Joya de Nicaragua Antano 1970 Cigar Review

This cigar has a bit of a history behind it. It is said that this was one of the first cigar factories in an area of Nicaragua with the perfect soil and tropics for growing tobacco. This is prior to 1970 when the original factory was founded. The brand is Joya de Nicaragua. The "Joya de" means The Jewel of. I believe the Ant part of Antano means old days, yore, yester and most should already know that ano means year. So I have the privilege of smoking a reproduced jewel from the remnant's of Nicaragua's history.

Everyone knows that great powers influence. In this aspect, I mean great powers as in countries like England, Spain, France, America, etc. You can say it destroys a country's original culture or you can say it helps advance it's civilization; in this case, the controlling powers took it's resources. Nicaragua was a colony of Spain and when Nicaragua gained their independence, they were not completely free, other nations had imposing influence, like the United States. The United States was defending against Socialist and self interest. Just as in the case with many other countries, the United States is there with terms. Basically like in many other examples, the United States called shots on who would control the government. Indirectly or intentionally the Nicaraguan government became a dictatorship. Even in freedom, they were not free from their own and it decimated the country. That's why you see countries like these poor because of rebellion and civil war. The 1970 labelled on the band defines a time when the cigar was considered prominent before the socialist gained control.

This is not the first Joya de Nicaragua I have smoked, matter of fact I have enjoyed these as one of the first premium brand cigars I came across when I started. On the shelf of a local cigar lounge, a box sits on the shelf of the humidor with a price tag of $30 each. Is that an original one from around the 1970s? Nah, I think it would go for way more if in good condition. The one that sits on the shelf is probably the same as the one I smoked or another blend, one rolled in recent years. I love cigar lounges but hate their mark up prices.
 
I would have reviewed the Celebracion blend but did not have one. For this Christmas, that is the Sunday before Christmas Eve, I bring to you the review on the Joya de Nicaragua Antano in a Robusto size. I wish all readers a Merry Christmas and Happy 2013 to come.

Vitola: Robusto Grande (5.5" x 52RG)
Price: $6-$7 stick

Wrapper: Nicaraguan (Criollo Habana)
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaragua

Aged in Humidor: 5 months

Appearance and Construction:

The cigar looks basic as does the band. The wrapper is dark brown, though, not deeply. It is constructed smooth with veins that fade right into the wrapper, no leafy look to the wrapper. My stick had no construction issues, not even a nick. The cap is on if part of the body. It isn't firm but not soft, it bounces back ever so slightly. I toast it evenly and lights easily.

Draw: Slightly snug on first puffs but perfect draw there after
Aroma: It does not resonate strongly but a cocoa smell is there when brought close to the nose
Ash: Even waves forming an almost perfect grey cone indicating rolled well; the first log of ash falls at the end of the first third, a little short of the 2" mark
Fumes: When lit it does stream out but when it mellows out, no smoke
Burn: Even and consistent, never went out when left alone
Strength: Medium to Full, I ate dinner lit it at 10:30pm and finished it at 12:40pm, I felt light headed and a tad nauseous afterwards; you won't notice it while smoking it but after you might feel it a little

Tasting Notes:

The scent that it emits out of the hole on the foot while the cigar is still in the clear cellophane cover is of light raisin on tea or tobacco mixed in with oak. The cold draw is similar: raisin on hay or oak. On lighting, it produces notes of sweet tobacco and over baked raisin cookies on the retro-hale. I also get notes of interchanging oak and leather included with those last notes. On the initial light, I get no spiciness.

1 cm in: again more baked raisin cookie accompanying sweet tobacco, you can even say there is hints of black cherry.

1 inch in: it gets peppery and the strength is getting stronger with every puff. I am tasting notes of oak or cedar and leather. Basically the first third is composed of this tasting profile.

The second third in is sweet tobacco, black cherry on cedar (almost like wine), leather and pepper. By close to the end of the second third it mellows out very nicely. At this point, it's like the blend decides to come together and even out the tasting notes. I mean I can still get the taste of leather, raisin, oak but they seem to be more subtle. Yes and the cocoa aroma has come back.

By the end of the second third and into the final third the mellowing of the cigar still has deep notes but changes a little to espresso, mocha and a tad tad tad hint of chocolate. This is when the Joya de Nicaragua Antano is at it's best. Ironically, when I get to the end at about an inch and a half left, when most other cigars begin to get harsh and bitter, this retains it quality tasting notes. It was never harsh or bitter and at this point I had made up my mind that this is a great cigar, great with some roasted chicken. I rate it a 91. It is rich and deep in quality until the very last inch when I have to say goodnight.

My Uzi Weighs A Ton Cigar Review

Nice name for a cigar; like it's niche name of a brand it comes from: "Subculture Studios" a division of Drew Estate in conjunction with Joya de Nicaragua. The cigar is dubbed this for I guess honoring the subculture of art and music. I've smoked a few Joya de Nicaragua cigars but only recently heard of Drew Estate for their La Privida due to Undercrown, No. 9 and their flavored brands like Java. If not for both their reputation, I would think it's a gimmicky class blend like the Cuban Honey cigars. Looking at the band, which I don't base a cigars quality by, it is designed like an ad for a concert billboard... for Public Enemy No. 1...

Play: My Uzi Weighs A Ton by Public Enemy No. 1...when I light this cigar up. Whether the cigar is named after the song or as I have read named Uzi and then when the cabinet was picked up, it weighed a ton, thereafter it was branded My Uzi Weighs A Ton. Whatever, I like the name, marketing, producers and the cigar.

 

Vitola: Toro (6" x 60RG)
Price: $6-$9+ stick

Wrapper: San Andres (Maduro)
Binder: Ecuadorian version of Connecticut
Filler: Brazilian Mata Fina and Nicaraguan

Aged in Humidor: Read Below

This cigar has only been sitting in my humidor for 4 months in it's clear cellophane cover. When I take it out, I get a good whiff of strong dark chocolate and brownie scents. The cold draw is of the same but comes with an extra spice like an off version of turmeric. On examining the one I smoked to find it is packed tight, solid (no soft spots), like a log and with no construction flaws except for a couple of tiny apostrophe sized scratches. The veins are lightly present on the noticeable leaf like wrapper: dark brown with a reddish hew and black shading. I like how this fat 6" x 60 feels in my hands (total opposite of a Corona in 42RG). It lights very easy unlike some other cigars I have come across. The draw is right in the middle. Notes on the side of a bit of flavored coffee hit me, like French or South Asian bean, on the initial draw. One centimeter in is espresso in the draw. That slightly offbeat coffee note is not rich at all; you will get a repeat of that last statement. After mostly coffee and espresso, the end of the first third brings a short spell of ammonia which never appears again. ---The fumes are not light nor overwhelming ---The ash ripples of grey and waves of black ---At one inch in it holds of a solid cone ---Part of the wrapper, at this point, has a particle hanging but burns even by itself right away The beginning of the first inch is of dark cocoa and then dark chocolate. The retrohale does not hit me with much spice or kick like some other cigars but does retain that dark chocolate taste. ---At one and a half inch, the ash retains the ripple of black and grey but now has a tone of brownish, rust like color ---The ash limps sideways ---Two inches in the ash falls Two inches in is a creamy tobacco (not the bitter kind) with dark coffee bean in the retrohale. As I do most cigars, I put it close to my nose every once in a while as it burns for it's aroma: again just like the retrohale: creamy tobacco and dark coffee. The beginning of the second third gets a light cocoa aroma. As I am smoking this I am waiting for my order of food. I am smoking this outside a bench of a smokehouse. The cigar pairs okay with a light beer but not BBQ. I think it pairs well with a Frappuccino with bits of chocolate inside, which I grab later and am pretty much up to the final third. That's right this cigar burns at a good two and half plus hour pace. At one point it was dying out after leaving it for a bit over five minutes and it only took a few puffs to come back alive. I relight anyway to get the full burn back. It comes back with a bit of caramel and a barnyard scent then that dark chocolate and creamy tobacco is back in full force. Near the last inch and a half comes a little bitterness but goes away to present a grilled meat like taste. That dark chocolate taste is still there and I am now outside a Starbucks with my Frappuccino, it pairs well with my drink. Final notes on this cigar is that I would order it again because it's a cigar I place as medium in strength. but for the price of $6-$9 a stick, I find others to be more worth while, I put this at $5 a stick. My rating of it ranks it at the bottom of my top 15 with a 89; I would love to see an enhanced blend of My Uzi. ---The burn, draw, tasting notes, ash, construction and visual appeal of this stick is excellent ---The cigar is not very aromatic, it lacks that aroma that hits your head back to relax - I have had some that by the half way point, I was almost knocked out ---The cigar is dark with only a tad of richness ---The cigar is smooth without any harshness or bitterness
---The cigar is not very complex
---Like the fumes as stated earlier, the entire cigar is not overwhelming

If you want to see the details on this stick feel free to view:

Set of Photos of the My Uzi Weighs A Ton Cigar

J'ai Obtenu Cette

"Ridin' through this world, all alone
God takes your soul, you're on your own
The crow flies straight, a perfect line,
On the devil's bed, until you die

Gotta' look this life, in the eye"

-Intro song to Sons of Anarchy


I'm a fan of the FX network's show Sons of Anarchy because I am a fan of being a bad boy and I like motorcycles. Though, logically, detrimental acts have their reaction. Those who live detrimental lifestyles have those reactions catch up with them and that lifespan is shortened. J'ai Obtenu Cette is the title for this weeks episode and it translates in French to supposedly: "I Got This". In a previous episode one member of the motorcycle club, Tig Triger, killed the daughter of a big time crime boss, Damon Pope. In retribution for the death of Damon Pope's daughter, Pope wanted Tig's head but Jax wasn't ready to give him up. So the temporary alternative, by the order of Pope, was to have one out of four motorcycle club members locked up in jail die instead, because someone had to die in revenge for his daughter's death. Opie stepped up and died. Opie is the right hand man (since childhood) of Jax Teller (current President of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original). Whose fault was it? The one who caused the catalyst: Tig Trager or the one who ordered one of the four to die: Damon Pope. In an outlaw world someone had to pay for the death of Pope's daughter, that was Opie and someone had to pay for the death of Opie, the choice for Jax was Tig or Pope. Jax's decision was to follow and give up Tig or change the course of the game, lesson 1. The J'ai Obtenu Cette is meant for Jax's unsaid way of killing Pope, the man issuing the rules: to follow. But in real life, revenge in this savage manner, killing another person, there are more serious consequences.

"To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings of arrows or outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep,
No more, and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devouty to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to sleep - ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil..."

When you are young the curiosity of what will happen when you rebel against the rules and regulations of your parents, in most cases, your answer is disciplinary action or punishment. That is the same case when you are an adult, so why do adults do it? Shouldn't they have already learned from the lessons of childhood, if they were fortunate to be present? Three answers to the previous questions. The first answer is the good, morals and love are no longer there or never was. The second is since they have little or nothing to lose, since the love is not there, the end is what they embrace and their selfish view is all that matters or focused on, their actions on others do not matter. A third view is that they have no understanding of right or wrong, it's just not there. Negative actions are based on ignorance or a lack of a positive. But if you have something there, even a little love, care or morals (a conscience), (something my old pastor said:) you cannot serve two masters: walk either in the foot steps of good or suffer the consequences.

Sons of Anarchy is a mind trip of drama for those that like the bad ass life, kind of like the television show All My Children was to house wives. Sons of Anarchy has extreme violence but it is not without a good mix of scenarios or examining the consequences of a detrimental lifestyle.

A few notes from this week's episode:

---The old lady of Jax is having a moral conscience to go good for the future of their children rather than to stay with the motorcycle club, she gives him an ultimatum to go with her or stay without her. But her love for him had her act on a situation earlier which stopped her from escaping that lifestyle. It was stated in a conversation earlier in the episode between Jax and Nero Padilla (Jimmy Smits) that letters Jax are writing are for his son to read only, just like Jax's father had wrote... for him? Jax has an opposite intent than his old lady, to continue the lineage. Lesson 2, this episode showed Jax's old lady (Tara) and Clay (the mischief causing former President) getting arrested, taken out of the picture. The recently assigned Vice President (Bobby Munson) of Jax takes off his V.P. patch because Bobby doesn't like that Jax is turning out to be too much like Clay. Jax says "maybe I'm not so different". It would seem at the end of last seasons finale, the portrait was of the new leadership: Jax and old lady at the helm of the table, but at the end of this episode is of a portrait of Jax Teller and his mom (Gemma Teller, Katey Sagal). What this few second freeze frame indicates is that the Queen bee influencing the hive is not the new game changer, Tara, but with certain individuals that cause road blocks in the club out of the way, the lineage remains, Gemma.

---This character Juice is weak, how can you whimper, cry and fall to demands of anyone else (even under manipulation) if you choose to join an organization known for bad deeds, e.g. a motorcycle gang. Juice reminds me of the movie Savages where this young guy is watching over Ophelia and he feels sorry for Ophelia being kidnapped and shows her compassion. The young character in Savages is shot because "it didn't work out, you're too sensitive". Lesson 3, in the game of being a bad ass is that you do not crumple, if you enter the game of death, you should be ready to die or take what comes at you. If you feel you no longer wish to be in the game, you better take care of loose ends, and toughen it out until the window opens.

---This television show is bullshit because these are staged plots, anyone taking this show for more than it being entertaining with action, violence, drama and acted scenarios is suffering from delusions, please refer to my first paragraph. Life doesn't go as planned, period. There was a part of the show where in order for a plan to work out Tig Trager had to be caught off guard, with a gun in his hand and be turned over to Damon Pope. The show had Tig put his gun down when Jax was pointing his at Tig and screamed. But what if like a true rebel the plan didn't work out for Tig to put down the gun, instead raise it and shoot at Jax.

---Lesson 4, in the game of being Sun Tzu, sorry I mean being a bad ass, you have to be smart like Jax, conniving with your plans. Like in war, the game of being a bad ass, respect your enemies because if they don't kill you, they can teach you as much as they can hurt you, just like your friends. Just like how Gemma betrays Clay, you have to watch a few episodes to understand that Gemma and Clay were in supposed love, what happens in this episode? Gemma didn't back him no more, the new one for the Black Widow is Nero or is it her son.

---But sometimes you have to keep life interesting.


Not exact wording...

Gemma: "Do you want to be with me or not"
Nero: "I don't know if I can give you everything you need"
Gemma: "What do you think I need?"
(Something is said about love)
Gemma: "Only men need to be loved, sweetheart"
Gemma: "Women need to be wanted"

Peg Bundy, I mean Gemma is back in position of Queen (or Black Widow) of the bees, for now. First it was with Clay, but he's out, now it's her son. She also has Nero in her webs.

The Insight of History

I took Hurricane Sandy very lightly as the forecast reached me that Friday night, right into Saturday and even Sunday night's dinner out at East Bistro, 6-7 miles away from home. After dinner, I relaxed with a Bolivar cigar, sitting back from a normal meal, just watching how the streets had become scarce, left only with people like myself (not worried about the forecast) or scurrying home. The sky had blocked even the moon's reflection onto the streets and sidewalks. The Monday morning of October 29th, 2012 I was told not to go to work and woke up to mild winds and rain. That evening Hurricane Sandy hit and knocked on my house bumping and rattling, but nothing major. Tuesday, some of the aftermath had hit the news resulting in power lost, damaged property, many destroyed homes and 30 reported deaths. The death toll would eventually reach 40 and the actual picture of those in New Jersey, Staten Island, Coney Island, the Rockaways, especially those closest to the coastline and even the effect on the flooded New York City Subway system was a display of what Sandy caused.

On Wednesday, October 31st, 2012 (Halloween), the Tri-state was still recovering from this mild spurt of "Mother Nature's Frankenstorm". I was driving in the Eastside of Manhattan with the extra built up traffic lined for blocks from those trying to get Downtown from the upper 70s to 80s. I thought nothing of this as I had an appointment Uptown and headed home southward.

What I didn't know at the time was I was wasting gas. I never fill up until the arm in the fuel meter reaches rock bottom, close to empty. This is not a habit fruitful on my part because on Thursday, as my tank dropped below a quarter tank of gasoline, the news had announced gas stations everywhere in New Jersey and New York had closed. There is now a gas shortage due to power failure and disruption to the gasoline distribution. This gas shortage did not impact until the next two days when you could see 50 cars lined up around the block or down the street waiting for the handful that were open with supply; the only ones like Hess or BP. Shell, Exxon, Getty and many others closed off by yellow tape like as if someone had died there. Luckily there was no violence or chaos, everyone understood the circumstances but like I said this is a mild spurt of nature. The storm only lasted one day and the recovery took a week to get things back to normal. Imagine the disruption to society if there were a major gas shortage or example food/water shortage? I was discussing this with a family member who said "You're right this world is too dependant on gas".

I am watching the History Channel, a series about "The Men Who Built America". One of the portraits is of how John D. Rockefeller came from an almost bankrupted small oil producer to one of the richest men through associates and competitors. Rockefeller was given an opportunity to be a sort of supplier for Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt, at the time one of the richest railroad tycoons. The railroads needed to stay in operation in order to keep the massive over building profitable. One source would be from Rockefeller's perfectly located oil supply. The country had a demand for oil. This would land a perfect deal between the two for both their companies to be profitable, but in the long run more so for Rockefeller. Rockefeller would eventually grow bigger than Vanderbilt and started monopolizing all the competing oil companies. In out growing Vanderbilt, Rockefeller makes a deal with another railroad tycoon, Tom Scott. But Rockefeller eventually grows even bigger, his ego with it. Knowing the railroad giants were in need of his product to keep their rails operating, the show states Rockefeller has the railroad companies in his pockets. Vanderbilt, not to be outwitted forged a united alliance with the other railroad companies, specifically with Tom Scott, to not deliver Rockefeller's oil, hoping to put a stop to oil distribution, thus growth of Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. It was stated on the show, this meant war to Rockefeller. He figured out a way around the railways, he started building pipelines to move his oil as far as they could reach and it worked. The massive need of railway operation had halted causing a fear that railroads would become useless. This caused the high prices of railroad stock to plummet down to nothing, causing a Depression, the stock market closed for days and jobs were lost, riots taking place, collapsing the massive railroad operations. Rockefeller would eventually remain on top, Vanderbilt would eventually die and Tom Scott would follow.

The massive railroads would eventually be replaced by cars and airplanes, but the need to move them remains. Rockefeller, now but just a name and a legacy has been renamed but it's still the same product. It was only a three day interuption to the gas supply. It caused men and women to stand or wait in cars for hours, lines of 50 each, at gas station that even had their short supply. I know I waited my hour and twenty minutes to be eventually told "we are out".

The point of this article isn't really what will happen when we run out of gas, I am sure the minor chaos that will be caused in it's after effect will be relieved by brilliant organizors that will move to an electric form of energy. Just like when Rome died, the United States was formed, and when the United States dies, there will be another empire to take it's place but the struggle to find a way ahead, like the concept of the aqueducts, will remain. But right now oil and gas shortage is in it's first week.

Bolivar Cofradia 554 Cigar Review

I bought this cigar at a local store that sells almost everything. I was far away from my humidor, was craving a smoke and overpaid for it. I knew nothing of the stick except it was a Bolivar and had the logo of Simon Bolivar. I had to do some research on what the name of this cigar really was because I had bought it solely knowing it was a Bolivar. I could only find the Non-Cuban Bolivar ones with the golden band of a shield and medallions. I had to dig to reference this Non-Cuban because the Cuban version has the same band only with Habana below Simon Bolivar's image. This one has Since 1895 below Simon Bolivar's image.

Cuban Bolivar band: "Habana" text below the image of Simon Bolivar

Non-Cuban Bolivar band (blended by Estelo Padron): Image of Simon Bolivar, no Habana text, instead shows "Since 1895"
Non-Cuban Bolivar band (blended by Daniel Nunez): Golden shield with medallions below

Above Source in Bold: NCRadioMan from www.cigarasylum.com for this clarification.

Vitola: Parejo (Closes to a Robusto though slightly larger in length=5" and ring gauge=54)
Price: $4+/- stick

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Connecticut
Filler: Honduran, Nicaragua

Aged in Humidor: N/A

Appearance and Construction:

You look at this stick and to put it bluntly and potty mouthed: it looks like a big piece of molded turd with a band around it. It reminded me of a bigger, uglier version of the Cohiba Red Dot I smoked last month. The wrapper appears more Maduro than Sumatra, it's deep brown. The veins do show themselves to present the wrapper as a leaf but not heavily. The cigar is symmetrically proportioned, the cap smooth and bonds with the body. It is solid, heavy and big. The filler has a lighter tone of light brown. The draw is good, it burns at a moderate pace and ash stays at a cone shape with bits disappearing but holds from one inch to two inches.

Tasting Notes:

I smell it before lighting, the wrapper is giving off a light scent of spicy caramelized fermented tobacco leaves. The filler from the foot where you light gives off a slightly different scent: tobacco leaves mixed in with a rawer version of warm bread. The first draw gives off flavors of tea and toast. I begin to think this might be an okay cigar based on the first draw. However, the first inch and a half showed to be terrible, there was no flavor aspect except notes of tobacco. The first phase was almost pungent, made me want to give up and toss the whole thing out. But I decided to hang in there and let it burn for a while.

With now two inches burnt out, remember this is only a five inch stick, I am beginning to get leathery and spicy notes. The tobacco flavor is hitting hard and this is where I can call it meaty in terms of smoke, remember 54RG, and charcoal burnt meaty. This is the point where it becomes good, it now gives off aromas of roasted cashew and hints of a very light floral aroma, rose like, rotating in with pepper on my tongue and hints of cinnamon without any sweet notes to it. The cigar is still very meaty at this point.

I take it to the nub until it begins to get bitter and dump it. I was curious to find it's complete flavor spectrum. This is a strong cigar, with bold flavors, subtle in complexity and you will have to be patient and hunt for the flavors. It gave me a light headed spell and made me walk a little wobbly after smoking it for a bit over an hour. Luckily, I was close to home and when I went home, that 30 minute nap was so nice. This cigar is terrible, on the good side. I am going to give it two ratings: a 77 for enjoyability, complexity and flavor. It gets a 84 for being harsh, abrasive, subtle and strong.

Romeo y Julieta Habana Reserve Churchill Cigar Review

The Romeo y Julieta Habana Reserve was my first box of cigars ever, not counting 5-pack boxes. I purchased a 27 count box of Churchills online for a tiny amount over a hundred bucks. I have smoked enough of these (before I sold the rest) to know there is a stable consistantcy with both flavor and construction. Not everyone is exactly the same of course and may be a bit off here and there slightly but you can expect quality control from the rollers with this bunch.

Vitola: Churchill (7" x 54RG)

Price: $3-$4 +/- stick

Wrapper: Nicaraguan

Binder: Nicaraguan

Filler: Nicaraguan, Honduran

Aged in Humidor: Varies
(From right out the box on the first day to over a year)

Appearance and Construction:

Great! The box is well design and when you open it, each one in their own clear cellophane cover are lines up uniform like even heighted soldiers. Even the caramel complexion is smooth and uniform. It's not a toothy or veined up stick at all. The cap blends in so well as if part of the body. There aren't out of place leaf endings on the bottom where one lights it. What consistantcy!

The ash does not hold more than an inch or an inch and a half, nor is it a perfect cone. They do not have solid ash. The draw is absoluetly free flowing. On an occassional Churchill (because they are long) I might have to cut the cap twice, that is a little deeper to get a wider hole for that easier draw, but not on these sticks. I cut a pretty narrow opening and it provides a good draw. The nice draw could be due to the fact that they aren't rolled super dense, firm but not packed tight, no soft spots or flaws in the wrappers. Every aspect is really smooth, all the way down to the golden medallion looking band with "Reserve", as if reserved for VIP.

Set of Photos of the Romeo y Julieta Habana Rerserve

Tasting Notes:

Prelight aroma from the wrapper has a smooth earthy but with sweetened tea scent; combined with notes of tobacco leaf (without the burn) plus light hints of fermentation and a light hint of a piece of milk chocolate kind of mix. The cold draw is an enhanced version of that note. I toast the cigar in an even circular motion and it burns light and evenly. The first note of flavor is dark cocoa, damn it is robust and deep in tastiness. The only issue is that this taste does not stay throughout the entire stick. These notes of flavor come and go on the first third.

On the second third: that dark cocoa is still there going in and out but includes a tad of spicy tobacco flavor, not bitter at all. Yes like almost every other cigar, there is a duration where the burn brings a smooth and tranquil sail of flavor, this one definitely has that. It also brings sneaky hits of wood and leather notes, just like every other stick, it's just less so in the Romeo y Julieta Habana. The remainder third does not change much, though the end did lose quality but not by that much. The wrapper gave (only by a little bit) stronger strength than that of a Conneticut grown variety. Usually expecting Nicaraguan filler to be stronger, I guess that Habana seed blending soften this cigar up a bit.

If I use the word smooth to describe many aspects of this cigar, it wouldn't be over using the word because it fits the bill. Each aspect is smooth including the construction, appearance, draw, burn and flavor notes. It is a great value on the price. The only reason I rate this a 85 and not higher is because it's on the mediocre side, it does not stand out much. The lack of complexity and strength, though enjoyable traits, make it drop a few bars in points.

Montecristo Classic Churchill Review

Vitola: Churchill (7" x 54RG)

Price: $10+/- stick

Wrapper: Conneticut

Binder: Dominican

Filler: Dominican

Aged in Humidor: Six Months

Appearance and Construction:

The color of the wrapper is resembling of peanut butter with light, barely noticeable, veins. The band is of the same color as the Cuban version, dark red (maroon). Also the same design of white trims and a simple logo. However, this Dominican version has gold etching along the white, unlike the Cuban version. The band is on there snug. The cap matches the body as if part of it. It's smoothly built as it smoked: smooth.

The fumes were not overwhelming at all or too light, it burnt at a good rate and touch up not required. The ash didn't hold to well kept burning or flaking off and it burnt slightly uneven but...

Tasting Notes:

The initial smell right out of the cellophane wrapper before I put it into my humidor to rest a bit is of a strong fermented tobacco leaf scent, it brings me to an image of the fermentation process. It has a refined sweetness with a bit of a good ammonia scent. The aroma can be said to be an earthy reminder of lightly sweetened tea, the closest comparison would be a light peanut butter and tea infused with a bit of balsamic vinegar. After six months, it toned down. The cold draw before lighting is cinnamony.

I light up and the initial draw is of light leather. But about a little short of an inch in it gets pretty good. I can then detect a creaminess of cocoa. This is not a bold or strong cigar, it's medium in body. Yes there is the earthy side to this but also the contrast of cinnamon and roasted almond. The combination of the Connecticut wrapper and Dominican binder/filler made it smoke like it looked, peanut buttery creamy. Sometimes there is that bitter tobacco taste but it's not overwhelming or often present, the most prevalent flavor is of creamy, cocoa or a light nuttiness/woodiness. It is pretty consistent in flavor all the way through with flavor changes of the aforementioned.

I do recommend this cigar but not for $10.00 as the listed price. It would make a nice $4.00-5.00 smoke on a Sunday afternoon where you want to stay relaxed, which it did for me after work.

For it's enjoyment, flavor and overall smoke, rated a 88. I rated this an 88, the same as I did the Cuban Montecristo No. 2 because both were good, but just like the Cuban Cohiba and Dominican Cohiba, both are built differently. I thought the Cuban Montecristo No. 2 was strong with deep/dark notes of flavors and the Dominican Montecristo Classic Churchill to be medium in strength, creamy and more soothing flavors. Again, aspects regardless of size.

Montecristo No. 2 Review

Vitola: Torpedo (6.1" x 52RG)
Price: $12+ stick

Wrapper: Cuban, Habana
Binder: Cuban, Habana
Filler: Cuban, Habana

Aged in Humidor: One Month
(Smoked two. Gave one to a friend. The rest will age for an indefinite amount of time)

Set of Photos of the Montecristo No 2 Box

Set of Photos of the Montecristo No 2 Cigars

Appearance and Construction:

You look at this stick and there is nothing really fancy to it. The band is plain, no special coloring, just a dark red hinting on the brownish side with white trims, even the design is so simple. The band matches the wrapper so well, because the wrapper is in between a light and medium brown. It has a slightly oily wrapper. I squeeze the cigar and it is dense with almost perfection in moistness. The wrapper has a rustic and slightly uneven complexion but otherwise smooth with light veins.

Tasting Notes:

The initial scent of a cigar out of the box is of the factory it came from, it's of a deep stable aroma of a comparison to a strong tea leaf but it's of tobacco. The hint of that refined sweetness or amonia from fermentation is ever so light, a tiny, tad bit of it.

I'm going to be a slight hater on this cigar, because everywhere I go I read great reviews on it. I expected better. I start to light it in circular motion and I can see and smell the lightness of the fumes. The initial light gives forth a medium bodied draw of an earthy, toast-like, flavor. A little bit in, there's a light but dark hint of cocoa, spice and oak flavors, they mix well together. I liked the flavor and ease of the initial draw: it was not hard or too easy on the intake. It gave me high hopes from the first puffs.

I am on my first third. The initial flavors are still there, enjoying them. The cigar is burning steadily, unfortunately a little uneven. The filler is burning a little faster on one side, only a little bit, and burning without some of the wrapper. I have to touch it up. Other than that, the draw remained constantly well all the way through. The ash is now at it's one inch phase and drops, it doesn't hold for more than an inch. It's becoming stronger. I can start to taste the tobacco flavor more.

At mid-point I'm getting a strong leathery and smoked oak flavors along with the tobacco, those earlier flavors are less apparent. By the end, it still retained most of it's oak flavor mixing in with a deep earthy and sometimes a bit of a nice cocoa like flavor, all three phasing in and out. That's pretty much the cigar: smooth yet dark with a medium to strong body. I wish this cigar or at the very least the ones I smoked had more complex or rich flavors, instead it just turned out to be a mediocre stogie. Enjoyable but an average smoke, a bit overly praised.

My overall rating is a 88, for now

Romney or Obama

Debate 2:

One of the things that Mitt Romney said I paid more focus on than anything else is that he said during his tax plan is anyone with an annual income of $200,000 or less would no longer have to pay taxes on bank dividends, capital gain or interest off investments. I made notice to this statement because I fall into that category. Hmm, the senator wants to help me save a few bucks, how thoughtful. Knowing politicians, I wondered what the catch was. So, I did a Google search on comments to that from brighter minds than my own and this is what I fount:

Daily Kos - Romney Introduced His Biggest Trojan Horse Ever During Debate

I get dividends or interest from investments. Not much but still enough to make me take notice. Without doing anything and as long as I keep my money in the investment, I get $500 to $1000 annually for example on one of my investments. At the end of the year it gets taxed, depending on your income bracket you can pay a fungible 15% or higher (if your income bracket is higher) on that bank dividend, capital gain or interest off an investment. Now say the IRS taxes 15% of my $500, that means at the end of the year, I owe them $75, if they tax my $1000, I owe them $150. That $75 or $150 is such a negligible amount on an annual basis or compared to people on the grander scale who make their living from interest or dividends off investments.

Let us take New York City's Major Michael Bloomberg for example, his salary for being major of New York City is just $1.00 (no that's not a typo or a misplaced decimal). The $1.00 salary trend falls under many wealthy individuals like with the late Steve Jobs and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, just to add a name or two. The reason they only take one dollar salaries is because the bulk of what they earn do not come from salary but dividends or interest earned off their investments or capital gain. Their payout is way more than my $500 to $1000, now you're talking in the hundred thousands or millions. Mitt Romney's net worth is $250 million dollars, he can easily make the one dollar salary apply to him, thus he falls under the $200,000 or less bracket. He will then no longer have to pay taxes on his $250 million or money made off it. At the very least that's what he's trying to do for him and those on top. But guess who still does still have to pay taxes to aid the national debt?

Newton's Law of Motion

Newton's Law of Motion - A body in rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion, unless imposed on.

On the night of Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 I was feeling a little light headed and feeling off, but other than that, I was fine. I became hungry that night, so I grabbed a ham and cheese sandwich that was in the fridge for a few days, bad mistake. By Thursday morning, I woke up with a stomach ache, light headache, heavy lost of energy (unable to get out of bed) and nausea. I think I caught a stomach virus. I stayed in bed all day Thursday. The same on Friday until the evening when I started feeling slightly better, strong enough to go to work on Saturday but still weak. Then guess what? I caught a cold: the sniffles, runny nose, coughing, a sore throat, feeling weak and off focus. It's now Monday, October 15th, 2012 and I am back to normal.

I think about life and death sometimes, maybe because I've seen the latter in my life a little more than I care to. The two days I lay there in agony and weakness I thought of my mortality. I think the only reason we work is to pay the bills for the things we get by with like our shelter, food, cars, etc... If not for working to have to pay for those, we would have more time to enjoy what's already a short lifespan much more. That is my mind set right now, I am working hard but my focus is not on finances, money is important because it is necessary to live but I'm not trying to make a billion before I die, that was my mind set at a younger age. Money plays a role in enjoying life because the things we enjoy cost. So hard work go hand and hand with enjoying life. But love and leisure doesn't come from a billion dollars, it might help provide more of it, but enjoying life is what you make and interpret of what revolves around you.

Cohiba Red Dot Robusto Cigar Review

Vitola: Robusto (5" x 49RG)
Price: $10 +/- stick

Wrapper: Cameroon
Binder: Indonesian
Filler: Dominican grown Cubano Piloto

Aged in Humidor: One Month


Appearance and Construction:

The Cohiba Red Dot in a Robusto size seems tiny, but sometimes I don't like fat and long ones because I don't like going over an hour smoking, no matter how good. Pleasure only last so long before it becomes ordinary. The wrapper appears to be a nice dark shade of brown. The cap and body are clean and smooth looking. The end of the cigar where you light it does not have a perfect filled oval layer of filler, there are three tiny nooks. There is also a white string like stem from a tobacco leaf amongst all the brown layers but I have seen this in other cigar endings, no biggie this may be just the stick I am smoking. It has a slightly oily shine to it. To me, it looks like someone took a stick of wood emptied it out, sanded it out to a uniform cylinder, filled it with tobacco filler, put a dark polish on it and lightly lacquered it. The cigar is firm and bounces back ever so slightly on squeezing the body. This appears to be a well built stick. Even the band is designed smoothly and stays on there well, it moves only ever so slightly.

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Red Dot Robusto

Tasting Notes:

On prelighting I get only a tad aroma of that sweet and earthy smell. I do this four times because I like the scent of a cigar as much as the smoking part. Each time I only get a light aroma, possibly because it has been sitting in my humidor only a month.

I light it up. In my opinion of the one I smoked, this is a mild to medium flavored cigar. The Cohiba Red Dot would be nice for an average day relaxing or lounging. The price range for these are for ten dollars, I think not worthy, maybe for a lower price. On initial light it starts off soft burning with light smoke. I easily detect tiny hints of spice and sweet earthy flavors. The mediocre tobacco flavor is there, sometimes just that, tobacco flavor, no sweet or complex flavors. It burns slowly with that light spice and sweet earthiness appearing and disappearing.

At the second of third stage is when it becomes slightly interesting and the flavor of sweet cinnamon on woodiness comes into play. This is when it becomes good. At this point I can see that this Cohiba Red Dot is nicely rolled because it is still burning at a very tranquil pace, the ash reaches the one inch phase and drops off, but it was like a white and grey tater tot with parts of it's shell lightly flaking off. It comes and goes, that hint of sweet cinnamon on wood flavor. I can also detect a nutty flavor, like hazelnut or almond. I would say this is the nicest part of the cigar and I float down stream with this aroma until the third stage where it's just mostly tobacco flavors and a hint of coffee. I smoke it all the way to the nub as I do often. The before and the aftermath smell of the cigar are good: a lightly sweetened earthy aroma.

I would rate this a 85 because I sure had worst and far better. This is a good kind of mild cigar. Maybe another in the future or a XV

 Set of Photos of the Cohiba Red Dot Robusto The End

 Photo of the Cohiba Red Dot Robusto against a background chilies in my yard

Comparison:

I can only slightly try and compare the original Cuban Cohiba to the Dominican Cubano Cohiba Red Dot. I tried to detect similar flavors that came from one to see if the same flavors were on the other but the similarities in flavor and construction were only so slightly present. Why? Because besides the name, I believe that's where it ends. They are two totally different brands, two totally different companies and totally different in growth and manufacturing. I have to say the Cohiba Esplendido cigars were of course much better than the Cohiba Red Dot cigars. I don't think the size had anything to do with it because the Esplendido is a Julieta No. 2 (Churchill) sized cigar and the Red Dot was a Robusto. Regardless of the size, say if the Red Dot had been a Churchill size, I think it would have been the same outcome. I think the darker wrapper of the Red Dot cigar versus the lighter tan of the Habanos S.A. cigar had a low significance on how the cigar smoked and how tasty it was or will be. If you look at the photos below, both have similar appearances.

The love affair of the Cuban Habanos S.A. brand comes from the flavor and a bit of how it smokes, in my opinion. Could it be due to the hype of an awesome object far away forbidden and harder to get because of the embargo, yes, that too. But then again other countries don't have this embargo with Cuba, it's just the U.S., so no, it's not hype. If you smoked one and then the other, you can then experience for yourself the complexity and how it smokes (draw, burn, ash, aroma...) differs quite a bit from one to the other.

You take the Cuban version, I assume like most people, all it's parts (filler, wrapper, binder, cap) are from Cuba and made (original seeding, harvesting, fermenting, blending and rolled) in Cuba by Cubans. Meaning usually but not always a product made by it's original people and crafted in the culture it originated from will have it's heritage and refinement through the years. Thus, even though cigar smokers want that product, the access to the product is not there due to the embargo or limitation. To meet that desire, they created Cohiba Red Dot, baring the same name and attempted to be crafted or marketed to be just like the Cuban version. Even with part of the filler with the Cubano seed, you're not getting the same thing. The parts come from the Dominican Republic, Africa, Indonesia... It's not the exact seeding, aging, blending or rolling. Due to legality of branding, it's just the same name, not the same product, no matter how much the attempt or marketing.

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Habanos S.A. compared with Cohiba Red Dot

Cohiba Esplendidos Cigar Review

I've been smoking cigars since I was as young as I could remember, 18. I do not consider myself an aficionado because I don't smoke them on a constant basis, just an enthusiast. My curiosity was why do usually honcho type figures do it. The icon is of an older gentlemen, usually, laid back with a sophisticated appearance. One example is Hannibal from The A-Team: "I love it when a plan comes together". At the young age of 18 without much money, I went to the local grocery store and picked up a Phillies Blunt for fifty cents. The Phillies Blunt price would eventually rise to seventy-five cents and recently a dollar, now some retailers dare sell it for one dollar and a quarter or more. The Phillies Blunt is a terrible cigar, even for a beginner because it puts a bad impression on what a decent cigar should be like. Though giving it a positive note, it is good for a beginner to compare. Secondly it's not that bad if you have nothing to compare it to. I have not had one in years but recalling the taste being coated with a sugary substance but then there's no flavor or aroma to it, just a bit on the stinky or bitter tobacco flavor, in a way just like a big cigarette.

Cigars are not meant to be cigarettes. In a essence they are meant to be a quality craft, like a good aged marble steak, aged wine or aged cheese. Some people will call it just smoking but no. Just like taking specific plants and making a salad, just like taking grapes and turning it into wine or killing a cow to make a porter house steak, a cigar is crafting tobacco leaves into flavor. That's the answer to my curiosity at a younger age. Cubans, the renown category or class of cigars hard to obtain because of the embargo the United States enacted toward Cuba for being a Communist government, yes there's more to it but this article is not about politics. Not only are Cuban cigars an obstacle and expensive to get but researching there are many imitations to the top Cuban cigar brands, specifically the Cohiba brand. Why? They say head honchos like Fidel Castro determined it to be a top notch blend, so if a head figure like Fidel Castro fount Cohiba(s) to be an ace, then the rest of Cuba and other nation's cigar smokers followed. It is just that bootleggers like that of music and designer wear make money off replicating the desired quality of the legit, on the negative aspect, ruining it for the consumers. Unlike music, which might have distorted sound quality, you can live with it and it's free. But think if you paid four thousand dollars for a fake Louis Vuitton bag worth thirty dollars, cigar smokers don't want to pay for dirt in their puff.

I did my research before I went and bought my Cohiba Espledidio cigars. I learned to look at the clarity and alignment of the label having the embossed golden Cohiba printed as well as the bold in script Habana, Cuba. I read to check for how many squared dots as well as where it is cut off. I checked for anything off about the band. I checked the cap: looked at it's construction and made sure it's a triple cap. I looked over the body and even peaked at the foot but never examined that portion in great detail. I smelt and squeezed one before I paid. I did not get these from the factory in Cuba directly. I did not even get to see the box itself. I bought a dozen. I got them from someone I know as an acquaintance whose mother lives in Cuba and he said he being family is allowed to visit on this account. I read there are only less than a handful of airlines or airports from the United States to Cuba and you need a specific type of visa for visiting, most travel outside the United States and then get a passport and visa and go from there. Analyzing my purchase, each one seems almost perfect: the wrapper has these neat, sort of hidden veins that blend in well, smooth, tan colored sheets of crafted tobacco leaf. The foot: the opening on the bottom where you light looks like an oval of layered tobacco. Based on many of the pictures online of fakes versus real, I determine that I have the legit shit. But only 95% so, there is still that 5% uncertainty that these master bootleggers have cloned the icon. So I smoke it:

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Esplendido Bands

More Photos Below...

Vitola: Julieta No. 2 - Churchill
Price: $30+ stick

Wrapper: Cuban, Vuelta Abajo or Habana
Binder: Cuban, Vuelta Abajo or Habana
Filler: Cuban, Vuelta Abajo or Habana

Aged in Humidor: One Month
(The remainder will age before smoking)


Tasting Notes:

Before even lighting it up, I could smell a light sweet aroma, not a melted or coated with sugar sweet. There are different kinds of sweet. This sweet aroma seems more refined, like from something aged and having it's naturals sugars release. I light it and it takes a moment but I start to detect a hint of woody (cedar like), earthy and cocoa flavor. It is really smooth smoking through and through. So far so good. Now I am on the second third of the Esplendido where the heart of the cigar is and I start to get the hint of a nutty taste mixing in with the cocoa taste, a sort of Nutella flavor, I get this note throughout the cigar and it is the best and dominant flavor I have tasted in any cigar. This is how the remainder of the cigar's flavor will be like with the occasional hint of spicy kick and the mentioned tasting notes in and out, all the way until there is thumb length left. The hint of earth or soil where the filler comes from changes sometimes from a medium to a deep flavor or a mix of flavors.

I had a cup of cheap coffee with it and after I smoked and sipped the coffee it washed away the quality flavors of the smoke, so I kept smoking and stopped drinking the cheap coffee. Remember these are medium to full flavor smokes. I think I would have done well to have gotten a Starbucks coffee, black (no sugar or creamer/milk), to accompany the Esplendido.

Appearance and Construction:

These Cohiba Esplendido cigars are packed on the dense side. In addition to the aforementioned: the foot of the cigar, the hole where you light up looks like waves of the edges of tobacco filler. The wrapper is tan with veins you can barely see, flawless, smooth, and with no blemishes. There was probably one in a dozen that had maybe a smidgen of a tear in the wrapper. The wrapper: a near perfect smoothness like a stripe on the American flag made of cloth, but it's Cuban. The triple cap seemed smooth and bound well. I had two, one on a quiet Sunday afternoon in my yard and another the day after, yeah the yearning for another the next day because the pleasure stuck on my mind.

This is a really good cigar, as many have pointed out, worthy of it's name and price. I fount the draw to be good once I got it going. The ash burnt like the pictures I have seen, kind of like Marge Simpsons hair, instead of blue, as if it were greying out. The cigar never went out on it's own, it clung on for about two inches until I moved and it fell off. I did not have the heart to dissect any of them for CSI purposes but when I was almost done and got to like about an inch and a half way burnt out, I started to tear the wrapper and binder, smelt the great aroma and fount the filler to be quality tobacco leaves, not dried up. The second one, I followed cigar etiquette and let it burn out on it's own. Even when I knew it was coming to an end or didn't want to smoke any more, I didn't want to stop, so I let it burn until almost the very tip. I would rate the Cohiba Esplendido a 92 from a semi-novice cigar smoker.

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Esplendido Caps

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Esplendido Below the Band 

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Esplendido The End

Jeremy Lin

In everything there is a positive side and a dark side.  Even Superman has his Kryptonite and Bizarro. -Andrew Szeto

When was the last time the New York Knicks won the NBA Championships? 1973.  When was the last time the Knicks won it's highest consecutive games, back in the 70's with 18 consecutive wins, about 40 years ago?  Jeremy Lin didn't do it himself but Lin-sanity definitely brought morale, teamwork and a boost for new and old fans by bringing the Knicks into the Playoffs (even though the Knicks lost in the early rounds of the Playoffs - I wrote this in February 2012 and just finishing off now in June, I'm now rooting for Oklahoma City Thunder).  The Knicks lost to the Hornets to not make eight consecutive wins during this season's win streak. With Stoudemire back from injuries and Carmelo Anthony coming back from his injury, the temperature of Lin-sanity fever might temper down a little. But the question is all this attention toward Jeremy Lin: racial hype or worthy praise?

An article from the Chicago Tribune by Jae-Ha Kim aided in adding viewpoints to this blog
http://www.jaehakim.com/lifestyles/issue-lifestyles/jeremy-lin-matters-to-kyle/

But before that article existed, Lin-anity was already scorching because of what that young talented Chinese rooted, Taiwanese, Asian point guard has done for the Knicks.  His less than one month career with the Knicks has elevated his status to a worthy level by scoring and bringing the Knicks out of the shadows as a losing team.  That ability to get those consecutive wins gave fans hope, he brought back the Knicks and their fans; not only did he bring hope back to the Knicks and their fans, his ethnicity added Asian fans (more so Chinese, but not only Asian fans, he made every ethnicity notice: potential).  All races were cheering, rooting and commenting on his talent.  But as someone who has his similar ethnicity would be even more proud, like a Black person seeing the first Barack Obama, but in a lower pinnacle of success. For those screaming this is on the lines of racism or stereotype, you should go back to the cabin in the woods and knit a sweater for me.  When one minority has reached success in an area dominated by a majority, there will always be fanfare.  There have been few Asian basketball players in the NBA getting such attention since Yao Ming. I'm not saying he is an inspiration and a role model to a New Yorker and Asian only, but especially so. There is a reason to be excited as both a New Yorker and Asian-American.

The first answer is yes he is hyped for being Asian, if you watch him play, he only scores slightly above 60%, he misses a good 40% of his field goals.  Though he is above average, there are many other players that play equally to his performance, yet they do not get as much attention. Comparing him to legends makes him a worthy statistic, it's still too early to tell if he's really that good. But then again, with those statistics and skill comparison, no he is not hyped.  He is a very good basketball player that came out of Harvard.

It is the combination of both hype and actual talent: the rarity of an Asian-American basketball player doing so well in a non-Asian-American field and he's doing it well for a team known to fail in the reflection of the Yankees and Giants.

The Etymology:

If you research his career, his performance was unseen until he was accepted by a coach that honed his skills.  He was undrafted after college and was cut from two teams for supposedly better, more expensive, players.  The metaphoric laugh is with Lin.  After he was traded from the Warriors, the Knicks and all the fans, Asian and even non-Asian alike, benefited from what was dormant.  In the stands you have Taiwanese flags waving and non-Asians wearing the number seventeen.  He's in all the newspapers. Well he was, before he got injured.  He is now living in one of Trump Towers high rise apartments.  I loved the way he and Carmelo Anthony got along.  Can't wait to see what he does next season, but for now it's team: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden in the spotlight.


The Darker Side:

I don't care if people start labeling this topic as having a racial or stereotypical mentality. Facts are facts, history is history, and without them, lessons are not learned and changes not made.  Yes, Black people, no not just African-Americans, all people with black or darker skin are at the top of the list for racism.  Yes it's a bad thing and a topic people rather not touch on because it creates a metaphoric storm.  But for me I am always an open ear and open experience, my experience and anyone else, actually I thrive on culture.  Everyone has heard of racism toward Black people, it is not just America's top history lesson.  But have you considered racism toward all types of people?  Have you heard a White person or a person of Latin decent racially insult a Black person?  Have you ever heard of a Black person or Latin person racially insult a White person?  Have you ever heard a Black person or a Latin person racially mock an Asian person?  I have seen this, mostly growing up and less now.  I'm sure my father saw even worst.  Ironically when a race that has been through so much racial hardship, you would think that there would be no racism, but people remain uneducated.  Would you believe where I grew up, I had more African-Americans and Latins playing the racist card rather than from Caucasians.  Do you know how many times I have seen an uneducated young or even adult African-American say something racist?  I am not pointing fingers, there are racist Asians as well but I'm speaking of what's more widespread.  I don't think that was the idea of what Martin Luther King Jr had in mind when he was fighting for racial freedom or was it equality, not to fight through years of hate to have freedom to hate back but equality.  That's the importance of educating history: teaching that many took whips to the back, water from fire hoses beamed at them, having to sit in a classroom as the only minority being strong against being different, beatings ending up in the hospital or death and the segregation of not being allowed to drink from the same water fountain.

If you read the article I linked above: Jeremy Lin matters to Kyle, in it Jae-Ha Kim mentions a little about how she grew up in a more unaccustomed to race differences part and time of America.  She describes the lack of Asians in the media, how she was treated racially different and had to deal with racism.  She then also goes on to describe her son in a different, more open to the racial divide.  "What a difference a few decades make."  I have a total empathy for the short column because it goes similar for myself and many "Asians" growing up prior to the late 90s.  In the column, the response field only allowed a certain amount of characters and this is in part what I had in mind and responded with:

"In New York where I grew up, I rarely ever got called “chink” but was often taunted with a similar: “ching chong” then people would pull their eyes to the side slanted. I had similar taunts growing up also and it got stuck on my mind a little bit but I believe I arose out of it. I never felt emotional pain from it, just thought the insulters were idiots, but never liked it regardless. These “bullies” I think were more so in the ’80s or prior. They grouped all Asians the same thinking “we all ate cat or dogs”, I mean please, you have tourist seeing a small group of say 1000 or so out of a billion Asians who have done that and they think we all do. Your article is so right, in the 70s & 80s people didn’t see the good, just the poor “dirty” side of the population, never seeing the positive/potential side, so I guess they insult based on the “dirty” side they see. Times have changed in the past decades, there is less prejudice, let me emphasize: less. As Asians continue to adapt & expand more into media the future looks brighter..."

The last thing she wrote in that column is "I suspect he rose above it, which is what I hope my son will do, too, should the need arise."  I arose out of it, as well.  For those that can do this and become Jeremy Lin or Barak Obama or even just a role model without such potential gives the next generation a better hope, not just Asians, all races alike.

Yelp!

My friend said "No I don't yelp because it hurts my lung"...

The reason I haven't been posting lately is simply because I have been on www.yelp.com
Feel free to add me at: www.axdrew.yelp.com... if you use it.

No, I'm not abandoning this blog.

Outliers

Think of my writings not as a desultory of subjects but rather random focal points in my life. My pool of knowledge not derived from as if a nomad with a wondering direction but a curious intellect pointing like a magnetic compass toward arbitrary and methodical intellect. -Andrew Szeto


The second book I read completely in the new year, after reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, is Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. I actually heard of and read part of Outliers in 2009 but never completed it, just like his book The Tipping Point, which sits on my bookshelf seventy percent of the way done and partially remembered. Maybe I'll re-read it sometime. Outliers is along the lines of sociology and anthropology, it analyzed culture and how things became the way they are, in this case "The Story of Success" or stories and examples of how individuals became successful. Reading or taking topics from this book won't make you the next Bill Gates, but his example is told within. By the way there are spoilers on topics ahead...


Malcolm Gladwell starts the book by defining the word outlier:
1: something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body
2: a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the other of the sample

"Roseto Valfortore lies one hundred miles southwest of Rome..." and in the late 1800s a large number of the citizens of Roseto eventually migrate and settle to Bangor, Pennsylvania. These Roseto residents in Bangor were noticed by a physician to have better than average cardiovascular health. "In Roseto, virtually no one under fifty-five had died of a heart attack or showed any signs of heart disease. For men over sixty-five, the death rate from heart disease in Roseto was roughly half that of the United States as a whole." The physician, Stewart Wolf, did a study and further examined why this was the case. In his investigation, he fount that this was not the case in surrounding towns very close to the Rosetans of Bangor. It was fount that at the time there were no medication to aide in having good heart health. Residents smoked, were obese and didn't exercise much. The way of life was average, no special diets. Gladwell points out that for this peculiar occurence, Rosetans are an outlier case. In the end it was fount the reason was contributed to that Rosetans had a very strong community bond, having this close family like town contributed to good heart health.


To summarize the book in a simple description, Malcolm Gladwell illustrates that to be successful, it takes the right timing, many hours of practice, unique opportunities, privileges or resources, talent, luck and the culture you are from along with the epoch you're from matters.


Chapter One
The Matthew Effect:

"For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." -Matthew 25:29

The meaning behind this parable is that resources in life are often given to those who already have advantages and those that don't have some form of pre-existing advantages are put onto a group that do not get help and likely even having what they already have taken away. Chapter one points out that a psychologist's wife, while attending a hockey game with husband, notices the birthdays of the players on the roster, in that most, if not all, the hockey players were born in an early month of the year. This is to give young nine or ten years old children an earlier advantage to grow, practice and get better as opposed to a young hockey player being born in October through December having less time to stimulate. The Canadian hockey teams cutoff date to be accepted into a good program is January 1st. Gladwell then gives examples on how this happens for other sports, as well as education. Sporting scouts will then select the bigger and better, the ones usually given an early start because of their month in birth.

Chapter Two
The 10,000-Hour Rule:

"In Hamburg, we had to play for eight hours."

The Beatles were just another high school rock band. It wasn't until they were invited to play constantly for hours on hours in clubs in Hamburg, Germany. "The Beatles ended up traveling to Hamburg five times between 1960 and the end of 1962. On the first trip, they played 106 nights, five or more hours a night." Gladwell then goes on to explain before coming to the U.S., Lennon and McCartney were already playing together seven years. And Mozart, a genius? Well it seems his earlier "works are not outstanding" cited from the book Genius Explained by Michael Howe.

"the earliest that is now regarded as a masterwork (No. 9, K. 271) was not composed until he was twenty-one: by that time Mozart had already been composing concertos for ten years."

In this chapter Gladwell explains how in the late 1960s computer programs were compiled using cardboard punch cards feed into huge mainframes one line of code at a time. These mainframes took up entire huge rooms and were owned only by large companies like IBM. It would take hours or days to have your program completed because the compilation had to be scheduled. The invention of what's called time-sharing allowed multiple access to the same compilation without the appointment which improved speed in getting the program built. In the early 1970s only a few colleges and organizations had time-sharing, guess which? The very same schools like the University of Michigan which Bill Joy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems) had attended. Gladwell goes on to discuss that in Bill Joy's college education, hours upon hours, days and until the late hours of the night, were spent programming. The 10,000-Hour rule is admitted from Bill Joy stating "So, so maybe... ten thousand hours... That's about right."  In my calculating 10,000 hours in the average American work hours at 40 hours a week, times 52 weeks a year, 10,000 hours is about 5 years.  If Bill Joy had an early unique opportunity to a unique programming resource as time-sharing, then Bill Gates is said to have had an even earlier start. Coming from a wealthy background had the privilege to send Bill Gates to a top private school that also had time-sharing in it's computer program. Not many schools had computer classes back then, nor time-sharing access. Along with a little luck, drive, his share talent, the right connections also spent hours upon hours programming. By the time he had started Microsoft, Bill Gates had 7 years and had over ten thousand hours of programming experience.

Gladwell then goes back on the importance of dates, birth dates. This time it's not about months, it's about years, specifically being born in the early or mid 1950s (Bill Joy - 1954, Steve Jobs - 1955, Bill Gates - 1955). One of the first personal computers to hit the mass market sold thousands in the mid 1970s. These PCs needed a programming language to go with them, and who is in line to provide this for the revolution? It would seem from the year 1950, one born at this time, until 1960, it would make them 10 years old, not old enough to do anything, but he or she is a seed. In the next several years one would begin his or her starting point in either math, science or technology. Bill Gates and Bill Joy immersed themselves in the world of computers. By the mid 1970s, when the first PCs were being sold, they were in the perfect age, 20s. They had already had a rare background of over 5 years from the age of 13-15 until they were in their 20s, the perfect age to take part in the PC revolution; the perfect time to fulfill the need for programming those PCs. With pre-existing math talent, access to unique resources, connections, 10,000 hours and the right timing made computing success for these individuals.

Chapter Three and Four
The Trouble with Geniuses Part 1 and Part 2:
"Knowledge of a boy's IQ is of little help if you are faced with a formful of clever boys."

Without reinforcement of resources or without the right formula or connections, having high IQ does not necessarily guarantee success, no matter how smart one is. In addition, once someone reaches a certain number in IQ it doesn't matter how much higher someone else is to be deemed a smarter genius, meaning someone with an IQ of 140 is not necessarily smarter than someone 130. It's like a basketball player 6' 6" tall is not necessarily better than a 6' 2" tall basketball player. Success also depends on a factor other than great talent, height or IQ (having analytical intelligence), it also depends on practical intelligence (the ability to work with people and use logic) or even divergent intelligence (using your brain to come up with different usages for things other than it's practical purpose or imagination to create).

Chapter Five
The Three Lessons of Joe Flom:

"Mary got a quarter"

Lesson Number One: The Importance of Being Jewish

(Joe Flom was the last remaining partner of the prestigious Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom.)

A figurative highlight in the book for me must have been in this chapter where the Harvard Law School classmate of Joe Flom, Alexander Bickel, was turned down for a position in Mudge Rosen (another prestigious law firm). The exact reason was because of Alexander Bickel's "antecedents." Antecedent means of the past. In this case having Jewish ancestors. Bickel had already earned his reputation for being an outstanding lawyer. Gladwell goes on to explain two more lessons on the backgrounds of Flom and Bickel. If you're turned down by one group, you form your own. So Jewish law firms took jobs the big time firms didn't want, like at the time big firms didn't like litigation, civil cases or hostile takeovers (1930s-1960s). By the 1970s all that changed, with all these companies booming: litigation and hostile takeovers became a big thing, and based on the 10,000-Hour rule, the likes of the Jewish lawyers were already experienced in handling what prior to 1970s big time firms didn't handle. The game was now switched.

Lesson Number Two: Demographic Luck

A father is a lawyer and his son is a lawyer. One had the potential to be successful but didn't but his son did. The reason behind it was based on the needs and flourishing opportunities of the times. Times meaning during World War II, The Great Depression or our modern war that caused the recession of Bush-Obama. There's less people or more people in need of any given system (welfare, schooling, food supply), less people means more resources and more people means less resources. Father grew up in the midst of the Great Depression so no success and son after, thus successful.

Lesson Number Three: The Garment Industry and Meaningful Work

If you knew how to sew from the old country, bring your skills to the land of opportunity. Even though the long hours and reward is minuscule, the meaningful part is knowing or at least hoping one day the strive to make a poor living off garments will feed and shelter a child who will be a lawyer, maybe a successful one. Jewish immigrants had to work hard from immigrant status to using what they knew from the old country to put forth for those in the field of law to emerge. In this chapter Gladwell describes the importance of ancestry and changes in the times for success to rise from poor immigrants.

Why did Malcom Gladwell put a description of "Mary got a quarter" in the header under the title of this chapter? Because poor immigrants can't afford tickets to such classy events held at Carnegie Hall. Instead if you knew a ticket taker like Mary, you'd give her a quarter and she'd let "you stand in the second balcony, without a ticket." This was a crafty way a poor immigrant and a successful lawyer could afford a bit of culture.

Chapter Six
Harlan, Kentucky
(Culture of Honor is a piece of southern culture, where insulting one's pride can lead to a feud.)

If your great-great-great granddaddy was a bad-ass, you might also be a bad-ass.

"Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social and demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them.* (Cited, Dov Cohen)

Chapter Seven

The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes
(Korean Air)

I think it was the Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel, I forget which but I saw a documentary on Korean Air flight 007, a plane that accidentally entered Russian air space and was shot down killing all 269 passengers. The black box from the crash held for years by the Russians was examined not to be tampered entailed the conversation and functionality of the aircraft. It turns out it was a wrong setting on the aircraft overlooked by the pilots. Both pilots were also not paying attention to details because they are suppose to go over a checklist before taking off. Or it could have been, the First Officer depended too much on the Captain's authority and experience to not take action on making sure everything was correct himself. Gladwell mentions this incident in one sentence in the book but goes on to explain that Korean Air has had other crashes in the time frame of "1988 to 1998" was "seventeen times higher" than United Airlines. Gladwell goes into detail about Korean Air flight 801 to Guam. It would seem Koreans have a high PDI (Power Distance Index). PDI is a term from a Dutch psychologist, Geert Hofstede. The meaning of PDI is how "much a particular culture values and respects authority", meaning how much an individual or the people of a nation respects the government or it's hierarchy based on the power structure or it can also be illustrated in how much lax or how strict communication is between lower ranking individuals and higher power authorities. The black box that monitored the conversation between the pilot and co-pilot on the crashed flight examines and explains that if the lower ranking pilots and engineers have been more assertive and spoken up, then the errors that caused the crash may have given them a second chance in avoiding fatality. In some nations, like Korea, you respect your elders and show meekness toward authority (high PDI), even when your superiors are wrong or not focused to detail that should be focused on. America has a lower PDI, yes there is authoritative hierarchy in the U.S. but it's not as strong, if my boss did something wrong, I would not go uhm, uh, whuh, I would just tell him straight out. The PDI structure in the cockpit was a problem with Korean and other high PDI nations. I have always known the manner in which you communicate with others is a very important thing in how something plays out. By the way since Korean Air's cultural PDI revamp in 2000, their flying record has been impeccably good.

Chapter Eight
Rice Paddies and Math Test
"No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich."
(...is a chant rice paddy workers would say throughout the day to keep motivation and mind strong in their labor.)

It takes more work, supposedly three thousand hours annually, to field a few small rice paddies than it does larger fields of wheat or corn. The reason is because corn and wheat fields can be done with machinery, more automated than rice. Rice being more of a precise and manual labored crop. Well, let this Chinese person do some math with you again, 40 hours a week times 52 weeks a year is 2,080 work hours a year. With Saturdays and Sundays off, 3,000 hours a year is approximately 11.5 hours a day, that's half your day, I barely want to do my 8 hours a day. Just like a Jewish person willing to work hard from immigrant status so the next generations can become lawyers, so do rice paddy builders. Gladwell then applies that same hard work in building rice paddies to math. In addition to the hard work factor, another reason why Asians are so "prowess" in math is because it's easier to count in Asian systems than in the American system because the American system includes more unfamiliar numbers as it goes up: eleven, twelve, thirteen, twenty, thirty... while Asians system do not. I don't know about that statement because it's not different by that much; the Chinese system doesn't have "eleven or twelve", true, it's said "ten-one or ten-two", does this factor really makes it more faster or easier to count? Gladwell also states in this ease, it makes math more fun, does it? I don't find the ease or fun part true. First: I can count just as fast in the American counting system as I can in the Chinese counting system. Second, I don't find one system more fun to count in than the other. Do you know that in other countries, some math systems are approached differently? I have been multiplying in the American system all my life, by multiplying the furthest multiplier on the right with the multiplicand and putting the product under the line in one row, then as I move left in decimal I would do the same, multiply the multiplier with the multiplicand and put the product below the first product but one space to the left, before adding to get the final answer. Someone showed me another system in doing that, simpler. These reasons could be why Americans and other nations approach math differently. The example he's trying to give with hard work or if you keep on studying then you become good at math is understandable but this theory stating if you are good at building rice paddies is a far comparison and counting system difference has flaws to it. The answer to becoming better at math has nothing to do with how we count or building rice paddies but more practice and the challenge to become better, making it simpler and taking the time to understand or solve, that leads to success in math.

Chapter Nine
Marita's Bargain
"All my friends now are from KIPP."

"In the mid-1990s, an experimental public school called the KIPP Academy opened on the fourth floor of Lou Gehrig Junior High School in New York City.* KIPP stands for "Knowledge Is Power Program." Lou Gehrig is in the seventh school district, otherwise known as the South Bronx, one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City."

I have been to the South Bronx over a dozen times in the past several years, there have been major development and improvement since the decades prior to the 1990s. There are only a handful of reasons to go to the South Bronx: a game at Yankee Stadium, heard about a really good Dominican restaurant, for curiosity reasons you just want to check out the neighborhood, cheap rent/hostel, business or friend in the area. The reason is the area is mainly for cheap housing, lines and lines of apartment buildings, some shabby and some renovated. One might pass by a few vacant lots every once in a while, a school, a park, garages, warehouses, a row of small bodegas or restaurants. Until recently, there were few department stores or large chain markets. Nothing wrong with the neighborhood or it's people, it's just undeveloped and if you weren't from the area, it would be an outlier, in the lower income sense. The undeveloped part also goes for the educational statistics in the area, meaning low scores in schools.

A program like KIPP that takes first come first serve, then a lottery for reserve when the limit of acceptance has been reached is a great opportunity for fifth graders looking to get a head start in life (or to escape the statistics), since it's acceptance is not based on prior history in academics or economic background. Meaning KIPP schools are advanced equal opportunity schools. It is based on a strong mathematics program, lengthy hours (7:30am to 5:00pm), extra school days in the summer (occasional Saturdays), teaching formality in behavior and requiring parent involvement.

The reason Gladwell names this chapter Marita's Bargain is because that's the deal, she gives up a bit of her leisure life in the statistics of having low grades in the South Bronx for a better education and head start in life. The comment Marita makes: "All my friends now are from KIPP." means she followed through, her life is surrounded by the KIPP environment. KIPP has had a reputation for getting it's students into ivy league private universities (some with scholarships). This in sense Gladwell is describing success does not matter of the background, it depends on the resource and dedication to hard work that is needed to get to success. In addition, resources and dedication to hard work at an early age. This is an ideal easier said than done. For one, the hard work and extra hours are the easy part, if you are lucky enough to get in to KIPP. The hard part is to feed the family, parents have to work (when I was growing up I saw my father only once a week). The second part of the hard part is that parents have to understand before their children understand then care enough in their children's future.

Epilogue
A Jamaican Story
"If a progeny of young colored children is brought forth, these are emancipated."

Progeny means background of ethnicity and emancipated means to be freed from a form of restraint. Malcom Gladwell's great-great-great grandfather was from Ireland. In other words, when his grandma's great-grandfather settled on his Jamaican plantation in 1784, from Ireland, he bought a slave woman, descendant of an African tribe, as a concubine. Gladwell states that in Jamaica sexual relations between whites and blacks back then weren't a big a deal as it was in the United States, so it was common or accepted. However, the complexion of dark and light skinned individuals did matter. What's described as "White and light" got better treatment and less so as one's complexion got darker. Besides color discrimination, the Jamaican educational system was poor back then, for further education like college, one must leave to the England or America for higher education. Reform was what helped Gladwell's grandmother to understanding the importance of a good education and it was that which allowed the process for Gladwell's mother to get a higher education. These factors in his family lineage in turn crafted Malcom Gladwell to achieve the height of his journalistic career. The reason Gladwell digs into his ancestry is because like the background of greats like Bill Gates, you have to not look so much at the image of success but how it leads there. Malcom Gladwell considers himself an outlier, understandable because without a lineage of opportunities, direction, resources, family history, help, hard work, change in times, maybe he would be selling coconuts in Jamaica or Bill Gates would have programmed a line of really good games for Nintendo, instead of them being where they are; success is not built on share talent.