Cigar

NEW YORK -- Dry martinis, thick steaks and fat cigars are proving that everything old can be cool again.Next up, that symbol of thoughtful repose, the pipe.Sales of pipes rose about 25 percent last year as men scouring smoke shops for the ultimate cigar are seeking a fresh thrill in briar, corncob and meerschaum."They're not going to choose cigarettes; that's not their style. They're not going to choose snuff; that's not neat enough. They're looking for something elegant," said Richard Carleton Hacker, author of "The Ultimate Pipe Book."

Heavy Seas Alehouse is throwing one of those stag shopping nights. You know, men hate to shop. But if you ply them with manly things like specialty bourbons, Heavy Seas beer and steak appetizers, they'll fold like tents. Heavy Seas Alehouse is presenting its Stag Night with Smyth Jewelers and Parfections Handmade Gourmet Chocolates. Read: Looking for every sale, retailers inject testosterone into holiday shopping Stag Night starts at 6 p.m. on Dec. 4 at Heavy Seas Alehouse , 1300 Bank St. Tickets are $49 and include bourbon tasting, two beers, a cigar, steak appetizers and a glass growler to take home.

Zelda G. Cohen, a prominent figure in Maryland racing circles for more than 40 years, died of congestive heart failure Friday at Northwest Hospital Center. She was 99. Born Zelda Greenberg in Baltimore and raised on Whitelock Street, she worked in sales at the downtown Hahn Shoe Store on Lexington Street after her graduation from Eastern High School. In 1928, she married Ben Cohen, a Baltimore businessman who with his brother Herman later owned Pimlico Race Course for 34 years. He also established WAAM-TV - now WJZ - in 1948.

A tax increase on small cigars and other tobacco products popular with teenagers has resulted in a bump in the prices of these products just as health advocates had hoped. The Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition will release a study today showing that prices have increased since the tax went into affect July 1. For instance, a single Swisher Sweets flavored cigar cost $1.29 before the tax and now costs $1.69.  A 5-pack of Swisher Sweets cost $5.49 before the tax and now costs $7.99.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Cigar is back on the track at Belmont Park for the first time since he won the Massachusetts Handicap two weeks ago with a bruised heel. He is merely jogging, but is being pointed toward more serious work later this week and, if everything seems sound, toward the special $1 million race that has been offered by Arlington Park in Chicago.The Arlington race, which would be run at a time chosen by Cigar's handlers, probably would be scheduled on July 13 or 14, giving Cigar about one month until his next scheduled race, the Pacific Classic at Del Mar in California on Aug. 10.The 6-year-old has a winning streak of 15 races and he needs one more to match the modern record set by Calumet Farm's Citation in 1948.

Maryland-bred Cigar is Baltimore-bound.Bill Mott, trainer of the horse who has won three straight Grade I starts and is a leading candidate for 1995 Horse of the Year honors, said yesterday that Cigar has "bounced back" in fine shape after defeating the nation's best older horses Saturday in the $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap."

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Cigar had little trouble disposing of Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch yesterday in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.But jockey Jerry Bailey did go to the whip a couple of times to ensure a one-length victory by the heavily favored horse over long shot Unaccounted For in the $750,000 stakes.It is now on to the $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont on Oct. 28, where Cigar likely will find a new challenger, the English-based Halling, winner of eight consecutive races in Europe and the Middle East.

BEL AIR -- Long before his celestial talent bloomed this year, the thoroughbred named Cigar stood out among the thousands of horses that have come and gone over the years at Country Life Farm in Harford County."

Well, did you see it? Did you see that menacing horse Cigar stare down his opponents in the paddock before yesterday's Jockey Club Gold Cup?Robert L. DeSensi, a trainer from Kentucky, insists that it happens. A long-time student of horse demeanor, he says that Cigar carries into races a look and confidence that sometimes intimidates his competition.And DeSensi, whose Tenants Harbor raced against Cigar this summer in the Arlington Citation Challenge, is not alone. Although Cigar didn't win yesterday -- in the paddock or on the track -- observers often opined during his 16-race win streak that Cigar seemed to win races before they were even run."

ELMONT, N.Y. -- With dreadful weather forecast the next three days, trainer Bill Mott said yesterday that Maryland-bred Cigar might sit out the $500,000, 1 1/8 -mile Woodward on Saturday at Belmont Park rather than run over what could be a sloppy track."

A special session of the legislature is definitely needed to prevent the disastrous "doomsday budget" from taking effect - but it is also needed to enact the life-saving tobacco tax increase, which like the proposed income tax increase failed to gain final General Assembly approval by midnight on April 9. The House and Senate revenue conferees had agreed that the tax on little cigars should be increased from its very low present rate of 15 percent...

While Maryland pays more than $2 billion annually in tobacco-related health-care costs, the tobacco industry spends upward of $1 million an hour to market its products nationwide. Even though Congress banned flavored cigarettes in 2009, Big Tobacco continues to target youth with flavored cigars sold for as little as 69 cents and packaged to look like candy. A new surgeon general's report finds that one in five high school males smokes cigars and that cigar use appears to be rising overall.

On Feb. 1, Ryleigh's Oyster is throwing a cigar social that at first seems in blatant violation of the Maryland  indoor smoking ban.  The promotional ad features a slender stogie atop a glass of whiskey and promises giveaways of hand-rolled cigars from Cross Street Tobacco. But don't expect to smoke inside the Federal Hill bar , says owner Brian McComas. The event is just that - promotion for the cigar shop and for Jameson whiskey. It's part of the bar's spirits tasting series.

Over the past decade, Maryland has gradually raised its tax on cigarettes to the current $2 per pack, and the results have been striking. Fewer people smoke cigarettes today than before the tax was implemented, and that's particularly true among high school students. Yet even as lawmakers acted boldly to reduce cigarette use, they foolishly left alone other forms of tobacco, chiefly snuff, chewing tobacco and cigars. So while cigarettes and what's known as "OTP" or Other Tobacco Products were taxed at comparable levels in 1999 (36 cents per pack for cigarettes and 15 percent of wholesale prices for OTP)

Contrary to Vincent DeMarco's claims, minors have access to tobacco products because youth and retailers are breaking the law ("Cigar tax increase would reduce teen use," Jan. 4). Increasing taxes is not the answer; enforcing the law is. Higher taxes will cause additional economic hardship to Maryland's small business owners in the midst of the worst economy in 30 years. If these businesses close, the unemployed will potentially seek public assistance. This one-two economic gut punch will only exacerbate Maryland's fiscal challenges.

In a recent Baltimore Sun article about our proposed tax increase for cigars and smokeless tobacco designed to reduce teen use of these products ("Group pushing tobacco tax says it's a popular idea," Dec. 20), Bill Spann of the cigar industry makes the irrelevant point that teenagers don't smoke expensive cigars. The fact is that according to a study recently released by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 14 percent of children now smoke the kind of inexpensive cigars that the cigar industry has been marketing with kid friendly flavors.

Theodore R. Brockman, 74, owned cigar-making plant Theodore Riley Brockman, who owned a cigar-making plant and was considered an expert in the blending of smoking tobacco, died of cancer Monday at his home in Ambler, Pa. He was 74 and lived in Overlea until 1963. Born in Baltimore and raised in Overlea, he was a 1946 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and earned a degree at Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y., in 1950. He was an owner of the Schafer-Pfaff Cigar Co., a Baltimore business founded by his great-uncle.

The number of Maryland teenagers who smoke cigarettes dropped significantly in the past decade, but state health officials say new statistics show that more young people are now getting hooked on candy-flavored cigars instead. In response, the state announced Thursday that it is launching a marketing campaign aimed at curbing the problem and trying to prevent the unraveling of years of work to stop teens from smoking. "It jeopardizes all of the gains in Maryland we have made in terms of tobacco use, and we cannot let that happen," said Dr. Donald Shell, interim director of the state Center for Health Promotion & Education.

Friday is a red letter day for Maryland residents who like their grapes crushed, fermented and bottled: For the first time in modern history, it is legal to have a bottle of wine, whether produced in Maryland or elsewhere, shipped directly to one's door. The General Assembly granted this privilege only after years of tireless grass-roots campaigning by advocates in Annapolis and elsewhere. All of whom are no doubt thinking this single thought today: What idiots we are. Why?