May's Cigar-of-the-Month selection is already in the mail -- the 2005 God of Fire Carlito Blend -- but we may have discovered June's cigar in this morning's New York Times. 

The inside page of the Business section features a small story about a Minnesota company called Ruyan America that has invented a cigar that produces water vapor instead of smoke. Whaa?

According to the company, the "E-Cigar" is "a revolutionary product and new to the world of electronic smoking substitutes/cigarettes alternatives".  To really grasp the complexity of this product, you should visit the company's site and check out the internal view of the cigar that illustrates the "nicotine-infused cartridge", "atomizer", "airflow sensor", "lithium battery", "red LED", and other components you have never, ever heard of in a cigar. Then again, I was not aware of a "world of electronic smoking" existed.

The cigar is 5 1/2" long with a 50 ring gauge, and "looks and feels like a premium traditional cigar". Each cigar is good for 1,800 "mouthfuls of vapor" (a flavor I have been dying to find in a cigar), and costs about $40.

Feeling like it was my duty to buy one of these "cigars" and try it, I immediately clicked the "Where to Buy" button. To my dismay, there is only one online retailer, and they seem to only have the E-Cigarette products, and lord knows I ain't ever smoked no cigarette.

In their defense, the company's President acknowledges that a real cigar aficionado will not be "blown away" by the cigar, but with specs like these, the casual smoker may be a centrifuge away from a dirty bomb. God help us.

I'd be lying if I said was lying around the house in December's Sock-of-the-Month selection, reading the Book-of-the-Month selection, while smoking the Occasion-Cigar-of-the-Month selection, but at least 1/3 of that is true. While wandering the Financial District of San Francisco perusing potential locations for our showroom next year (fingers crossed), I had the pleasure of smoking December's Occasion Cigar-of-the-Month selection. 

So what was I not enjoying? Well, winter weather + the holidays = cashmere socks for our Sock-of-the-Month subscribers. Having shipped last week, their toes are probably already lightly toasted in Pantherella Cashmere Socks in a limited edition color for Fall.

I was also not enjoying Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style by Richard Torregrossa which was our December "Not-Oprah's-Book-of-the-Month" selection. It had been a while since we had sent out a suitable coffee-table book, and the photography of Grant as a quintessential gentleman should earn its rightful home on even the most curated of coffee tables.

So what did I enjoy? The Davidoff Limited Edition Puro Robusto for 2007. It's hard to believe that 13+ years ago, the idea of a cigar made exclusively from Dominican tobacco was scoffed at. The immense popularity of the Fuente Fuente Opus X obliterated that conventional wisdom long ago. Now, Davidoff has released their first ever "puro" made of Dominican long-filler, binder, and wrapper. Before taking in the first puff, this cigar had a fantastic aroma. The draw was great, and it had a very distinct spiciness to it that often comes off as harsh with lesser cigars. Having smoked a fair amount of cigars in the past few weeks (including a brand new line called "Winston Churchill" which is being made by Davidoff and is about to hit a limited number of stores), this one was unquestionably the best smoke.

January's selections will have an impossible act to follow...

The major menswear shows -- Collective, Project, Blue -- were in full effect in New York this past week. For some men's store buyers, it's an excuse to enjoy much of what New York has to offer: world-class steakhouses, bars that stay open till morning, Broadway shows, and all the honking you can handle. One thing that many visitors probably overlook are the great tobacconists. Among them are Barclay Rex, De La Concha, Nat Sherman, and a couple of Davidoff stores.

Any time I find myself in a new cigar store, the first question I ask is: Is there anything here that I absolutely can't find elsewhere? I ask this question for the members of our Occasion Cigar-of-the-Month Club. At two different stores, I received answers worthy of selections for that special club. 

At Barclay Rex's downtown location, I was directed to a special cigar from La Aurora called the Excepcionales. Only 100 boxes of 50 were produced (that's 5,000 cigars for the liberal arts majors out there). So, with such a limited quantity, La Aurora decided to distribute the cigars only in Manhattan! It's a Robusto with a ring gauge of 48 and comes in at just under 6 inches long.

The photo above, taken from my new iPhone, is from about 15 minutes in. The smoke was very smooth, full-bodied, with a nice, white ash. The photo below, also taken from my new iPhone, is a shot of the box with the words: Hecho especialmente para La Isla Manhattan. We'll let you know when we get that translated.

In our fourth installment of an undefined series of ideas for Father's Day gifts for the current crop of Presidential candidates, we turn our attention to "America's Mayor": Rudy Giuliani. 

Rudy is actually the candidate least likely to receive Father's Day gifts, and we're not saying that because of his penchant for dressing in drag. The strained relationship with his kids was made public a few months ago, so what better day to make amends than Father's Day.

Obviously, anything with a New York theme would work. While we're not sure it's Giuliani's style -- although who are we to say -- one idea is the Bill Lavin Tribute to NYC belt which pays homage to the Twin Towers. 

Our top recommendation, however, comes from first-hand knowledge that Rudy Giuliani enjoys an occasional cigar. While it hasn't come up in the campaign -- nor should it matter -- some of us were working at one of the world's best tobacco shops (Sherlock's Haven in San Francisco) when Rudy Giuliani stopped in for a cigar. Our "Occasion Cigar of the Month Club" might be a nice thought. A big, fat cigar in his mouth might be just what the political consultant ordered to brush off the drag queen jokes.

Tomorrow, we pick on a slew of Democrats in one post...

Faster than a speeding bullet. Stronger than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. When one describes Superman, these are the powers that get all the attention. But after watching Superman Returns,it becomes obvious which power is the most underrated: the ability to change into and out of a business suit in less than a second.

On several occasions throughout the movie (which is worth seeing by the way), the bumbling reporter Clark Kent, clad on one occasion in a three-piece suit, becomes Superman faster than you can blink.

We conducted a series of experiments to determine how quickly a human can remove himself from a suit. (We did not attempt getting into a full latex suit with cape and boots). In a regular two-piece suit, dress shirt, tie, pants, belt, and lace-up dress shoes, our most agile guinea pig was undressed in 56 seconds. When dressed in a two-piece suit, dress shirt, clip-on tie, pants, belt, and slip-on shoes, the time shrunk to 41 seconds...just 40 seconds shy of Superman's record.

None of us may ever obtain Superman's Earth-saving powers, however we can easily obtain some of Lex Luthor's toys -- namely the XIKAR Xi Cigar Cutter in Graphite and Porsche Design PD1 Lighter that he is seen using toward the end of the movie. You can't fault him for taste!

We celebrated a staff member's birthday recently, and that ignites an annual debate about which rare cigar is worthy of the occasion. Our current collection of hard-to-find smokes made the discussion very heated, but in the end, there was really only one answer: the Arturo Fuente Big Bad Mother #&@%*$ (BBMF).

Carlos Fuente, Jr. (his friends call him “Carlito”) has the enviable job of asking his rollers to make cigars in any shape that strikes his fancy. He has had cigars made in the shape of a football (reportedly for Dan Marino) and a baseball bat. The BBMF is an odd combination: salamone shape with a "mop-top" head and a perfecto foot.

The BBMF is rare, but it's not impossible to find. We picked up our first batch at the Casa Fuente store in Las Vegas, and then picked up more from retailers whenever we found them. It is only slightly more obtainable than some of the other Carlito inventions like "The Hummer", "Brain Hemmhorage", and "Chili Pepper".

The lucky BBMF birthday smoke was a little over 6" long with a ring gauge of 64 at the widest point. Not only was it an incredibly enjoyable smoke, it lasted over 2 hours. When you consider the cost per hour, it actually wasn't that expensive ;-)

Now we scour the planet for next year's birthday cigar...