RDTA Legislative Action Center

As anyone who enjoys a cigar these days knows, it is not a particularly smiled upon indulgence these days. There seem to be people everywhere that want to limit the legal right to enjoy a cigar, whether in restaurants, or cigars, or even in some instances whole towns. And if they are not trying to limit where we can smoke, lawmakers seem to try to tax our hobby out of existence. Because of all this, us smokers need to be informed as to what is going on around us.

One of the best way to go about this is to check you the RTDA's Legislative Action Center. Just by entering you zip code, the site will take you to relevant tobacco legislation for your area and will even help you contact the proper elected officials. Especially with this retarded SCHIP bill these days, every cigar enthusiast needs to take action.

TomC

Red Sox Update : Start August Eight Games Up

(Sox Top The Heap!)
(Bobby Doerr)(Doug Mirabelli Jacked One Out)(Super Coco!)(Hideki Okajima has been quite a find!)(Red Sox New Reliever, #83 Eric Gagne!)(Firing Away!)

I know I haven't been keeping up on the Red Sox as much as I wanted to this summer, but It has been hard. For a while my computer died and I had limited access to the internet. Other things took priority, because like I said originally, I will post about the Sox, but this is not a Red Sox Blog. Well hopefully now, I can get back to posting about it as much as I would like.

Well since the last time I posted about the Red Sox (Schilling's One Hitter on June 8th) The red Sox have been decent, seven games over the .500 mark with a record 27-21, over that time they saw their lead in the division lose 2.5 games but it is still a healthy 8 over the second place Yankees. Interesting notes are that Curt Schilling has been on the Disabled list almost all the time since that start on June 8 (see my post about watching Schilling Rehab in Toledo), but his spot in the rotations has been filled admirably by Kason Gabbard & Jon Lester. Secondly, the aforementioned Gabbard was shipped to Texas along with OF David Murphy and OF Engel Beltre for reliever Eric Gagne, who made his first appearance for the Sox today.

Today in a game where the Red Sox honored the great Bobby Doerr, the Red Sox wrapped up a series win against the Baltimore Orioles. Tim Wakefield (13-9), who has earned a decision in every one of his starts this year, won his thirteenth game of the year as the the final score was 7-4. The Red Sox were helped by arguably Doug Mirabelli's best offensive game this season, he finished with the following line:

3-3 2R 1HR 2RBI

Also of note, newly acquired reliever Eric Gagne (wearing # 83), made his first appearance for the Red Sox, pitching the ninth and allowing a run. The Sox next head to Seattle on Friday, with Jon Lester facing off against the Mariners Horacio Ramirez tomorrow night.


GO SOX!

TomC

Camacho Select Churchill

6.5 X 48, Cameroon

Appearance: Another pretty looking cigar. Wrapped in a relatively smooth, veinless wrapper with a lovely reddish hue, it was a nice sight to behold. The only curiosity is that this cigar, when given a light press gave a bit. Hopefully this would not be the sign of a n underpacked, hot burning cigar.

Prelight: the clip was a breeze with my trusty Palio cutter, quick and flush. Upon a quick test, I was glad to find that the concerns I had about the draw were completely unfounded. The draw seemed just about right, and the pre light notes were of earthiness and spiciness.

Burn/Draw: The burn itself was pretty good. I touched it up once at the very end of the smoke, otherwise it was self correcting and relatively straight. The draw was just fine, easy enough to produce volumes of smoke while just resistant enough to not burn hot. My fears were allayed. One weird thing though was the ash. The ash was a light grey and very fine in consistency. It held for about 3/4 or an inch and then fell off, and exploded in a burst (because I was not expecting it to fall off that soon). All succeeding ash knocks fell apart to fine (cigarette consistency) ash as soon as they hit the tray. Weird.

Flavors: This is a pretty straightforward cigar, but it is also a very good one. Initially, it burst forth on your palate. It is rich and spicy, with lots of black pepper notes. Over time it mellows out and by the halfway point it is a nice medium/medium earthy stogie. Some cedar and leather kinda fades in ant out and toward he last third that great tanginess that I get from most Cameroon Wrapped Cigars eeks it way in, but over all its a simple but flavorful offering that I enjoyed thoroughly. Can't wait to have another.

TomC

Minnesota Bridge Tragedy

From the Chicago Tribune:
By Jon Hilkevitch and John McCormick | Tribune staff reporters

Investigators will sift through records and wreckage to determine what caused an interstate highway bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minnesota's Twin Cities to collapse during the Wednesday evening rush hour.

The disaster sent dozens of vehicles crashing into the river with panicked drivers and passengers trapped inside, authorities said. At least seven people were confirmed dead, Minneapolis officials said. At least 60 people were taken to area hospitals, officials said.

The 40-year-old arched bridge, Interstate Highway 35W in Minneapolis, had been undergoing routine resurfacing this summer, according to the state Department of Transportation. It was not immediately known whether the construction, which did not involve the bridge's structure, was a factor in the roadway buckling.

The bridge went down suddenly and fast, witnesses said. They recounted how the center section of the 64-foot-high steel structure began to crumble first, in a "V" shape without warning, and the rest of the bridge then broke into huge sections.

Numerous vehicles caught on fire and rescuers plucked survivors from the water. The wreckage of the bridge was scattered along the east bank of the Mississippi, and a large piece of roadway remained on the west bank.

Peter Siddons was on his commute home north when he heard "crunching" and saw the bridge start to roll and then crumple, he told the Star Tribune. "It kept collapsing, down, down, down until it got to me."

His car dropped with the bridge but stopped when his car rolled into the car in front of him. He got out of his car, jumped over the crevice between the highway lanes and crawled up the steeply tilted section of broken bridge and jumped to the ground.

"I thought I was dead," said the senior vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. "Honestly, I honestly did. I thought it was over."

By late evening, the rescue response was halted and the focus of divers shifted to a recovery effort, emergency officials said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called the collapse a "catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota."







My thoughts and prayer go out to all of you out there tonight who are affected by this tragedy. It is beyond comprehension.

TomC

Tara Reid

Tara Reid (born November 8, 1975) is an American actress and socialite. She is known for her roles in the films American Pie (1999), American Pie 2 (2001), National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), The Big Lebowski (1998), and My Boss's Daughter (2003).

Reid began her career at the age of six in 1982 on the short-lived game show, Child's Play. As a child, she had roles in a number of commercials for McDonald's, Crayola, and Jell-O. She grew up in New York City, and attended the Professional Children's School alongside such celebrities as Christina Ricci, Ben Taylor, Jerry O'Connell, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Macaulay Culkin. Although her breakthrough role was in American Pie in 1999, followers of the 1998 cult film The Big Lebowski already knew her as Bunny Lebowski. Reid spent the late 1990s appearing more often on the cover of tabloid magazines than on screen. Her extroverted social life soon gave her a reputation as a party girl; in fact, U.S. magazine In Touch Weekly, recently voted Reid "top party animal". She spoofed that image with her role on the NBC sitcom Scrubs as Danni Sullivan, main character J.D.'s promiscuous girlfriend.Reid began her career at the age of six in 1982 on the short-lived game show, Child's Play. As a child, she had roles in a number of commercials for McDonald's, Crayola, and Jell-O. She grew up in New York City, and attended the Professional Children's School alongside such celebrities as Christina Ricci, Ben Taylor, Jerry O'Connell, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Macaulay Culkin. Although her breakthrough role was in American Pie in 1999, followers of the 1998 cult film The Big Lebowski already knew her as Bunny Lebowski. Reid spent the late 1990s appearing more often on the cover of tabloid magazines than on screen. Her extroverted social life soon gave her a reputation as a party girl; in fact, U.S. magazine In Touch Weekly, recently voted Reid "top party animal". She spoofed that image with her role on the NBC sitcom Scrubs as Danni Sullivan, main character J.D.'s promiscuous girlfriend.

Taradise, her half-hour television show on the E! network, premiered in September 2005; it was cancelled the following month. The show was an updated incarnation of E!'s popular series Wild On, where a celebrity host or model traveled to exotic locations to party with locals. Previously during Summer 2005, she was busy shooting Incubus in Romania at an assortment of clubs with Bucharest's local socialites. In January 2007, Reid filmed a commercial with Daniel Conn for Dodo, an Australian budget phone and Internet provider.

TomC