The looks I am getting...

[Phinz]

A face like a bulldog licking piss off a thistle.

That's the most British phrase I've heard in awhile, love it!

I recently had a couple of yuppie women walk by in the street while I was smoking on my back patio ~50' from the street, they both started to complain and cough and fake retch... To up the drama, they had to stop and stand exactly where my smoke was going and make a big show of crossing the street, they couldn't just keep walking. At the time I was smoking a Cohiba PE.... Should have charged them for even a wiff of that second hand smoke!

[RDBM]

...are hilarious! Sitting by the window of a cigar lounge in London, I've never seen so many double-takes from passers-by in my life!

One woman even came in to buy cigars and complained about the smoke!!!

Merry Christmas!

That's a classic Patz, she probably arrived in her Range Rover wearing a fur coat !

[Ken Gargett]

Unbelievable. This woman walked to a cigar lounge where 3 people were smoking, and wafted her hand in front of her face, muttering "Smokey!" through a face like a bulldog licking piss off a thistle. Her reason for being there? To buy cigars. Wtf!?!?

i wonder if they honestly think anyone takes notice or doesn't think them complete tossers.

i remember when i lived on the coast, there was an exclusion zone around restaurants. fair enough. it was a few yards from the edge. i had some friends at a table on the outer so went out and was chatting to them and having a cigar. i was a few feet from the zone. this dreadful woman - the place was starting to fill up but not quite - deliberately chose a table next to my friends simply so she could complain and force me outside the zone. but she was an idiot. i simply apologised profusely and stepped back two feet, where it was legal, and continued to talk to my friends and smoke but i made certain i blew it her way. she complained to me. i pointed out i was now in the smoking zone. she complained to the restaurant. by now, all chockers so she was stuck at that table and the owner was a mate who enjoyed a cigar. he was polite to her but it was very clear that what he was actually saying was - you are a complete pain in the proverbial and i'd rather not have you here but i am certainly not going to do anything about it.

i got more pleasure from her bitching than the cigar. and even though i was running late, stayed around to have a second, just to piss her off some more.

[ayepatz]

i wonder if they honestly think anyone takes notice or doesn't think them complete tossers.

i remember when i lived on the coast, there was an exclusion zone around restaurants. fair enough. it was a few yards from the edge. i had some friends at a table on the outer so went out and was chatting to them and having a cigar. i was a few feet from the zone. this dreadful woman - the place was starting to fill up but not quite - deliberately chose a table next to my friends simply so she could complain and force me outside the zone. but she was an idiot. i simply apologised profusely and stepped back two feet, where it was legal, and continued to talk to my friends and smoke but i made certain i blew it her way. she complained to me. i pointed out i was now in the smoking zone. she complained to the restaurant. by now, all chockers so she was stuck at that table and the owner was a mate who enjoyed a cigar. he was polite to her but it was very clear that what he was actually saying was - you are a complete pain in the proverbial and i'd rather not have you here but i am certainly not going to do anything about it.

i got more pleasure from her bitching than the cigar. and even though i was running late, stayed around to have a second, just to piss her off some more.

Excellent! I was raised to appreciate the Christian ethic of "Judge not, lest ye be judged", yet I must admit I enjoy a most un-Christian schadenfreude when I see a "judger" taken down a peg or two.

[maxcjs0101]

Sucking on a piece of electrically charged plastic filled with unknown chemicals seems rather odd to me. I would think cigar tobacco would be safer. But hey what do I know. Give it ten years when everyone's boobs and testicles are falling off and give them the old I told you so..... Seems to work for me.

LOL

[jwr0201]

One memorable anti-cigar episode I've had was at a cigar friendly pub in Orlando with friends. A buddy and I were at the usual "Cigar Guys' table for Comedy Night at the pub when a group of half sloshed cougars took the table right behind us. In short order, the coughing and loud comments arose from two of the more aggressive she-devils. When they TOLD us to put out the cigars and we courteously declined, they summoned the bartender. Being a friend of ours and with us being regulars, he promptly told the 'ladies' that there was a nice table outside for them, but the 'Cigar Guys' stay. We got a round of applause from the comics! Have to admit that it was really kind of fun!

[El Presidente]

Rambo is my barman here at BYD lofts (where we are staying in Phuket).

Rambo is 5 ft at a stretch. He far more resembles Tattoo from Fantasy Island than Stallone.

I wasn't feeling the best last night when I got back to the appartments but he sought Di and I out as we walked in through the street bar lobby and convinced us to come for a drink (never a hard thing to do).

He took our order and upon return piped up with a concerned look and said "Mr. Rob...no cigar?"

I love this place

[Akela3rd]

Seeing as how this thread started in London I'd like to add a view from here - specifically, the pub rather than the lounge. It seems we're still pretty much a nation of smokers, or at least tolerant of the habit. When the indoor smoking ban came in in 2007 pubs simply used the loophole put into the law which said that "outside" could be an enclosed but not built area. Pubs that had the space simply put covers over gardens or built shelters (with mushroom heaters in winter) and the smokers move from "inside" to "outside" as do their non-smoker friends. It's not unusual to have more folks outside. It's part of the polite f-u attitude we have, you can ask us not to smoke but you don't bloody TELL us not to. As a cigar smoker I'm usually outside way longer but with a rotation of cigarette smokers, and others, joining me. It sort of works and western civilization didn't collapse as predicted. Pubs now smell of old food and sweat, rather than the traditional smoke, which is a shame but we'll live with it.

[finecigar]

This time of year brings many non cigar people into the store to purchase cigars and accessories as gifts. Some of the questions bring a smile to my face.

"i want to purchase a box of your healthiest cigars?"

I always imagined el Rey del Mundo and Quai D'Orsay as the healthier, lighter options Lol.

[mash]

This time of year brings many non cigar people into the store to purchase cigars and accessories as gifts. Some of the questions bring a smile to my face.

"i want to purchase a box of your healthiest cigars?"

In Canada, cigarettes have different warnings on the packaging. Some talk about cancer, some emphysema etc.

I had a funny buddy who used to say that as long as he bought the packages that warned about birth defects he'd be OK.