http://www.isnare.com/?s=author&a=Garson+Smart Advice Garson Smart Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=386663&ca=Advice Absolutely anyone who knows anything about American literature knows that there's a lot more to Mark Twain than Huck Finn. There's his witty and iconoclastic essays ("Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"; "Corn-Pone Opinions"), his uproarious and scathing book reviews ("What Paul Bourget Thinks of U... Advice Garson Smart Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=386096&ca=Advice Premium cigar aficionados need a good laugh as much as anyone--especially in these troubled economic times. So here are a few of the funniest recent news stories touching on the world of premium cigars. Call these the jests in Lady Nicotine's court. First up, there's the case of the man who loved h... Advice Garson Smart Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=386097&ca=Advice Traditionally, cigar aficionados have only been able to buy cigars by the box. This created conundrums for those who love to procure a great smoke without incurring a big risk. If you splurge on a box of premium cigars, even if they're discount premium cigars, you may very well find yourself smoking... Advice Garson Smart Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=383863&ca=Advice Cuban cigars: for a cigar aficionado, the ultimate forbidden fruit is to buy Cuban cigars. At least, that's true if you live in the United States, which has long embargoed most trade and travel with the Communist island republic, which prevents the ability to buy Cuban cigars. Even as much of Cuba's... Advice Garson Smart Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=383864&ca=Advice If cigar magazines such as Cigar Aficionado and Smoke can be believed--and demographic studies indicate that, on this issue, they can--premium cigar smokers tend to be the types of folks who also make savvy investments. But even the most dedicated cigar aficionado and premium cigar smoker may not re... Advice Garson Smart Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=380812&ca=Advice Longtime cigar aficionados have followed the fluctuations in the US-Cuba relationship for years. Of course, officially, there is no relationship--the United States severed all diplomatic ties with Cuba in the early 1960s and has maintained a trade embargo with the island Communist dictatorship ever... Gardening Garson Smart Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=380008&ca=Gardening If you love cigars--if you're a true cigar aficionado--you probably wonder, every now and again, what life is like for the hard-working folks who grow the tobacco for your favorite cigars. Well, if it's premium cigars you like to smoke--perhaps by the box, perhaps one by one in a premium cigar sampl... Advice Garson Smart Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=380009&ca=Advice It happens to the biggest premium cigar aficionados out there: things start to get a little stale. Not "stale" in the sense of dried-out. That can happen, of course, but it's not likely to, if your humidor is set at the standard sixty-seven to seventy-four percent relative humidity range, and as lon... Society Garson Smart Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=379242&ca=Society If you love cigars--if you're a true cigar aficionado--you probably deal with the Vacation Conundrum at about this time every year. What's the vacation conundrum? It's the issue of which cigars to bring on your vacation. After all, you don't want to bring anything that could get crushed. (Long, thin... Advice Garson Smart Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=379243&ca=Advice Even the most solicitous and devoted cigar aficionado occasionally runs into a little trouble. Taste spoliation; a cigar humidor dial gone wonky; an infestation of tobacco beetles; mold; even the occasionally badly-made cigar from a generally reliable premium cigar factory--any and all of these litt...