CaptainQuintero

I'm seeing the Siglo 2 as Pierce Brosnan's character in Mrs Doubtfire: no one doubts it's pedigree but a bit of a dick. He'll be the one carrying the flag for Cuba in the opening ceremony, will probably suffer a tragic wardrobe malfunction in the final and get pipped to the post by the RyJ Mille Fleur

PLPC not even bothering to warm up, just stood touching up it's baby oil application and gratuitously filling out those speedos.

So I'm working my way through a bunch of NC I've had sealed up for years and really enjoying the change, the biggest issue (if you can call it that) is how they scream out for a tighter Cuban roll to concentrate those flavours and slow down the burn. @El Presidente I'm guessing from the video that was a major point with making the nudies? Did you have any chance to see how the blends changed if you had them rolled in the more traditional NC way? I wonder how much NC cigars would benefit or at least change with a Cuban style rolling technique.

I'd imagine there's some pretty hefty get-out clauses for insurance companies if the questions about poor quality fuel or maintenance are true.

I have had one plant based burger a few years ago that was genuinely delicious, tasted no different to a real one, in fact I would have said it was a brilliant meat one if no one had said. Thick and juicy, tasted like rump mince, it even had some kind of beetroot juice in so it looked pink inside, certainly better than a budget meat burger. No idea what was inside it beyond the beetroot juice, I'm guessing a pretty hefty concoction of various things. Probably would rather that than a lab grown meat tbh.

I think you can see in one of the videos big plumes of black smoke from the smoke stacks as they try and start/restart the engines.

Nothing is stopping a horizontal skyscraper (Apparently nearly as big as the Chrysler Building) drifting towards it, 150,000+ tons with no breaks

I've no experience but my friend was gifted one and he said it blew his head off and he spent that evening worshipping the porcelain throne.

Someone said that in any country you never have to worry about anything until the army isn't being paid, I'd suggest this is one of the reasons why the regime there has managed to hang on for so long. I haven't seen much about the Cuban military grumbling, it seems too well entrenched in the system?

I'm invested now, can't wait for episode 2

Very underrated Bond that chap, some might even say the thinkers choice. Easily in the top 10 Bond actors. It's been a while! But one of my core personality traits is apparently being difficult to remove, like the subtle yet insidious taint of a curry stain on a favourite shirt, I've wafted back in.

It's strange following this from afar and almost waiting for it to fizzle out again. Have you any talk about how it is on the ground at all?

There's zero downside to freezing, only potential positives.

Police station stormed by protestors, is this real momentum building?

It's always interesting that each Bond has their own take on the role. I'd like to see this one go much much darker and close to the original Bond, based on Johnson in Nowhere Boy I think he has that range. Although I'm not sure studios have the desire to risk the wrath of certain extremely vocal sections of society in going down that route. There's always the risk that it could be another Dalton style Bond..

All those years of @Ken Gargett doggedly narrowing down the options, and I don't think any of us ever guessed right https://news.sky.com/story/aaron-taylor-johnson-chosen-as-next-james-bond-reports-say-13097868 I think I'm pleasantly surprised, at the very least I'm very interested to see how he makes it his own. I first saw him in Nowhere Boy playing John Lennon, he was incredible in that so I think it bodes well.

Not sure on the authenticity but

I've become a bourbon hound the last couple of years! I think pairing is as individual as cigar preference; I don't think you ways need big bold flavours to stand up to a cigar, subtle stuff can work great too. It's more a case of just trying things until you find a combo you personally like Woodford Double Oaked and Michters American have been pretty consistently great for any cigar to my taste buds

Targeting the wrong people, the same as the sitting in roads or blocking rush hour traffic etc. you're trying to bully the people who you want on your side, we've spent 30 years telling people not to let bullies win! If all the traffic blockers etc glued themselves to the seats of power, eg Houses of Parliament and stopped MPs getting to work you'd have 90% of the public on side.

Is it for smell or health reasons? Or both I guess.

They're such a great change of pace cigar, I imagined that they would literally taste like smoke/burnt but if anything it's just the richness dialed up to 10.

The RyJ spectrum (to me) seems to have a scale with vegative/herbal on one side and that jammy/cherry/Turkish delight on the other. I've never gotten both extremes in a single cigar, I think they blend for one or the other, premium/MM doesn't seem to indicate which either from my experience. The most cherry/sweet dark berry RyJ I've ever had was a 60's RyJ Romeo, but I've had similar with the Tres Petit Corona and Ex4 (I think I've reviews of them floating around here somewhere). The Belicosos used to be pretty vegative and herbal to me but the blend/quality change shoved it more towards the Short Churchill/Ex 4 blend. In fact I can't think of too many examples that have that profile now, maybe some of the cheapie Cedros?

I've never had one of these but I've had (and love) Toscano cigars. If anyone hasn't had one before they're Italian cigars and fire-cured as well. But they are very sweet and rich, almost date-like with a dark roast coffee core. I would have thought fire curing would make any fire-cured cigar taste the same, regardless of blend or tobacco used (I think Toscano use Virginia) but I'm surprised it doesn't seem the case based on this. A side by side would be interesting to see if blending is a really important, even with something as powerful a process as fire-curing

Great stuff! Maybe blueberry is that flavour you were getting? I occasionally get hints of it with these older Quintero

It's a sad and strange time for the people of the UK. Regardless of personal belief in the monarchy The Queen was a living thread that tied together a large chunk of our history, society and culture. She embodied what a lot of people feel is the spirit of the Island. A ceremonial figurehead with no actual power, she was placed in a position of trust that was always above the petty bickering of politics. She didn't betray that trust for over seven decades. In the age of the ignorant self obsessed, she stood in a stark juxtaposition of quiet respect, duty and service to something greater than oneself. Something that is painfully obvious to be a dying character trait in these times... There is a passing of something that isn't tangible in the UK and it's more than just the passing of a single person, I fear the vacuum will be immense and the country will be poorer and lost because of it. If you see someone from the UK being strangely subdued in the coming days, it might be because something fundamental beyond the ending of a life of a single person has occurred here. The ship is quietly drifting.