From Martin Fricker at The Mirror comes this piece on an upcoming auction of JFK memorabilia–including a couple of humidors still containing the cigars favored by President Kennedy:

This is history under the hammer… a bidding war for some of the most astonishing American memorabilia that has ever come on to the market.

Thousands of items that once belonged to John F Kennedy are up for grabs, many of them on internet auction site eBay.

But the glory pieces will be auctioned off in New York - including the watch he wore during his 1961 presidential inauguration and the flags that flew on his limousine when he was assassinated.

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Since a lingering upper respiratory virus has left me unable to smoke, I haven’t posted any new cigar reviews in the last few days. I’m back-logged with some really great cigars that I’ll start sharing with you in the coming week if all goes well.

While my sinuses are opening up, I’ve bee making some cosmetic and “behind-the-scenes” changes here at Cigar Envy that should make the site a little more useful, and user-friendly.

• First, the first right column now has a listing of the top ten most read articles that is updated automatically.

  Obviously, more recent articles are showing up most often right now since the count just started a couple of days ago, but I’ve been surprised at how some of the older ones shot up quickly because of search engine traffic and referrals.

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Interested in learning how to roll a cigar?

Then head on down to the historic Ybor City district of Tampa, Florida.

You’ll have a chance to learn everything you need to know in a Cigar Aficionado certification course that is used to train people to hand roll cigars for the tourist trade there. According to the Chamber of Commerce, three cigar shops and six cigar factories have opened for business in Ybor City in the last six months. Business is booming.

“Our cigar school is not just to create cigar rollers, but to create cigar rollers that know the rich history of Ybor City,” said Jacqueline Conley of International Bazaar, where classes are held.

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Another good review — this one by Cigar Jack.

He sampled the Puros Indios Gorda, and here’s a bit of what he had to say:

“The Puros Indios Cigars were the latest selection of cigars offered up in the weekly tasting. The first thing these cigars impress you with is their size, but don’t be intimidated a kitten lurks in this stick.”

Check out the rest of the review and get the skinny on PI’s fat one.

Richard over at Blank Mind Blog has an interesting short review up of the Camacho Corojo Toro. As usual, he mixes some very good insights into the cigar with some other interesting observations made while enjoying the smoke. Here’s a short excerpt:

“The Camacho Corojo Toro is a beautifully made cigar. The wrapper was medium brown in color with a silky smooth, almost oily, feel to it. It balanced very well in my hand as I walked.”

I’ve had a case of the flu for the past week that just won’t quit, so further reviews of new sticks from me will wait a little longer until I can breathe. In the meantime, meader over to Richard’s place for an enjoyable time and find the answers to some burning questions about a cigar that gets a mixed review in the end.

From Rich Perelman at Cigarcyclopedia:

Tim Luckhurst’s editorial on the debate in Britain’s House of Commons that appeared in the London Times last Tuesday is important and worth repeating, so here goes:

“As MPs choose today between partial or total bans on smoking in public places they must ask themselves whether lying to promote a cause is ever legitimate.

“The question is urgent because the claim that secondary smoking kills is alchemy, not science, and honest anti-smoking lobbyists know it. The theory that cigarette smoke kills non-smokers was dreamt up 30 years ago by anti-smoking activists; only after inventing it did they attempt to prove it.

“Dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies have followed. All point to a compelling consensus that there is no casual link between passive smoking and fatal illness. One of the most comprehensive studies was published in the British Medical Journal in 2003. It concluded: ‘The results do not support a causal relationship between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco-related mortality.’

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