The Stogie Guys

Fall means one thing to us: football. And since football goes so well with cigars, we thought we’d have a little fun by combining the two…and giving away a ton of cigars in the process.

That’s why we’re pleased to announce the Stogie Guys NFL Pick’Em Challenge. Each week you can try to pick the winner of each game, and we’ll be rewarding the best contestants with cigars.

To join, click here. Enter group number 24973 and the top secret password: “stogie.” At the end of each week during the regular season, the contestant with the most correct picks will receive a six-pack of cigars. And we’ll be lining up an even bigger prize for the grand champion at the end of the season.

We’re limited to 100 entries, so please only register once until we’re at capacity. Anyone who submits multiple entries will be kicked out to make room for others. Ties will be broken by using the Yahoo tiebreaker system and, as an added challenge, all picks are against the spread. (Fine print here.)

Good luck!

-The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Stogie Guys

We’re pleased to announce a new contributor to StogieGuys.com: Mark Carlos McGinty, author of the award-winning novel The Cigar Maker. “Mark M” adds unique expertise to our site, focusing on the rich history of the cigar industry and examining the intricacies of the cigar industry today.

Regular readers will recall that Mark has contributed to the site a few times already. In May, he wrote an article on the complex legal issues that will arise when the Cuban embargo finally ends. More recently, he wrote about the history of the Cuesta-Rey brand and the two revolutionaries who started it in the 1890s. (Both articles are well worth reading, if you haven’t already seen them.) As Mark’s bio notes, cigars and Cuban culture run in his family:

Mark Carlos McGinty is a descendant of Cuban cigar makers and the award-winning author of The Cigar Maker. You can read an excerpt of his book here. His work has appeared in Maybourne Magazine, Cigar City Magazine, Yahoo! Entertainment, and La Gaceta. Mark grew up in Minnesota but spent a good part of his childhood with his Cuban relatives in West Tampa eating ropa vieja and Cuban sandwiches, drinking café con leche and fresh-squeezed orange juice from his grandfather’s tree. His great-aunt rolled cigars for Arturo Fuente so, of course, his favorite cigar is the Arturo Fuente Flor Fina 8-5-8.

Mark spent seven years writing The Cigar Maker, a time when he ate a lot of Cuban food and smoked way too many cigars. Most of those seven years were spent researching the history of Cuba, Tampa, and the cigar industry during the period of 1850–1910. A labor of love with dozens of family anecdotes woven into the story, The Cigar Maker was a finalist at the Indie Excellence Book Awards in 2011, won the Bronze Medal at the Independent Publisher Awards, and was a finalist for ForeWord Magazine’s 2010 Book of the Year. Visit the book’s official website to learn more: www.TheCigarMaker.net.

Mark’s first novel, Elvis and the Blue Moon Conspiracy (Beaver’s Pond Press, 2003), won an Eric Hoffer Book Award Honorable Mention for General Fiction. He graduated from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and obtained his master’s degree from Xavier University in Cincinnati. Mark lives in Minneapolis with his wife and daughter and pays close attention to the Minnesota Twins, a subject that could one day warrant its own book.

Please welcome Mark to the site in the comments below. And as a bonus, we’ll select one commenter to win a signed copy of The Cigar Maker.

-The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Stogie Guys

All of us at StogieGuys.com would like to wish you a very happy Fourth of July. America’s 235th birthday is a wonderful occasion to spend time with friends and family. So we’ve decided to take our own advice and barbecue, see some fireworks, and smoke more than our share of celebratory cigars. We’ll return to our coverage of the world of cigars tomorrow. Until then, have a safe, relaxing holiday.

-The Stogie Guys

All of us at StogieGuys.com would like to wish you a very happy Memorial Day. Aside from remembering the brave men and women who have fought and died for our country, we’re taking the day off to barbeque, relax, and smoke a few cigars. We suggest you do the same.

-The Stogie Guys

After five years of publishing daily, my colleagues and I would like to welcome loyal readers and first-time visitors alike to the new and improved Stogie Guys. We hope you like what you see.

This cleaner look and improved functionality is the result of months of research, soliciting feedback, and trial and error. Many thanks to those of you who took the time to provide us with comments and constructive criticism along the way.

Let me first say that, as far as content and format are concerned, not a lot has changed. It was never our intention to completely deviate from the format that has worked well since May 2006.

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As we approach our fifth anniversary and celebrate a half decade of publishing daily, the StogieGuys.com team is preparing for change.

For the past several months, we’ve been quietly laying the foundation for a complete website overhaul and redesign. Our preparation has included analyzing what we do well, understanding what we do poorly, and assessing where and how to implement improvements. Virtually every aspect of our operation is being critiqued—as it well should be to ensure our ability to offer high-quality coverage of the world of cigars for many years to come.

Some things, however, we don’t plan to change. For example, we will continue to publish daily, offering such regularly occurring features as full reviews, tips, Quick Smokes, commentaries, interviews, and Friday Samplers. And we aim to keep our readers well-informed about the most pressing threats to cigar rights, be they tobacco taxes, smoking bans, or onerous regulations.

Beyond that, pretty much everything else is subject to change. This includes, but is not limited to, the overall look of the website, our branding, the way comments are managed, social networking integration, our usage of video, and site navigation. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

While some changes will take longer than others, we’re currently planning to roll out the new StogieGuys.com before the summer. But we need your help.

Our greatest asset has always been our loyal readers, and now I’d like to solicit your guidance in shaping the future of our website. So please take a few moments today to leave a comment listing (1) what you like about StogieGuys.com, (2) what you dislike, and/or (3) any suggestions for improvement.

Your constructive comments and criticisms will be used as we make redesign decisions. My colleagues and I thank you in advance for your feedback at this critical juncture in our website’s history.

-Patrick A

For a website with not one, not two, but three Patricks, we just couldn’t let St. Patrick’s Day go unrecognized. It wouldn’t be right.

Today’s the day that everyone can be a Patrick (even George E), have a green beverage or three, and enjoy a fine cigar (maybe even a candela, like the one pictured). It also happens to be the first day of one of our favorite sporting events: the NCAA March Madness tournament.

We’ll be back with our regularly scheduled Friday Sampler tomorrow. In the meantime, let us know in the comments how you plan to celebrate this most Patrick of holidays and, if its not too early to divulge your bracket winner,  which team you think will be crowned the 2011 March Madness champion.

-The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Stogie Guys