With Super Bowl action past, holiday magic behind us and snow holding up captive, we can’t help catch that winter malady called “Cabin Fever.”  Well, we have a suggestion - join us for a little wining and a good cigar with “the guys” in the shop.  “Happy” hour usually sounds great, but for now “Wining Hour” sounds more fitting until we get a few days above freezing temps and we can move around town again.

What’s great about “wining” with us is that we are one of the very few remaining places anywhere in Colorado (or the nation, for that matter) where you can enjoy a fine cigar… and a glass of outstanding wine… (wait for it…) while INDOORS!   You remember the indoors, right? - where humans enjoy comfortable temperatures with friends… unless you want a smoke, that is!   

Now you add in our other great passion (fly fishing and all the stories that go with it), and I’m pretty sure Tewksbury and Company might be the only place on earth  with this much to wine about!

A few years ago the laws changed banning most establishments from smoking, but tobacco retailers like us were exempted.  While we don’t have a complete bar and little waitresses running around, we do have several wines by the glass available and we offer 2-for-1 wines by the glass from 4 PM to 6 PM daily. 

And with Valentine’s Day just days away, you guys were going to get a bottle of great wine to go with that card for your very special lady anyway, right?  (You’re welcome.)

And, we haven’t forgotten that the ladies have their own gift giving dilemmas for  Valentine’s Day, also.  Ladies looking for a special “guy gift” will be happy to know that you can’t go wrong with a Montecristo cigar - AND they are on sale right now.  (You’re welcome, too!)  :) 

                                   ~ Dave Tewksbury

Montecristo Classic No. 2 (torpedo)
       - Dominican Republic

A tan, almost yellow cigar with straightforward wood and spice flavors that precede a ginger finish.  Mild to medium-bodied.  Its flawless construction produces smoke aplenty with each draw, and a supercharged version of creamy, familiar Montecristo mellowness melts into notes of cocoa and spice.
        Filler:       Dominican Republic 
        Binder:     Dominican Republic 
        Wrapper:  Connecticut USA Shade Grown

Montecristo Platinum Rothschild Tube (Rothschild robusto)
       - Dominican Republic

An excellent addition to the Montecristo line back in 2007.  Rather than the very light original style, the Platinum Series are medium-bodied with a pleasant aroma and good draw.  Nice notes of earth and grass with a touch of sweet
nuts on the finish.  Well worth the price.
        Filler:     Dominican Republic, Peru, Nicaragua 
        Binder:   Nicaragua Wrapper: Mexico

Although most of the rivers and lakes are frozen at the moment, we have heard of open water for good fishing on the South Platte River between Spinney and Eleven Mile Reservoirs in South Park, below Reudi Dam on the upper Frying Pan River, the tail waters below Lake Dillon and even sections of Bear Creek above Morrison, Colorado.  If you go, don’t forget the cigars or pipe to keep the hands warm.

Update at the Bar ZX Ranch: 
We just talked to folks at the ranch and to date (2/7/08), the ranch has received over 17 feet of snow.  This is great news for the Ranch’s 29 spring fed lakes as they are all dependent on spring run off to keep the lakes clear and healthy in the warmer months of the year.  This should be a great year of fishing at the ranch and we have booked more trips so far this year than the past two years combined.  Don’t wait!  Give us a call and let’s go fishing for some trophy trout.

Times change, and acceptable prejudices may change with them, but to the guys being pushed around, it sure seems like the same old beating by the playground bully.  Only now it’s the big (government) bully who  continually pummel the little guys (smokers and the small businesses who provide the very barely legal products smokers enjoy).  And it’s quite a bit more than our lunch money they take away. 

It’s hardly debatable that smokers are subject to a rising social intolerance from the standard sneering and negativity, to employment discrimination and even refusing service.  It’s all perfectly legal to exclude smokers from jobs, void their computer warranties, ticket them for smoking in their own car with other passengers, and ban them from almost every square inch of “public” space (not really so public when you think about it).  

Now, honestly, I don’t want to exaggerate the severity of what seems like harassment to some while others would call the trend “reasonable restrictions.”  But I wonder how many people would consider some of these restrictions “reasonable” when they are all totalled against the now powerless smoking individuals.

I’m not arguing that any limitation is unfair.  I just want someone to consider the totality of where we are now.  More important than the double taxation, Nanny State laws, penalties, fines, political correctness, refusal of service, refusing some rental housing, and employment descimination just to name the few off the top of my head… the two worst part of all this action is dehumanizing people.  An entire group of people are reduced to a negative label for political or economic purposes or just to control actions they disagree with.  Not all recent restrictions have to do with second-hand smoke, but rather they discriminate against people who smoke anywhere, at any time in their personal life whether others are present or not. 

So what sparked this latest frustration?  Once again New York city’s mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city council have acted on their prejudice against smokers with their newest “Nanny Law” prohibiting smoking in ANY public place even including Time Square on New Year’s Eve.  The New York Times said in a February 4 article, “Starting in early summer, after the mayor signs the bill into law, (smokers) will not be able to stray onto the 14 miles of city beaches or into the city’s 1,700 parks, not even Central Park or windswept Battery Park. Instead of smoking on Brighton Beach, what does a smoker do — take a boat out 12 nautical miles into international waters?”

“Smokers” will not be permitted.  Even journalists who are supposed to be careful of the words they choose and can edit and re-edit their words before sending them out into the market say “smokers” - an entire group of people - will not be permitted in certain public areas.  The whole group of people is reduced from human beings, tax paying citizens, mothers, sons, fathers, best friends to a lower class of person - a smoker.  There is a big difference between saying “smoking is not be permitted” and “smokers” are not permitted.  When the phrase turns from an action that people love to hate into a label that removes the humanity of a group of living people, it is aggregious descrimination, not a public health issue that is the greater danger.

Small Biz vs US Government Battle (finally one win for the little guys).  One Disctrict Court judge actually stuck up for small business owners of shops everywhere, for legal enterprise in our country, for Constitutional limitations of government - and for tobacco retailers, no less! It’s pretty amazing how surprising that is.

The recent District Court ruling isn’t really in support of the bad-boys-of-business - the tobacco retail industry. The ruling simply determined that the government cannot play interior designer and impose their idea of retail space design on business owners, even if they sell their already much maligned product. If Uncle Sam wants to decorate walls with tasteless photo images of dead people, I guess they are free to rent their own retail space and do so.

A district judge on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 struck down a New York City law that would have forced all bodegas and convenience stores to post gruesome anti-smoking images of diseased lungs, brains and teeth in the shops to discourage people from buying cigarettes (which, by the way, is still legal as of this writing).

In a 13-page ruling, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of United States District Court in Manhattan wrote that while the law was well intentioned, it violated federal law since the federal government only has the authority to regulate cigarette warnings and advertisements. “It will allow the retail stores in New York to be freed of the obligation to put signs up urging customers not to buy their lawful products,” he said.

In a statement, the health department said that the city “strongly disagrees” with the ruling and that tobacco companies “trying to prevent these messages from being seen and should be ashamed of themselves.”

I’m not sure if edited out of that quote is how ashamed we all should be for every free choice we make that the holy health department does not agree with, but I’ll look into it. I’m hoping we won’t have to look at pictures of clogged arteries and slaughtered animals if we choose to buy a burger at a restaurant or pick up bacon at the grocery store or something equally absurdly overreaching as this law was on tobacco businesses (for now).

The law had so much potential to force every business to promote what any government agency deems “informational” to Americans who would certainly be helpless and lost without their guidance.

To the NYC mayor and health department of New York – chill out and have a good cigar!

Giving cash has long been considered tacky.  And I’ll admit that Miss Manners does have a point - if we’re talking about a gift of fresh flowers being replaced by a gift certificate to a floral shop… plain ridiculous.  And no one is going to offer a marriage proposal with a jewelry store gift card instead of the real thing, right?

Today, gift cards have become the most hoped-for gifts!  That is especially true when the gift comes from a specialty store like ours when finding the perfect item can seem overwhelming to the giver because cigars, pipes and wine are such personal items and depend on taste preferences.  Besides, men have received all the ties they really need by now, haven’t they?
Ideally any gift says “I thought about you, your needs and wants, your dreams and desires, and I found a gift that I hope you will enjoy - no strings attached - enjoy it as you wish.”  Our gift cards fit the bill perfectly! 
When you just can’t decide what to get your smoker, wine lover or fly fisher for the holidays, these are the perfect gift and do have a personal touch.  And, best of all, our gift cards can be purchased in any amount, have no expiration date and no fees whatsoever.  See?  No strings - maybe some fly line, but no strings! 

Now you can consider a Tewksbury & Company gift card this holiday season NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE for your convenience.  We even provide recommendations for gifts from $25 for accessories or wine to a $500 professionally guided, private fly fishing trip.

NOW you can kick back and have a favorite cigar and a glass of wine while everyone else runs around in a panic!  ENJOY!

You may have heard last week that the FDA is considering requiring cigarettes to be packaged with half of the pack wrapped in freakish photos of people in coffins, toe tags or rotting and diseased teeth.  Charming  idea, isn’t it?  The FDA is now in charge of informing all us stupid Americans about health concerns that “could cause death” as if telling us we should quit smoking right now to avoid death altogether.     

Please take the time to respond to the FDA at their website below before we are forced to have our beer bottles wrapped in pictures of middle-aged bellies, cookie containers covered with jiggly butts, the salt shaker with images of expired internal organs and whatever else “could kills us” being splashed in front of us morons.

 
Once again the steps the FDA is taking appear to be directed at ending the use of tobacco altogether.  Does anyone really think they are “educating us”?  We feel that these warnings will have no significant difference in the use of tobacco products just as every other past effort has made little impact.  We are fairly certain that none of our customers is using cigarettes as a nutritional supplement, but without a million dollar study to prove it, we could be wrong.

We need your help.  If this is any indication of what we have seen before, if this is not stopped this rule will soon include both cigars and pipe tobaccos (followed by red meats, trans-fats and down the line all the way to the family cookie jar, I guess).

On November 10, 2010, the FDA called the proposed rule “Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements.” The FDA is seeking public comment on the proposed rule through January 11, 2011.  

Since a 2009 law that gives the FDA the power to set guidelines for marketing and labeling for cigarettes, the government overreach is legal.  The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (“Tobacco Control Act”) requires the FDA to issue regulations about the new graphic health warnings no later than June 2011.  Cigarette manufacturers will have 15 months from the date those regulations are final to implement the new warnings.

For more information regarding the proposed rule or instructions on how to submit comments, please visit the FDA’s website:
http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/CigaretteProductWarningLabels/default.htm.

TWAIN

This excellent blend of premium Virginias and Sweet Black Cavendish provide a light and fruity bouquet that sends one back to the early days of pipe smoking.  We enjoy this “remember when” blend at this time of year because, after all, it ’tis the season for reminiscing about good ol’ days!

Weathproofing Your Skills - A Wintertime Survival Guide

Lots of our fishing customers start asking “what to we do in the cold months of winter?”  Well, here are a few helpful hints for those of us who only wish that it was always summertime weather and the only blizzard were caused by Caddis.

1. Practice on your casting. If you do get out to your local park or school yard, make sure you don’t throw your line on pavement or concrete. You’ll hate yourself when you get on the river in the spring.

2. Consider local waters. Some lakes on the front range of the Rockies never fully freeze over and this provides for some great mid-winter opportunities.

3. How about fishing Denver?  What – in the winter on top of that?  Well, we have seen plenty of pictures of guys catching some huge carp and even browns right in front of Mile High Stadium.  Get those streamers and 8 weights ready for some serious angling.

4. Sort out that fly box.  If you’re like most of us fly fishers, your box looked great back in April, but is probably a mess right now.  Turn on that football game and get out those fly boxes and get it looking like April again.

5. Clean your equipment.  We’re talking all of it - from your boots, waders, rod, reels and especially your fly line.  Fly lines can be expensive and the best way to preserve it is to clean it often.  Your fishing and your wallet will thank you.  When your cleaning, don’t forget your net.  After landing so many fish this summer, it is probably smelling like a 6 month old whale carcass.  Get it in the hot water with plain old soap and water and wash it good.  And, for you belly boaters - take the air out of your boat when storing it over the winter months.  In addition, thoroughly clean the outside, inside and especially the pockets in your belly boat.

You might not get as much fishing in during these cold winter months, buy you will sure thank yourself for doing these few steps come spring time fishing.

6. Start dropping hints NOW for your guided fly fishing tour holiday gift!  Fly fishing the Bar ZX Ranch is a rare and truly rewarding fishing experience you will never forget!