Oh MAN - as they said in the old Almond Joy commercials

(Or was it Mounds?) "Indescribably delicious!!!" I am SO stealing a boatload of these!

Love it!!!

I wouldn't give him anything but armed escort service to the Hague.

Welcome to DU, Bagsgroove!

Glad you're here! Barack and Bobby McGee! Love it! Hey, I'll take any excuse for backbone I can get. Too bad President Obama is only embracing this mentality in his last two years in office. We could have used this straight off the starting block. He tried too hard to meet them halfway, and for far too long. Shoulda kicked 'em in the teeth in the first week.

Not the first time a point was made with the picking at a press conference.

Remember awhile back when much was made of how chuck todd and jonathan karl did NOT get picked to ask a question? President Obama passed them over and took questions from others than the front-seaters and other usual suspects. It got noticed, too. I kinda liked that one. I noticed it myself and thought - "you SHOW 'em, Mr. President! Just because they think they're big-time doesn't mean YOU have to treat them that way."

I was hoping I'd find a list of them! Thanks, Derek V!!!

I was watching and my smile just got bigger and bigger and bigger! OMG Patrick Stewart! OMG Eleanor Holmes Norton! Eliot Spitzer!? Cyndi Lauper!! Paul Krugman??!?! Shit Corey Booker and Alan Alda! Izzat - OMG Ric Ocasek! Aw MAN Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Barry Manilow?! Henry Fucking Kissinger?!!!?! Doris Kearns Goodwin! OMG! JEEZ that's the fucking UN AMBASSADOR?!! 'Zat J.J. Abrams?!?! Shit OMG Gloria Steinem! OMG Keith Olbermann!!! Arianna Huffington! Holy crap there's Mike Huckabee! James Franco!! It went on and on and on like that until a crowd of people filled the screen and the room! It just kept compounding! I couldn't place the faces fast enough so it's really handy to have this list! You read down the names and think - Oh of course. THAT'S who that was!!!!

It was GREAT!

I LOVE cigar bands! I think cigar companies are missing the boat on a nice "side thing."

What if there were a jewelry division for "gifts for the lady" (who puts up with that cigar smoke all year - NOT my favorite!!! Thank God my husband smokes his outside!). Take the most beautiful or elegant or cool cigar bands, and have the designs made into real rings. Either enamel - cloisonné or some such, or for the high-enders, colored jewels. Swarovski crystals or even a premium version with genuine stones. Maybe contract with Cartier or something for some super affluent clients. The kind who can afford expensive cigars. If so, why couldn't that kind of customer gift his love like that.

This is the kind of thing I LOVE to imagine.

Like - take a look at that beautiful woman in the red gown with the hand-held harp. Shit, I'd love to see a line of neckties with that on them. A quality printing or hand-painted. Or socks. Or fine silk scarves. You could frame one and hang it on the wall - quite literally a piece of art, or stitch two together so that it becomes a top you can throw over your head. Or a caftan or something. Dang - I once met a young artist who'd written a book on making a living as an illustrator. He kept returning to a basic point - there's so much art everywhere. Look at labels on packages, for example. Advertising, for example. Logos and mascots and symbols. I've been at small airports where the images of the cover girls near the nose of vintage war planes are all over the place. Embellishments! The urge to decorate and embellish is everywhere you look. If there's any imagery there, some artist or illustrator or Photoshop expert or designer came up with that. So I started becoming conscious of all the art out there. It's everywhere! Dang - any grocery store aisle is a veritable museum!

I've seen whole cigar boxes put to use for personal adornment. Mainly purses. They make great evening clutches. Many of them are the perfect size and some have carvings or inlay or relief sculpture or wood-burning on the lids. Or slick lacquer in a great color. You can start a conversation just by setting it on the table next to you. They take beautifully to shoulder straps because many of them have clasps. Some of the clasps are really lovely, worth looking at by themselves. Shiny, sometimes elaborate brass hardware contrasted with the smooth wood or paper covering, and they're totally functional. Just really cool things of beauty, those cigar boxes. GREAT "importancy" boxes. LOVE 'em!

I took one cigar band I liked and flattened it out, and then glued it carefully onto this plain black plastic cuff bracelet. Turned it into a gorgeous bracelet that I'm proud to wear and is a really eye-catching conversation piece. And cheap!

And have you gone online and seen the cigar box GUITARS? Google it. So wonderful as to be almost excruciating! Almost too much to wrap your head around!

Dang, I LOVE this stuff!

Makes suffering through the cigar smoke worthwhile!

Makes me want to go start a crafting project or something... Crafters are gonna love this policy change, I'll bet!

Welcome to DU, Basic LA!

Glad you're here! It's a very glad moment for our country, and comes at a very welcome moment after the fiasco that has redefined America as a rogue nation of torture apologists. May just start rehabilitating us in the eyes of the world.

Well - maybe a little...

And mine! And all his cigar-loving friends.

He smokes cigars (thankfully - outside!) and has often talked at length about the uniqueness of the Cuban soil that just happens to grow the finest tobacco leaves on the planet. When he's interested in something he usually starts studying it at great length and intensity. Not a smoker myself so I wouldn't know a good cigar from a bad one - except, to me, they all just smell stinky. But I DO LOVE all the cool cigar bands!

Welcome to DU, ArsSkeptica!

Glad you're here. It's just stunning - the heartlessness of this! What the hell is WRONG with people? And these are the same people who can always be counted on to do the loudest bellowing in the room about what faithful exemplary God-fearing "Christians" they are. I'm so sorry to hear this ridiculous convolution of logic and compassion that you're forced to deal with, madamesilverspurs. This is NOT how it's supposed to be.

:bandhead: