Dusky Beauties

[Trevor2118]

I would like to introduce and recommend the http://www.duskybeauties.com/ website.

It is a cigar blog by FOH member Alex Groom (ATGroom), who since 2012 has taken over the day to day operations of my Cuban Cigar Website.

Rest assured, Dusky Beauties it is not about nubile native women, but is about the beautiful dusty Cuban cigar.

The blog is more than a cigar review.....it is a storey, a journey, a writing-down of memories.

The following is an excerpt from Alex’s blog:

My years of involvement with the Cuban Cigar Website, my travels, and the generosity of my friends and benefactors, has given me a diverse and interesting collection of exotic cigars. They are singles in the main, many taken from commemorative humidors and the like, and at first I saved every one that came into my possession, either for my collection or perhaps to enhance some significant life event in the future. As the stack grew I began to wonder why. What was I saving them for? One can only have so many 50th birthdays and give birth to so many masculine children.

I have decided, therefore, to smoke them, and so they don’t burn entirely in vain, I’ll journal the process and publish the result. The cigars I will smoke here are rarities and exotics, things one only rarely sees reviewed, and while I don’t pretend to have the palate to offer any valid criticisms (and besides, what’s the point, as in the main they’re not things you can rush out and buy based on my recommendation), perhaps from time to time I might be able to offer a little insight.

[Rushman]

I like this blog. A fresh and irreverent voice in an overcrowded world of cigar blogs.

---

I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=19.307896,-81.379145

[Dimmers]

Great blog, thanks for the link!!

[bolivr]

Thanks for the link Trevor. It is a great read.

Melbourne guys might remember Alex from when he came along to a couple Melbourne get-togethers on the first Saturday of the month. Hope to see him again this year, he usually comes armed with some of his dusky beauties

[baragh]

Great read!

and where do I go for the nubile native women?

[ritan]

What a great read filled with witty observations accompanied by an articulate enjoyment of the cigar. Nice...!!

[Drguano]

Great read!

and where do I go for the nubile native women?

National Geographic

[Trevor2118]

Out of interest.....Dusky Beauties is a reference from Rudyard Kipling's "The Betrothed".

                            "a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string"
 

"You must choose between me and your cigar." - BREACH OF PROMISE CASE, CIRCA 1885.

Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,

For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.

We quarrelled about Havanas - we fought o'er a good cheroot,

And I know she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.

Open the old cigar-box - let me consider a space;

In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie's face.

Maggie is pretty to look at - Maggie's a loving lass,

But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle, the truest of loves must pass.

There's peace in a Larranaga, there's calm in a Henry Clay;

But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away -

Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown -

But I could not throw away Maggie for fear o' the talk o' the town!

Maggie, my wife at fifty - grey and dour and old -

With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold!

And the light of Days that have Been the dark of the Days that Are,

And Love's torch stinking and stale, like the butt of a dead cigar -

The butt of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket —

With never a new one to light tho' it's charred and black to the socket!

Open the old cigar-box - let me consider a while.

Here is a mild Manila - there is a wifely smile.

Which is the better portion - bondage bought with a ring,

Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?

Counsellors cunning and silent - comforters true and tried,

And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride?

Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,

Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close,

This will the fifty give me, asking nought in return,

With only a Suttee's passion - to do their duty and burn.

This will the fifty give me. When they are spent and dead,

Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.

The furrows of far-off Java, the isles of the Spanish Main,

When they hear my harem is empty will send me my brides again.

I will take no heed to their raiment, nor food for their mouths withal,

So long as the gulls are nesting, so long as the showers fall.

I will scent 'em with best vanilla, with tea will I temper their hides,

And the Moor and the Mormon shall envy who read of the tale of my brides.

For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between

The wee little whimpering Love and the great god Nick o' Teen.

And I have been servant of Love for barely a twelvemonth clear,

But I have been Priest of Cabanas a matter of seven year;

And the gloom of my bachelor days is flecked with the cheery light

Of stumps that I burned to Friendship and Pleasure and Work and Fight.

And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove,

But the only light on the marshes is the Will-o'-the-Wisp of Love.

Will it see me safe through my journey or leave me bogged in the mire?

Since a puff of tobacco can cloud it, shall I follow the fitful fire?

Open the old cigar-box - let me consider anew -

Old friends, and who is Maggie that I should abandon you?

A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke;

And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.

Light me another Cuba - I hold to my first-sworn vows.

If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for Spouse!

[ATGroom]

Thanks Trev and everybody. Sorry about all the semi-colons.

I spent a lot of years in Asia and a handful in the Pacific Islands, so I’m sure some anecdotes about exotic women will appear in the blog eventually.

Bolivr: I should be at the meet in March, hopefully.

[Trevor2118]

I spent a lot of years in Asia and a handful in the Pacific Islands, so I'm sure some anecdotes about exotic women will appear in the blog eventually.

Can't wait......for more cigar reviews that is.

[Tan1801]

Nice blog Alex.

Bolivr: I should be at the meet in March, hopefully.

I'll catch up with you then .

[Trevor2118]

Just an update.

Alex has recommenced the writing in his A Harem of Dusky Beauties blog.

As in 1913, I highly recommend this blog....it is more than a cigar review.....it is a storey, a journey, a writing-down of memories.

Trevor.

[Fuzz]

1 hour ago, Trevor2118 said:

Just an update.

Alex has recommenced the writing in his A Harem of Dusky Beauties blog.

As in 1913, I highly recommend this blog....it is more than a cigar review.....it is a storey, a journey, a writing-down of memories.

Trevor.

Wow! 104 years. Alex must be a hipster, he was writing blogs before it was cool... or even invented!

[torsion]

I really like Alex's style of writing this blog, not just a cigar review but an outlook of his experiences in this funny world we live in  Cheers! @ATGroom

[oliverdst]

9 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Wow! 104 years. Alex must be a hipster, he was writing blogs before it was cool... or even invented!

hipsters use typing machines.

[Trevor2118]

16 hours ago, Trevor2118 said:

Just an update.

Alex has recommenced the writing in his A Harem of Dusky Beauties blog.

As in 1913, I highly recommend this blog....it is more than a cigar review.....it is a storey, a journey, a writing-down of memories.

Trevor.

In my defence...it seemed a long time ago

[JohnS]

It's great to have a new edition of stories @Trevor2118. I rang @ATGroomyesterday to thank him for his latest blogs on Hoyo de Monterrey cigars. The latest on the 2007 Regalos Limited Edition includes memories of Havanathon 2017, and since I was there too, it brought me back great memories.

I look forward to more additions to the blog.

[Trevor2118]

2 hours ago, JohnS said:

It's great to have a new edition of stories @Trevor2118. I rang @ATGroomyesterday to thank him for his latest blogs on Hoyo de Monterrey cigars. The latest on the 2007 Regalos Limited Edition includes memories of Havanathon 2017, and since I was there too, it brought me back great memories.

I look forward to more additions to the blog.

Actually I have John to thank for alerting me to the fact that Dusky Beauties was back.

We were having a few cigars and a drop of red wine last week when the subject came up. 

I was always hoping that it would return and I'm so pleased that Alex was able to recover the earlier musing.

 

[El Presidente]

51 minutes ago, Trevor2118 said:

 

We were having a few cigars and a drop of red wine last week when the subject came up. 

 

 

....all good things com from red wine and cigars......

[Duxnutz]

Forgot about that blog. I’ll check it out. 

[Trevor2118]

32 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

....all good things come from red wine and cigars......

You are not wrong Rob.

 =

[Habana Mike]

Nice to see you back at it Alex! Always enjoyed the read.

[JohnS]

I was fortunate enough to catch a small window of opportunity with @ATGroom late last week. Bookmark and tune in to A Harem of Dusky Beauties for some great reading coming up in some future posts!

[Ken Gargett]

25 minutes ago, JohnS said:

I was fortunate enough to catch a small window of opportunity with @ATGroom late last week. Bookmark and tune in to A Harem of Dusky Beauties for some great reading coming up in some future posts!

john, i need to ask.

i take it that @atgroom refers to a human being. i realise that i am from a different era but is there a reason that we no longer use names? should i be saying, i was talking to @john rather than i was talking to john? @fred is coming to dinner, rather than fred is coming to dinner? @stevesmith is batting well, and not steve smith is batting well?

i am actually asking seriously. i assume that this is an instergram label or twitting handle or something?

and if so, can i ask why? and when did civilisation plunge to such depths?

and yes, i realise i have fat chance of returning us to sanity but that does not mean that any windmills in the vicinity are safe.

yours, ken (under no circumstances @ken)

[JohnS]

13 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

john, i need to ask.

i take it that @atgroom refers to a human being. i realise that i am from a different era but is there a reason that we no longer use names? should i be saying, i was talking to @john rather than i was talking to john? @fred is coming to dinner, rather than fred is coming to dinner? @stevesmith is batting well, and not steve smith is batting well?

i am actually asking seriously. i assume that this is an instergram label or twitting handle or something?

and if so, can i ask why? and when did civilisation plunge to such depths?

and yes, i realise i have fat chance of returning us to sanity but that does not mean that any windmills in the vicinity are safe.

yours, ken (under no circumstances @ken)

Ken, there is a good reason to quote Alex's forum handle as doing so will notify Alex to the post the next time he logs on. And as he keeps a low profile, the post can be easy to miss, hence why I did it this way.

And, there's no qualms asking dear friend.