A rich-flavored, medium-bodied, maduro cigar, with an excellent aroma. A smooth, refined and sophisticated smoke that is extremely consistent.

Background Information:

The CT Signature Toro is 6 inches long with a 50 ring gauge. The cigar has a sun-grown Brazillian Arapiraca maduro wrapper over a Connecticut Broadleaf binder. The filler is a mix of Dominican Cubana ligero and Nicaraguan Habano ligero tobacco. Each cigar is individually wrapped in a cedar sleeve. Manufactuered at the Cuevas y Hermanos factory in the Dominican Republic for Toraño y Cia.

From the Manufactuer:

“A medium to full-bodied smoke with rich flavors of roasted coffee and cocoa. An earthy core with hints of leather and sweet spice. Also an earthy herbal aroma rounded off with sweet wood on the finish.”

Cigar Envy Cigar Review:

Appearance:  10 of 10 points

A truly beautiful and extremely well-constructed cigar. The wrapper is dark, oily and rather veiny — however the veins are small, do not detract from the appearance, and do not affect the burn either.

Also, the contrast of the cedar sleeve against the dark maduro cigar is a very attractive presentation.

Aroma:  15 of 15 points

First, the unlit cigar smells strongly of cedar. Not terribly surprising considering that each cigar comes wrapped in an individual cedar sleeve. The way that the wrapper is permeated by a cedar aroma, however, indicates that the sleeve is not just window dressing for the presentation of the cigar. These sticks have been in close contact with cedar for a considerable time during aging. A hint of cedar comes through in the flavor (see below).

The smoke aroma is also very good. My wife and daughter both commented on how good it smelled — and my daughter isn’t a big cigar fan. This is a cigar that can be enjoyed not only by you but by those around you.

Burn:   10 of 10 points

Very even burn–in fact, one of the most even burns of any stick I’ve smoked. Excellent. This is a cool and smooth smoke, and the cigar lasted longer than most this size. The ash is light grey and firm.

Consistency:   15 of 15 points

The cigar is not only consistent from lighting to the end of the smoke, it is also consistent from stick to stick and from box to box. This is a top quality cigar. One of the most consistent I have smoked.

Construction:   9 of 10 points

It isn’t a surprise to say that a Carlos Toraño cigar is well constructed. The construction of the whole cigar is quite good, but the cap is excellent — better than on most comparably-priced cigars.

One note of caution under construction: be very careful when removing the cedar sleeve from the cigar so that you do not damage the wrapper (as I did on the second stick I sampled). The Arapiraca wrappers appear to be a little more fragile than you might expect, although I think the flavor is worth the extra care required. Even with slight damage, however, the cigar with the slight tear was better than most other brands I have smoked.

Draw:   9 of 10 points

The draw overall is a little tight — not anything that is a problem usually, but an occasional stick is slightly tighter. Still, this isn’t enough of a negative to spoil the overall superb quality of this cigar in my opinion.

Flavor:   27 of 30 points

Cedar notes, and peppery to begin. The Brazilian wrapper has a natural smoothness and sweetness not found in the more common maduro wrappers. As the cigar starts to warm, there are spicy tones mingled with a creaminess and overtones of a nutty flavor mingled with a prominent mocha aroma. The flavor is very good and consistent from shortly after lighting up all the way through to the end of the cigar as I’ve already mentioned.

This cigar reaches full flavor in a fairly short time with dominent coffee and dark chocolate notes and a hint of leather. It holds this flavor tone basically unchanged longer than any other cigar I’ve smoked. The cedar aging blends things beautifully and the cedary notes come through to the very end. This is one that you’ll be able to smoke until you cannot hold it any more without bitterness or harshness.

Despite the double ligero filler blend, this is rated a medium to medium-full bodied cigar. I would probably place it more to the medium side myself. It is extremely mild for a maduro, yet has the maduro flavor depth at the same time. In fact, it is an excellent introduction to maduros for someone who hasn’t smoked them before. Don’t misunderstand that to mean that this is just a “beginner” cigar, because it isn’t. It is an extremely sophisticated smoke.

Number Sampled For Review:   Five.

Other Reviewers:

Cigar Aficianado gave it an 89, calling it “earthy, with notes of cedar, coffee and cocoa” and also mentioning the slightly tight draw. Smoke Magazine gave it a 4.7 on their old 5 point scale — an unprecedented and unique rating, the highest given by the magazine for a non-Cuban cigar. One of their review panelists called it a “maduro that even a non-maduro lover would like.”

Price:

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price is US $125.00 per box of 25 ($5.00 each).

TNT Cigars has the current online low price per box at US $79.00 (which is a savings of about 37% off the retail price and works out to only $3.16 a stick). Famous Smoke Shop comes in with the virutally identical price of $79.95 a box, and the next best price is at Best Cigar Prices at $81.75 a box. Current listed prices at other online retailers who have it are usually in the upper-80’s to upper-90s.

You can also find it by the five pack at Famous Smoke Shop for $22.95 ($4.59 each). You might also want to check CigarBid, Cigar Auctioneer, or the JR Cigars Auction and see if you can snap up a sampler at a bargain.

Prices do not include shipping and are current at the time of this review.

If so, you are mistaken.

Deep in the Bluegrass State, in an area more known for thoroughbred horses and fine bourbon, something unusual is happening. Some fine cigar wrapper tobacco is being grown because of the vision and efforts of Mark Barrow, a man who decided to try something no one else had tried.

“I think Kentucky’s heritage is tobacco, bourbon and fast horses, and I want to keep all three of them going,” said Barrow.

Mark Barrow is not just a visionary. He is a visionary who has succeeded.

The story continues after the jump.

Kentucky Farmer Wraps Up A New Cigar Market

From Byron Crawford, of Louisville’s Courier-Journal

A wisp of cigar smoke lingered for a moment above Mark Barrow’s Trimble County tobacco field — then vanished.

Barrow watched it lift away above the soil where much of the leaf was grown before taking another puff from one of his Kentucky Black Gold stogies.

“In the 1990s … I saw a handful of cigars selling for nearly $50, and thought, ‘Wow! There’s potential here,’” he recalled. “At the time, they were selling a type of leaf called Connecticut shade for $50 a pound.”

Barrow flew to New York, rented a car and drove up the Connecticut River Valley, knocking on the doors of cigar tobacco planters asking how he might adapt the crop to his Trimble County burley tobacco farm.

“I knocked on three doors before anybody would even talk to me … because they had a gold mine,” he said. “I flew back with enough seed to get the first crop going … and the next thing you know, we’re setting Havana 214, 217 and Connecticut shade. The following year, we started growing broadleaf, which has been our mainstay ever since.”

Today, the 50-year old Barrow, who grew up in the shadows of thoroughbred tracks around the country where his father, jockey Tommy Barrow, was riding, is marketing his Kentucky Black Gold cigars from Ashland to Paducah and from Louisville to the Tennessee border. He divides his time between his cigars and his Kentucky Black Gold Coffee roaster in Horse Cave, just off Interstate 65, still making some cigar deliveries in person.

Grown with care

Most of the cigar tobacco grown on his farm above the Little Kentucky River near Sulphur is harvested in much the same manner as cigarette leaf, but with considerably more care. Natural fertilizer formulas are derived from linseed, cottonseed and soybean meal. This year Barrow is growing two acres of burley to be used as filler leaf, but he will resume growing broadleaf for cigar wrapping next year.

Once air-cured, the cigar leaf is usually stripped in three or four grades and is carefully tied in hands of seven leaves each for shipping to Puerto Rico, where Barrow’s wife, Liz, has family with a history in the tobacco business. There, the tobacco is processed, blended with tobacco from the island, aged from one to four years, then made into cigars and shipped back to Kentucky for sale.

“It has a little sweetness to it,” said J. Paul Tucker of Louisville’s Oxmoor Smoke Shoppe. “I keep it in a prominent place in here and we carry everything he makes. Mark’s great at marketing. He sells some of them now in Mason jars.”

And he concentrates on ways of life that are vanishing.

Ways of life like rolling cigars by hand in New York City.

Here, courtesy of Pheasant’s Eye, is a look at how a torcedor — a cigar roller — turns a pile of leaves into a work of art in the award winning short film Hand Rolled on 29th Street.

The film takes less than three minutes to view. If you have never had a chance to see how a cigar is rolled, you should find this especially fascinating.

More on Bert Shapiro, the filmaker, below the fold.

Hand Rolled on 29th Street is part of Bert Shapiro’s Hand and Eye series. Shapiro describes the series this way:

“An inside look reveals men and women from all walks of life practicing time-honored skills in the 21st century.

Spontaneous dialogue and light-hearted moments all make up rare insights into the lives of contemporary individuals who demonstrate their passions on-screen.

Bert Shapiro’s investigation into what makes these people tick includes specially composed music. Each film reveals in an uncanny way the aspirations and quirks of ordinary people.

View Eye & Hand series for an uncensored, unglitzy chance to laugh, be entertained, and learn how people not ordinarily found on the screen have much to offer in the world in which we live.”

The film has won numerous awards, including the following:

• Zoie International Festival 2000, 3rd prize in documentary section.
• New Haven Film Festival 2000, 1st in Audience Choice Award for documentary work
• Rochester NY Film Festival 2000 - Movies on a Shoestring Trophy Award
• Hot Springs International Documentary Festival 2000
• Rutgers Film Festival 2001 Honorable Mention
• Channel 13 Metro Arts New York City TV
• NYExpo Film Festival Jury Award
• International Festival of Cinema and Technology Screening in London, England, L.A., California, and Toronto 2002-3
• Nominated for the following award on the IFCT 2002-2003 World Tour: “The IFCT Best Short Documentary Award”
• Algonquin Indifest 2003

Check his website for more information on other films in the series, and his latest film, Sunday in the Park with God and Lord Soper, filmed at the historic Hyde Park “Speakers Corner” in London.

Related Link: new york hotels make up the great New York skyline

This Honduran cigar is a medium to full bodied, flavorful and spicy smoke that starts with a peppery note and then settles to become almost as mild as the Cuban Sancho Panza variety. From the half-way point on, there is a pleasant shift in flavor and fullness that leads into a very satisfying finish. The Sancho Panza Double Maduro Quixote is a very flavorful smoke and a true bargain at the price.

While they are a good cigar fresh from the box, they improve remarkably by resting for several weeks to several months. Humidor storage is recommended before smoking, and after storage are not only a bargain but a best buy. The rating and points assigned in this review are based on cigars after about four months of humidor storage. Explanations are given below of problems or defects that you might find in fresh-from-the-box Sancho Panza Double Maduro cigars.

Background Information:

At 4 1/2 inches with a 50 ring guage, this box-pressed Robusto has an impressive appearance. The Quixote is a mild to medium bodied cigar with a a dark maduro wrapper — almost dark enought to legitimately call it an oscuro. It also has a dark maduro binder, and this is where the “double maduro” name comes from, not from the color of the cigar. The wrapper and binder leaves are selected from the richest, full-sun-tops of Connecticut Broadleaf tobacco plants and then aged for four years before rolling. The filler is a flavorful mix of Cuban-seed Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican tobacco. Crafted by Honduran cigar master Estelo Padrón at Honduras American Tabaco S. A., for Villazon & Co., a subsidiary of General Cigar Co.

From the Manufacturer:

“Sancho Panza is a superbly constructed, square-pressed cigar. The new Double Maduro cigar follows in the footsteps of its highly-rated, natural wrapper predecessor. And like the brand¿s line of natural cigars Sancho Panza Double Maduros are so surprisingly affordable they can be enjoyed every day.

The Sancho Panza Double Maduro cigar gets its name from the fact that it has both a maduro wrapper and a maduro binder. Each Sancho Panza Double Maduro cigar is made with a hand-selected, extra-dark Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper and a specially aged, dark Connecticut Shade binder plus a premium blend of Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican filler tobaccos that delivers the rich, full taste for which Sancho Panza has become renowned.”

CigarEnvy Cigar Review:

Appearance:  9 of 10 points

The Quixote is box-pressed and rectangular. Fresh from the box, the cigars may appear somewhat light and rough and would probably rate a 7. Some time in the humidor works miracles. The wrapper then appears beautifully oily and quite shiny for a maduro. The color is so dark that it approaches oscuro. Veins are small. An attractive cigar.

Aroma:  14 of 15 points

Pre-light, the aroma is sweet and earthy with undertones of spice. The cigar produces large volumes of spicy and pleasantly aromatic smoke.

Burn:   8 of 10 points

Somewhat uneven burn, but easily correctable and not a real problem. The ash is white and firm, and contrasts well with the dark wrapper.

Consistency:   14 of 15 points

The SP Double Maduro Quixote is a very consistent cigar. You will find it consistent from start to finish, having a predictable but pleasant flavor profile (see below). It is also consistent from box to box.

Construction:   8 of 10 points

The biggest negative with these cigars is the cap. Some are poorly applied and come off during handling, punching or cutting. They seem to “set” to some extent while resting in the humidor and this becomes less of a problem — unaged, I would probably rate the construction a 6. Again, these cigars truly benefit from some storage.

Other than the loose cap, the construction is quite good.

Draw:   9 of 10 points

As with many box-pressed cigars, the draw is somewhat tight fresh from the box. Let them rest for several weeks in the humidor and they open up a bit. You will then find the draw excellent.

Flavor:   25 of 30 points

If you are looking for subtle and nuanced flavors in a cigar…look elsewhere. The Sancho Panza Double Maduro Quixote is bold and direct.

After the first peppery puffs, the flavor is balanced and very dependable. For the first half, the cigar is on the mild side of medium-bodied, like a Cuban Sancho Panza but without the undertones and sublte notes. In fact, you might find yourself wondering if you picked up a Macanudo Maduro by mistake. The most noticeable difference is the slight spiciness of the smoke aroma.

The cigar becomes creamier and chewier as you smoke. There is a nutty almond flavor mingled with notes of black coffee and occasional hints of cocoa and vanilla. Through it all, there is the sweetness of the double maduro wrapper and binder blending everything together.

At the half-way point, there is a noticeable ramping up of the body to full medium along with an increase in spiciness. From this point on, the cigar has little in common with its Cuban namesake and strikes out on its own. It becomes more flavorful and the spice and body both increase into fullness and a peppery and sweet kick at the finish.

Number Sampled For Review:   Three.

Other Reviewers:

Cigar Aficianado gave it a 90 in the Cigar Insider newsletter. Reviewers commented on the flavor as “creamy with notes of coffee and almonds.” Smoke Magazine reviewers haven’t rated the Quixote, but they gave the Churchill-sized SPDM Escudero a 4.0 out of 5.0, calling it “a maduro lover’s delight,” and “a good “anytime” cigar.”

Price:

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the Sancho Panza Double Maduro Quixote is US $65.00 per box of 20 ($3.25 each).

Full retail is a good price for a cigar of this quality — however the street price is even better. The lowest online price right now is about U.S. $35.95 a box, bringing the price per cigar down to only about $1.80 each.

Where can you find them? Well, this is one time that you can virtually pick your favorite retailer. TNT Cigars once more has the current online low price per box at US $35.95 (which is a savings of about 45% off the retail price). The next lowest price is at Atlantic Cigar for $39.00 a box. However, Mike’s Cigars has them for $39.50 (and they throw in two free SP Valientes — the natural wrapper Robusto version and also a very good smoke). Mike’s also includes free ground UPS shipping at that price. That’s a very hard deal to beat, and a definite best buy.

You’ll also find them at Mike’s Cigars for $39.50, and at Abner’s World of Discount Cigars and Payless Cigars for $39.95 a box. In fact, the highest price I’ve seen them offered is $43.50 a box at Best Cigar Prices, so the price range is very narrow.

For a five pack sampler of the Quixotes ($29.95 retail), the best price I’ve found is at ELighters.com for $13.81 ($2.76 each). Because of the low price per box, not many places offer them in five-packs — however, if you’d like to sample all four sizes in the Double Maduro line you can get an eight-pack with two each of the Robusto, Corona, Corona Gorda and Churchill sizes for $22.95 from Cigar King.

Also check CigarBid, Cigar Auctioneer, or the JR Cigars Auction. I’ve seen five pack samplers of these come up for under $10.00 at auction, although the full boxes are usually overbid and you’re usually better off simply ordering them direct.

Prices do not include shipping and are current at the time of this review.

And one of them has definitely…bugged me. But more on that below the fold.

Mis-match of red logo and title color in actual Saturday edition of Cuba newspaper Granma
and black logo and title in newspaper Castro is shown holding in an 80th birthday photo

First, notice in the photo above that the Granma newspaper that Fidel Castro is shown displaying has a black logo and a black headline. The problem is that Granma uses a bright red logo, and often uses color in other places on the front page.

The second photo, to the right, shows the actual front page of yesterday’s Granma, with a red logo and a bright red headline.

Why the discrepancy?

Perhaps the copied red text did not show up as well in the photo when Photoshopped onto the newspaper Fidel was actually holding in this picture. Perhaps the red color of the headline and logo were more difficult to match in with Fidel’s hand at the top where his thumb was overlapping the page. Perhaps the Cuban government hired freelancer Adnan Hajj to prepare the photo.

I don’t know why they would have changed the color of the headline and logo. I only know that the color is different from that in yesterday’s actual edition of the newspaper.

Part two of the problem with the newspaper. Even if the color of the headline and logo were explainable, the size of the Cuban newspaper is not the same as the size of the newspaper Castro is shown holding.

Size mis-match of Granma newspaper and newspaper Castro shown holding in photo.
Overlay shows Granma to be wider and shorter than newspaper Castro holding

In the photo above, the actual Granma newspaper frontpage from Saturday, August 12, 2006 is overlaid on the photo released today purportedly showing Fidel Castro holding the same edition of the newspaper. The overlay is partially transparent to show the underlying Castro image.

Note that the black Granma logo on the Castro photo matches the red Granma logo overlaid on it in size. Note that the picture of Castro illustrating the story matches in size in both the birthday photo and the overlay photo (although they are slightly out of register). Note also that the text columns at the bottom of the newspaper page in the overlay match in height and width the text columns in the paper Castro is show holding.

Now notice the headline. In the overlay, it stretches far beyond the width of the newspaper page that Castro is holding. The color is not the only thing that is different. The headline on the newspaper Castro is holding has been reduced in size so that it will fit.

The columns of text which end above Castro’s right hand, holding the bottom of the newspaper, appear to be at the actual bottom of the page on the real Granma front page. This would explain the large amount of white space at the bottom of the newspaper in the birthday photo.

The hands of the woman holding the real Granma newspaper, when overlaid on the Castro birthday photo, also appear quite large in comparison to Castro’s hands. This also indicates that parts of the front page of Granma were enlarged and manipulated in order to fit the size of the newspaper Castro was holding in the photo.

That isn’t all.

The story continues on the next page.

The other thing that has been nagging at the back of my mind was the clothing that Castro was wearing in these photos. Robert Hahn at Redstate.com pointed out that Fidel was seen wearing that same Adidas outfit back in 2002 when former president Jimmy Carter visited the island nation and threw out the first pitch in a Cuban baseball game.

Fidel Castro in 2002 wearing the Adidas jacket shown in the August 13, 2006, birthday photos

The Adidas jacket appears to have weathered the more than four years since then remarkably well. In fact, the jacket Castro is wearing in the photos released today appears just as new as the one in the photos taken back in 2002.

Perhaps he doesn’t wear it very often. Or perhaps he takes exceptionally good care of it. Or possibly he liked the jacket so much that he bought a duplicate — or even has a closet full of them.

Or perhaps there is a simpler explanation and the photo alleged to have been taken yesterday, which has a demonstrably false headline photoshopped onto it, was part of a photo series taken back in 2002.

That would also explain why Castro looks younger in the photos released today than in ones taken last month. Usually, stomach surgery and prolonged internal bleeding would be expected to make a person look somewhat worse for wear than Castro appears today.

But why would a photo of Fidel Castro have been taken back in 2002 that showed him holding up a newspaper? What purpose would that have served?

Well, that is one of the things that had been “bugging” me, and thanks to the nudge from Robert Hahn reminding me of when Castro was last seen in Adidas, I finally remembered something that may be significant.

A few months after the Carter visit to Cuba, in December of 2002, Fidel Castro suddenly left a session of the National Assembly, Cuba’s parliament, due to illness from an injury to his leg. He was not seen again in public for over a week.

The temporary disappearance of Castro came a year and a half after Castro’s public collapse in late June of 2001 during a live televised speech before a crowd of tens of thousands of people — an event that stunned the Cuban people and put an end to talk of his legendary stamina and invicibility. Rumors that he was near death, or had indeed already died, were rampant.

Then, as now, he communicated through a letter published in Granma, explaining that an insect bite on his leg had become infected and doctors had ordered him to bed.

“It was my duty to protect my beloved left leg,” he wrote. “With it, I have practiced many sports, including soccer, have run in races, jumped, swam, climbed mountains. …”

“It had never betrayed me,” Castro continued, “I couldn’t betray it now.”

The three days of bed rest initially prescribed streched into a week as the infection did not clear up. As the rumors, and the unrest, mounted, perhaps a series of photos were taken to demonstrate that Fidel was alive and well. Perhaps those photos were never used because he began to recover and was able to make a public appearance.

Perhaps the photos were put aside.

Perhaps now, in a somewhat similar circumstance, the photos were remembered and hastily prepared to again calm the population and reassure them that life after Castro is still something for the future and not something to worry about now.

Of course, if they had to use old pictures, poorly altered as shown above, the implications for Castro’s actual condition are fairly obvious.

There is no reason to issue fake photographs of Fidel Castro unless real photographs of him are impossible to obtain.

Real photographs of him alive and well, at least.

More as news develops.

Age Spot on Fidel Castro’s Face in July 26, 2006 Photos Missing in
Purported Post-Surgery Photos Released on Cuban Leader’s Birthday

In the photo above, a large “age spot” on Castro’s right cheek near the cheekbone shown in a photo taken on July 26, 2006, at his last public appearance before his recent illness is missing in the photo alleged to have been taken yesterday. This raises questions about whether the photos released to the media this morning were actually taken weeks, or even months, in the past.

This is not the only discrepancy in the four photos released today.

Evidence of deliberate manipulation of one of the photos is below the fold.

Of even more interest is a close-up examination of the photo showing Fidel Castro apparently holding a copy of the Cuban newspaper Granma showing the front page of the edition of Saturday, August 12, 2006.

As mentioned in a previous article, a vertical line of pixels is cut off immediately beyond Castro’s right thumb and finger where they grip the newspaper. A comparison of pixelation around his hand where it is not over the newspaper, as well as pixelation around other objects in the same photograph, show that this is unusual. A similar sharp, horizontal line of demarcation can be seen above Castro’s right hand.

Similar sharp lines are seen around the thumb of his left hand, where it is in front of the newspaper as he holds it at the top. Such sharp lines usually indicate digital manipulation of the photo in a program such as PhotoShop.

One possible explanation is that the white background and black text of the newspaper front page may have been pasted in, partially crowding out pixels on the picture of Castro’s hand.

Also, the bottom of the front page of Granma as shown in the photo appears to have an unusually large amount of white space. That is noted in the photo shown here by the red rectangle. This raises the question of whether it is common for Granma to have this much wasted space at the bottom of its front page, or if this was an unusual occurence.

More updates as they become available.

First Post-Surgery Photos of Fidel Castro Published by Cuba Communist Youth Newspaper

In the first of the four photos, shown above, Castro holds a copy of the Saturday August 12, 2006 edition of Granma, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper. The headline reads “Absolved by history.” The photos were picked up this morning by the Associated Press wire surface, and offered with this statement:

“The Associated Press cannot verify the authenticity or the date when these photographs were shot”.

And so, the first question of the day is whether the photos truly show Fidel Castro recuperating from his illness, or whether they were photoshopped or are deceptive in some other way.

The second question is why AP is so hesitant in identifying them definitely as authentic post-surgery Fidel Castro photos (fall-out from the photo scandals hitting them, Reuters, and other media? Or something more specific that gives them pause?)

The third question is exactly how serious the situation is in Cuba behind the shield of military mobilization and total news blackout of the past few days if it is necessary to publish a picture of Fidel Castro holding up a newspaper in a hostage-like attempt to show that he was alive as of yesterday.

Prior to these photographs published today and purportedly taken yesterday, Castro was last photographed on July 26, 2006, at the 53rd anniversary of his barracks assault that launched the Cuban revolution.

A photo from that event is shown for comparison of the Cuban leader’s appearance then and in the latest photos.

No matter what the ultimate answer to that question may be, one thing is certain. Change has come to Cuba and nothing will be the same as it was before the Communist dictator ceded power for the first time in nearly a half century.

Cuba, and the world, are now seriously contemplating the reality of life post-Fidel.

More on this latest development, and more photos, below the fold.

I will have more information will follow on developments in Cuba later today.

For now, let me say that the military has shown some chinks in the supposed solid support of Raul Castro that has been the official line since Castro’s surgery. If I am aware of that, I am certain that AP is aware of it as well.

Also, a close examination at 1000% magnification of Fidel’s right hand in the first photo, where he is holding the newspaper at the bottom, shows a perfectly straight line of vertical pixels where his thumb and fingers meet the newspaper. This type of artifact is usually a sign of photo manipulation, although that is not definite.

One possibility is that the front page of Granma, shown in the photo and displaying yesterday’s headline, was photoshopped in over a blank page of newsprint originally held up by Fidel as preparation for a staged photo. Further examination of the photo should yield more specific information.

Second Post-Surgery Photos of Fidel Castro Published by Cuba Communist Youth Newspaper
The authenticity or date when these photographs were shot cannot be verified.

More from Anita Snow, of AP:

On his 80th birthday, Fidel Castro cautioned Cubans he faced a long recovery from surgery but urged them to stay optimistic, while the Communist Youth newspaper published the first photographs of the Cuban leader since his illness.

Castro, whose illness forced him to step aside as president two weeks ago, said his health had improved, but warned he still faced risks.

“I feel very happy,” said a statement attributed to Castro in the Juventud Rebelde newspaper. “For all those who care about my health, I promise to fight for it.”

“To say that the objective stability has considerably improved is not making up a lie,” the statement read. “To affirm that the recovery period will take a short time and that there is no risk would be absolutely incorrect.

“I ask you all to be optimistic, and at the same time to be ready to face any adverse news,” it added.

Third Post-Surgery Photo of Fidel Castro Published by Cuba Communist Youth Newspaper
The authenticity or date when these photographs were shot cannot be verified.

“To the people of Cuba, infinite gratitude for your loving support. The country is marching on and will continue marching on perfectly well.”

The online edition of the newspaper also published the four photographs shown here of Castro wearing what looked like a white and red running suit. In two of them he is talking on the telephone and in another is showing a copy of the Saturday edition of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper.

On Saturday, Granma carried a report saying that Castro was walking and talking again, and even working a bit in the most optimistic report yet since intestinal surgery forced him to cede power temporarily.

Meanwhile, his close friend and political ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said Saturday that he would visit the Cuban leader.

“Tomorrow I will be with Fidel celebrating his 80th birthday,” Chavez said at a news conference in Caracas after declaring his candidacy for re-election in December.

“I’ll take him a nice gift, a good cake, and we’ll be celebrating the 80 years of this great figure of America and our history,” Chavez said.

Chavez also visited Castro in October 2004, two weeks after a fall that shattered the Cuban leader’s kneecap and broke his right arm. A picture of the pair on the front page of Granma newspaper was the first image published of Castro after the accident.

Saturday’s article in the Granma newspaper — though brief — was the most detailed statement Cuba’s government has issued since Castro announced July 31 that he was temporarily ceding his powers to his younger brother Raul, No. 2 in the government.

Fidel Castro said his condition during his recovery would be treated as a “state secret,” so as not to give any advantage to his enemies in the United States.

“Firm Like a Caguairan,” the Granma headline read, comparing Castro to a hardwood tropical tree native to eastern Cuba.

“A friend tells us that just a few hours ago, upon visiting the Comandante who was briefly dispatching some business, he witnessed some good news that he enthusiastically summed up in one sentence: ‘The Caguairan has risen,’” the paper said in a three-paragraph report.

“He said that he could appreciate how the Chief of the Revolution, after receiving a little physical therapy, took some steps in his room and then, seated in a chair, conversed animatedly,” the report said, without identifying the friend.

While the news of Castro’s progress will surely be embraced by his supporters, South Florida’s Cuban exile community used it to criticize the island’s government.

“Sadly, Granma’s optimism of Fidel Castro’s health is in sharp contrast to political prisoners who are rotting in Cuban prisons for simply disagreeing (with him),” said Alfredo Mesa, spokesman for the Cuban American National Foundation. “Dead or alive, change in Cuba must come now. The era of Fidel Castro must end.”

Despite the optimistic assessment of Castro’s progress, few believed that he would be making a public appearance on his 80th birthday Sunday.

No official events had been announced for Sunday, although Cuban musicians were staging a Saturday night concert in support of Castro and his government.

Latin American intellectuals had planned several days of parties, concerts and conferences on the legacy of Cuba’s “Maximum Leader.” But Castro was expected to spend the weekend in recovery. Celebrations have been postponed until Dec. 2, the 50th anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Cubans have cultivated a myth over the last half-century that Castro is invincible, but in recent days have had to face the reality that their leader is an elderly man who will someday die.

The Cuban president blamed an unspecified intestinal problem brought on by a heavy work schedule. He recently traveled to Argentina for a summit of the trade group Mercosur and gave two long speeches in eastern Cuba on July 26, the last time he was seen in public.

The latest raids, part of a crack-down by Dominican authorities, netted 40,000 cigars counterfeiting famous brands that included Romeo y Julieta, Cohiba, Montecristo, Davidoff, Partagas, Gloria Cubana, Macanudo, Punch, Troya, and others. The cigars were seized in shopping centers, stores, beaches and tourist plazas in Santo Domingo, Bayahibe, Higuey and Bavaro.

Yesterday, on August 9, INTABACO incinerated 7,000 boxes of confiscated cigars, most with fake Cuban brand labels, seized in this most recent round of raids. The incineration took place in a lot next to INTABACO’s offices, located in the community Villa González, in this northern province.

INTABACO director Adalberto Rosa said that with these actions against the fake cigars, the national tobacco sector will obtain a market free from irregularities that will allow the development of healthy business practices. “These actions represent a hard blow for the cigar forgers who have affected the image of the Dominican Republic abroad,” he said.

Would that it was true and it was that easy.

More on the counterfeit cigar problem after the jump.

Though the efforts of Dominican authorities to stamp out counterfeiting of cigars are laudable, they are not going to be able to stop the problem for a very simple reason. Many of the Dominican counterfeits that wind up in the United States were legal cigars brought into this country perfectly legally.

It is what happens to them after they enter the United States that is the problem.

“We see people bringing bulk quantities of cheap cigars into the United States, finding a print shop and getting a label for whatever they want to call them,” said Zachary Mann, a spokesman for the U.S Custom’s Service in Miami. “At that point, it becomes a local economic crime — counterfeiting — instead of, potentially, a smuggling crime.”

Not everyone who buys counterfeit Cuban cigars is being cheated, either. Sometimes, it is the consumer who wants to do the cheating.

“I had one bad guy who was selling counterfeit Cubans — and that’s what he told his customers. He said they knew what they were buying, but the wanted to take them home to the Midwest somewhere and show their friends that they had Cuban cigars,” Mann said.

Not all the cigars being couterfeited are Cuba, either.

Arturo Fuente Cigars has trouble with the counterfeiting of its Arturo Fuente brand in the Dominican Republic, although the counterfeits don’t frequently show up in the United States in large quantities as do Cuban marques. The Fuente Fuente Opus X is the most counterfeited of their brands.

“They sell to tourists, who bring back a few cigars or a box,” said Wayne Suarez an executive with distributor Fuente & Newman Premium Cigars. “Usually it happens to somebody who doesn’t know much about cigars. People buying them figure they were made in the Dominican Republic and Arturo Fuentes are made in the Dominican Republic so they must be authentic. As soon as they show the counterfeits to someone who smokes cigars regularly, they know immediately that they are not authentic. They are not going to fool anyone who smokes Arturo Fuente.”

While counterfeiting may appear to be an economic crime, Suarez said the loss of revenue is insignificant. “ We are not concerned about the money we are losing,” Suarez said. “We are concerned much more about our reputation. Our cigars have the family name on them. That’s very important to us. If someone pays $40.00 for a Fuente Fuente Opus X and basically ends up with something that is unsmokable, that reflects on the Family — even if we didn’t make the cigar.

“I get calls from consumers who tell me that they bought a bad Opus X. I have them send me the band, and ten out of ten times, it’s a counterfeit. We very infrequently get complaints about legitimate Fuente Fuente Opus X.”

Jim Colucci, Senior Vice President of Altadis U.S.A., Inc., said counterfeiting affects the whole industry, not just the brand being counterfeited.

“If you are a new cigar smoker and end up smoking substandard counterfeit cigars — pieces of garbage that you paid a lot of money for — you are going to say, “why should I smoke cigars and get ripped off?” Colucci said. “It could ruin the whole industry.”

Some counterfeiting operations, in an effort to slip under the radar, have gone to extreme lengths to fool consumers. Fuente has found some fake Opus X bands that are embossed and even stamped with metallic inks, just like the original. On closer inspection, the differences can be seen. But you almost have to compare the bands side by side and know what you are looking for to spot the fake. Unsuspecting consumers could easily be fooled.

Other counterfeiters take a more direct approach. Cohibas and Montecristo counterfeits produced by Monte Cristi de Tabacos in the Dominican Republic are quite easy to spot…if you are looking.

The Monte Cristi Cohiba clearly states that it is manufactured in the Dominican Republic. The packaging and label of the Monte Cristi Montecristo, however, are a direct knock-off of the Montecristo manufactured in the Dominican Republican by Altadis USA.

That isn’t legal either.

General Cigar Company previously obtained a permanent injunction against a U.S distributor of Monte Cristi’s Dominican Cohiba, and recently won a suit against Cohiba Caribbean’s Finest cigars for trademark infringement. Altadis received a US $2 million judgment against Monte Cristi for shipping counterfeit Montecristos into the United States.

Altadis also received a $1 million judgment and permanent injunction against two Canadian companies — J.J Habanos Importers and the House of Salgado — for advertising the sale of Cuban Montecristo and H. Upmann cigars, infringing on Altadis’s U.S trademark on those marques.

Altadis polices the shops that sell its cigars as well, training their sales representatives to spot counterfeits.

“We’ve been very tough with our retailers,” Colucci said. “We let them know that if we find them selling a Monte Cristi cigar, we will stop selling to them as a direct customer.”

That threat notwithstanding, Colucci said, Altadis has canceled the accounts of fewer than a half dozen smoke shops. “We haven’t seen very many counterfeit Montecristos since we got the judgment,” Colucci said.

Aiding counterfeiters is the relative anonymity of the Internet, where fraud can easily occur.

Several years ago, after police seized 3,000 counterfeit Padron 1964 Anniversary Series cigars and an additional 5,000 bands in a raid on a Los Angeles warehouse, Padron sent a letter to his customers, urging that they be wary about purchases they make on the Internet — particularly from unfamiliar websites or through auctions.

The ultimate moral of the story dates back to Roman times.

Caveat Emptor.

Let the buyer beware. Know who you are buying from, and if a deal seems too good to be true…it probably is a fake.

The brands included in this sampler are the Don Jose, the Alcazar, and the Quorum — three of the company’s dependable and popular handmade bundle cigars. In addition to the cigars, this sampler also includes a double-bladed Craftsman’s Bench cigar cutter.

The Don Jose is blended with superb Cuban-Seed Honduran tobaccos, and is of surprising quality for a cigar that retails at around $1.80 each. It is medium to full-bodied with notes of cream and coffee throughout, delivering at its best a sweet, earthy, Honduran flavor profile.

More information about the other cigars in the sampler is below the fold.

The Alcazar marque was introduced in 1998 and features a medium body in an all maduro line. It is named after the famous race horse, and was originally a Nicaraguan puro. It has a typical Nicaraguan flavor profiles, with nuances of earth and wood. The Alcazar now features a Connecticut wrapper, and usually sells for around $1.65 each.

The Quorum is a smooth and flavorful smoke in a medium strength cigar. Selling at around $1.00 a stick, it is a bargain cigar that does not taste cheap. The Nicaraguan fillers and binders are quality, and the Quorum has an Ecuadoran Sumatra-seed wrapper.

This exclusive Toro gift set includes six cigars in the popular 6 inch x 50 ring size. The box contains two Don Jose Turbos, two Alcazar Maduro #3’s, and three Quorum Toros in a red foil box ready to be presented as a gift this holiday season. The mildness, and the bargain prices, of these cigars make them especially good gifts for new cigar smokers. Seasoned smokers will find them good, solid everyday smokes as well.

The samplers have a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of US $16.95 and will be available at the end of September 2006. Look for them at your local tobacconist or at online dealers.

J.C. Newman Cigar Co., founded in 1895 by J.C. Newman and now headquartered in Tampa, Florida, represents 110 years of family tradition in quality cigar manufacturing. J.C. Newman Company’s Cuesta-Rey cigars rank among the top-selling brands in the imported handmade cigar market. The Newman family is also partners with the Carlos Fuente family in Fuente & Newman Premium Cigars Limited Inc., the exclusive U.S. distributor of the famous Arturo Fuente Premium Handmade cigars.

What could be more polically incorrect than discrimination?

More importantly, what could simply be more wrong?

Yet despite the obvious lessons of history and morality against discrimination, the European Union has now clearly established the legality of discrimination under their regime.

Companies in the European Union may legally refuse to hire smokers because EU anti-discrimination laws do not protect them, the European Commission has said. And it doesn’t end there.

This one surprised me. I think it will surprise you too, because the implications and explicit statements of EU officials did not stop with discrimination against smokers.

The full story unfolds below the fold.

European Parliament member Catherine Stihler put a spotlight on the issue of legalized discrimination in Europe last week when she questioned European Commission spokeswoman Katharina von Schnurbein about the issue. Stihler, a Scottish Labor deputy, was responding to constituents’ reports of an Irish call-center’s job advertisement that said “smokers need not apply.”

That seems blatantly discriminatory. Smoking is legal. Tobacco is not an illicit substance. While it is true that Ireland enacted a ban against smoking in enclosed workplaces in 2004, the advertisement makes no reference to smoking in the workplace or on the job. It specifically excludes smokers from employment based on a legal activity that they choose to participate in on their own time away from the workplace.

So what is the issue?

“Our anti-discrimination legislation for the workplace covers four areas — age, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation. Then in general the rules cover gender and race, and that’s it,” said von Schnurbein, spokeswoman for Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla.

“There are a lot of things this doesn’t cover — you could say I don’t want an alcoholic working for me, whatever,” she said.

So in the European Union, it is illegal to discriminate in the workplace only in very specific ways. You cannot advertise that you do not want to hire a woman, or a Muslim, or a person of African descent, or someone who is gay. You cannot advertise that no one confined to a wheelchair need apply. You cannot say that a job is only open to people between the ages of 21 and 35. The European legal says that would be wrong, and illegal.

However, you can discriminate as much as you like against smokers, or people who drink alcohol, or meat-eaters, or people who eat fast food, or any number of other categories of human beings doing perfectly legal things that simply do not happen to be enumerated in the European Union regulations. Under the explanation used to rationalize discrimination against smokers, it would also be permissable to refuse to hire members of a specific political party unless you bent the rules and called that a “religion or belief.”

I wonder if it is legal in Europe to refuse to hire someone who is overweight? Probably, based on the fact that it does not fall into one of the categories listed above, that would also be perfectly legal. Or how about people who are bald, or who have a certain hair color?

If that sounds silly, it is because the situation is silly.

Except, of course, the silliness evaporates when you realize how deadly serious this really is. The European Union has just found an excuse to legalize discrimination against anyone or any group that they choose to say is outside of anti-discrimination laws.

That is definitely not silly.

The situation needs to be corrected and clarified, and discrimination removed as a tool for social engineering by politicians. If the law cannot be clarified, then it needs to be changed or amended.

That is not going to happen without a public outcry in Europe, however. Schnurbein went on to say that that there are no proposals to add on to the EU’s anti-discrimination laws.

The number of smokers in the 25 EU nations and five EU candidate states dropped to 27 percent of the population last year, down from 33 percent in 2002, according to EU figures.

Somehow, I am not surprised that the number of European smokers has dropped, considering the widespread and deliberate campaign of misinformation and propaganda that ignores or distorts reputable scientific studies concerning the myth of second-hand smoke.

I wonder how soon, given the anti-alcohol legislation that is under consideration in various parts of the EU, the number of wine and beer drinkers will drop too.

I also wonder what comes next.