the safe levels of air quality established by OSHA - the Occupational Health and Safety Administration."

McCalla urged Vermont legislators to be reasonable in their deliberations of the issue.

"We believe no smoking ban should be legislated and that it should be left up to business owners to determine whether or not smoking would be permitted in their establishments. However, the Vermont smoking ban - which has served the state and its citizens for nearly a quarter-century - is strong enough to satisfy the demands of any reasonable employee who desires a smoke free workplace while respecting the rights of others," McCalla said.

McCalla pointed out that most tobacco shops are mom-and-pop operations, small businesses that employ neighborhood workers and generate sales and income taxes for state coffers.

"If the right to smoke a cigar, pipe or other tobacco product in the controlled environment of a cigar store is legislated away, then these same lawmakers will be voting to eliminate these businesses and the jobs and taxes that go with them," McCalla added.

"Premium hand-made cigars are celebratory and special. Pipes are calming and reflective. Both are more like hobbies than habits and use of neither is aimed at children. We are a unique industry enjoying the sale and use of legal products. As long as we respect the rights of others as they should respect ours, we should be allowed to stay in business instead of being deprived of our livelihood through unreasonable legislation," he said.

Edgeworth Ready Rubbed Pipe Tobacco Review

I have to say that I simply had to try this tobacco because of the name … not so much the Edgworth as the ‘Ready Rubbed. My father smoked a ready rubbed for years and even though I had no idea of what the brand was that he smoked I had to try this one. It’s strange how much impact a father can have on his son.

Read the rest of this entry »

Prince Albert Pipe Tobacco Ad from 1947

Ah, the good ole days when you could enjoy smoking your pipe wherever you wished and it made women desire you.

I found this on Dr Hermes Retro-Scans - Scans of classic pulp, comics, movies, paperbacks and babes of yore.

This is from the January 1947 issue of POPULAR SCIENCE.

Tobacco Taxes Steadily on the Rise

There seems to be a never-ending assault on tobacco. As if all the anti-smoking laws that get passed every day are not enough, and then S-CHIP on April 1st, now we have various states increasing taxes on tobacco, including pipe tobacco.

The Florida Senate passed a tobacco tax proposal Thursday that adds $1 to a pack of cigarettes and $1 an ounce to all other tobacco products. This was surprising with all of the cigar manufacturers based in Florida, mostly in Miami and Tampa.

The Cigar Rights of America (CRA) held a protest rally last Tuesday that originally resulted in a promise of special treatment for cigars, but Tampa Sens. Victor Crist, a Republican, and Arthenia Joyner, a Democrat, withdrew an amendment creating the cigar exemption after being reassured that it would be a priority in the Senate’s budget negotiations with the state House.

So much for promises.

Last week, Hawaii lawmakers agreed to raise taxes on tobacco products. The tax rate on tobacco products, such as pipe and chewing tobacco, would jump from 40 percent of the wholesale price to 70 percent of the wholesale price. But, responding to complaints from local makers of premium, hand-rolled cigars, lawmakers agreed to raise the rate on cigars from 40 percent to 50 percent of the wholesale price. Thinner cigars that resemble cigarettes would be taxed at the same rate as cigarettes.

Kentucky increased it’s tobacco taxes recently and other states considering it include Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina and Oregon. Other states - including California, New York and Hawaii - also are considering raising taxes on alcohol products.

Growers say some tobacco buyers are cutting back orders by as much as 25 percent and, in some cases, trying to renegotiate existing contracts to buy less than originally agreed, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Earlier in this recession it was reported that the sales of tobacco and alcohol were one of the only areas that were maintaining while sales of almost everything else declined. Now the reports are different. Every day there are news reports of retailers reporting lower sales of tobacco. Due to increased Federal taxes coupled with increased state taxes, the government has finally succeeded in knocking back sales in one of the only areas that was still doing good in the recession.

Pipe Censorship - Absurd and Silly

Before the Absurd Censorship

The pipe favored by one of French cinema’s most enduring comic characters has fallen victim to advertisers who were worried about breaking an anti-smoking law - but have earned mockery and ridicule instead.

Jacques Tati’s Mr Hulot, whose pipe was as much a trademark as his hat and beige raincoat, is seen riding his Velosolex motor scooter in a poster advertising a retrospective at the Cinematheque de Paris.

But the pipe has been replaced by a small coloured whirligig by Metrobus, the group that manages advertising on Paris public transport, because of fears the pipe could break a law forbidding it from “direct or indirect” tobacco and alcohol advertising.

Mr Hulot, the accident-prone hero who stumbled benevolently through a series of films between 1953 and 1971, is one of the most immediately recognisable figures in French cinema and the affair of his pipe has sparked a minor uproar.

The Liberation daily was among many newspapers mocking the cover-up, pointing out that Mr Hulot is not wearing a helmet, is riding an old-fashioned, polluting vehicle and that the small boy riding behind him is not seated securely.

“Why not go all the way with this legislative zeal?” it asked.

Even Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot has been worried. “We’re getting pretty ridiculous with this,” she said.

A Metrobus spokesman appeared unperturbed, reacting with the kind of assurance in adversity that would have done Mr Hulot proud.

“I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about,” he said.

After Cenorship by someone with Zero Photshop Skills