Cigar Aficionado

Dear Marvin,

I just finished reading the interview with Andy Garcia and I wanted to mention I have always enjoyed his work. His role in the Oceans movies and other such reels always made him one of my favorites. However, after reading his love for his family and the fact he is unwilling to leave his family for a five-month stretch made him a superstar to me. His life story makes him a true American success story. I only hope I could be so lucky to one day share a cigar with this living legend and learn from his life experiences. Bravo Mr. Garcia.

Mark Weisseg
Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania

Dear Marvin,

Your editors’ note “Ironic and Absurd” compares marijuana to tobacco (from a regulation standpoint) and made sense. From a health standpoint there is no comparison. Marijuana is categorized as a psychogenic Schedule I controlled substance with extremely dangerous physical and mental consquences. Tobacco is not classified but does contain nicotine which is classified as a stimulant and carries the caveat of lung cancer for addicted cigarette smokers. An occasional cigar is not even in the same ballpark as cigarettes, and marijuana is not even in the same universe.

I live in a state (Washington) where the voters thought they would receive a revenue windfall and make the bad guys disappear from the street corner if marijuana was legalized. All they did was enhance the bad guys’ market share while condemning a large portion of our youth to a host of physical and mental disorders. Emotion and ignorance overcome reason and common sense every time.

Joe Henry
Puyallup, Washington

Dear Marvin,

Thank you for finally confirming what I’ve been saying for the past five years. In my lifetime (I am 46), I believe we will see the day when tobacco is outlawed and marijuana is legalized and commonplace. Didn’t we try this once with Prohibition? And I recall that was an abysmal failure.

Mark Paul
Carmel, Indiana

Dear Marvin,

I read with some disbelief the March/April article regarding sports talk show hosts that was written by Kenneth Shouler. I am sure that this Mr. Shouler is a great guy but to leave Jim Rome off the list leads me to think he might have been smoking something other than cigars while researching this article.

Regards,
Michael Chaba
Rochester, New York

Dear Marvin,

Kenneth Shouler’s piece on sports talk radio (“Sports Squawk”) invariably omitted and did not include nationally syndicated sports talk aficionado Jim Rome in his overview of the most influential hosts on the air today. Rome’s unorthodox take on the four major sports including a sprinkling of golf and tennis from a national perspective is refreshing and lacks the local “homer” effect of others.

While I don’t question the knowledge of a sa, the list is littered with New York–centric talkers who offer little if anything to a larger and wider debate on the world of professional sports.

I long for the days of Art Rust Jr. or Howard Cosell who brought a national reflection to sports and in the way they hosted a discussion, but Jim Rome’s presence and impact is painfully missing from the article and I don’t understand why.

Sincerely,
Nick Antonicello
Venice Beach, California

Dear Marvin,

Really?! No Jim Rome? Nice list of Geritol freaks you’ve gathered up. I’m sure they all knew Guglielmo Marconi personally. Which ones are the cigar aficionados? Was this really some kind of a test (by not including Romey in a troll for blowback) to see who really reads an article such as this softball? The author should be ashamed. His punishment: Swisher Sweets for a year.

A. Russell Hammond
Fair Oaks, California

Editor’s Reply: Wow! When we cover controversial topics—no letters. But leave Jim Rome out of a roundup and we get flamed! The writer its that Rome should have been included. Our mistake. Next time.

Dear Marvin,

Still interested in lifting the trade embargo with Cuba as previously stated in your publication? How safe do you feel with the recent Russian turmoil in Ukraine now that they have a warship in a Cuban port? I guess all of those Cuban exiles that commented on your embargo lifting view were wrong. I see that you would like for us to forget that the Cuban government aligns itself with the Russian government on many fronts, especially when it comes to violating human rights.

So, when you are sitting around having a drink and smoking your Cuban cigar think about your embargo position and who has the better argument on the issue—you or those who were forced to flee their country for various reasons that you will never understand.

Juan Muñoz,
Pine Beach, New Jersey

Editor’s Reply: Read our editors’ letter. It’s not about revenge or punishment. The more relevant question is this: What’s the best way to bring about change in Cuba? Your way has failed for 52 years now.