Thank you Captain Obvious!

[StrangeCheez]

U.S. cigar smokers watch Castro's health

CHICAGO, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- The medical condition of Cuban leader Fidel Castro has become of great interest to U.S. cigar smokers, hoping for an end to a trade embargo.

A week ago, Castro was hospitalized for gastrointestinal surgery, and he ceded power to his younger brother, Raul.

In Chicago, Mark Thomas, owner of the Blue Havana cigar shop, said hopes among cigar smokers soared that the political change could bring about the eventual end of the U.S. embargo on Cuban goods enacted by the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s.

However, Rhoda Bogardus, co-owner of the Hubbard & State Cigar Shop was less enthusiastic, saying if the embargo ended tomorrow, Cuba doesn't have the capacity to supply the U.S. market.

True Cuban cigars have what aficionados call a distinguishable full-bodied aroma.

"With Cubans, when you open the box, it can smell like a wet diaper," Bogardus said.

While illegal, Cuban cigars sell for between $20 and $25 each in the United States, but experts estimate 90 percent of them are counterfeit.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.ph...7-114352-9149r

[Hairyhandedgent]

Nothing like a Cuban cigar ... and I don't really smoke, I have an acquaintance who is a physician and has business reasons to travel to Cuba. He is able to bring back 2 boxes of cigars per trip and has on occasion seen fit to fix me up with a cigar. Given the potential financial boon a lifting of the US trade embargo represents to Cuba you can bet it won't happen until there is a stable government in power that is favorable to US interests which won't happen without major political upheaval, if not a civil war.

[SimTek]

Originally Posted by Hairyhandedgent

Given the potential financial boon a lifting of the US trade embargo represents to Cuba you can bet it won't happen until there is a stable government in power that is favorable to US interests which won't happen without major political upheaval, if not a civil war.

Well apparently we're not going to get anywhere until he kicks the bucket. So, the cigar lover in me says..."Go Reaper!".