Eric the Elder and Bruce didn’t get an invite to last week’s night with our guests. We legitimately thought they were both busy. They weren’t, and they spent the week finding out about it from everyone’s posts. The joke followed us into episode 70 and never really left.
Episode 70 was recorded on an early October Tuesday in my garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, with a full house and the HDA Sentinel cigar as the cigar of the night. Smoke and Steel is a group of friends smoking cigars and telling stories, and the cigars are mostly the excuse. This episode has a soccer sideline blowup, a “stroke” that wasn’t, a pile of cigar news, and two new additions to our Top list.
Table of Contents
Why We Now Have Ten Mics
You’ll notice the audio sounds different this time, and last week is the reason. Both of our guests had mics, but the audio issues were bad enough that I had to toss that stream and pull the sound straight from the camera. It was far from ideal, but I did the best I could with it.
The problem was the old mixer, the one we started the podcast with and outgrew almost immediately. It wasn’t set up for that night, so I used a different backup recorder, and it didn’t work out. The backup runs at a slightly different speed, so the two recordings drift apart and echo, and you end up chopping and nudging audio every couple of minutes.
Now we’re set up for ten people, and the crew immediately started pitching bleachers, theater seating and VIP spots on the motorcycles. We also picked up wireless mics we can take on the road.
Grievance Corner: A U10 Soccer Sideline
The grievance that mattered came from my own family. My youngest daughter started intramural soccer on a U10 team in Boyertown, where roughly a thousand kids play and the league warns parents it will turn kids away if it can’t fill the coaching spots. So parents volunteer, and her coach was a volunteer in her first season, doing something nice for a group of 8 and 9 year olds.
At Saturday’s game, one parent’s boyfriend started out cheering, moved on to coaching from the sideline, and ended up criticizing the coach for what the kids didn’t know. I couldn’t make the Sunday make-up game, so my wife told me the rest. He was back, it was worse, and he was ejected for flipping off the coach of an 8-year-old girls’ team. The ref was a high school kid who now had to throw out a belligerent adult. Someone had asked him earlier why he didn’t coach himself, and he said he’d never pass the background check.
The garage had plenty to add. Jim quit coaching after 14 years, and it was never the kids. It was the parents. Eric is in his fourth year coaching t-ball and has been lucky with his parents. We all agreed on the moral: don’t be a dick, and save the screaming for the Eagles.
Nate and the Retainers
Another story had us laughing. One Friday at the lounge, our buddy Nate, a fit guy and the life of the party, started doing odd things with his mouth and slurring his words. It got worse until we were all quietly processing the same thought. Then he went to the humidor, and Bruce said somebody had to talk to him. When someone finally asked if he was all right, Nate said he’d just gotten new retainers.
We thought he was dying. He was just a nerd, and a good sport about it. If you’re watching, Nate, we love you. The story starts around the 33 minute mark.
The Tatuaje Halloween Release and the Rest of the News
We spent the news segment on the Tatuaje Halloween monster. We weren’t fans of the previous three, so we went in without high hopes. This year’s Jason blew Eric away and Bruce liked the punch it had.
The rest of the news:
- Tradecraft announced the Shinobi, rolled at the Hostos factory. It’s Rob Blumenthal’s new stick.
- EP Carrillo announced a limited Pledge of Allegiance for the 250th anniversary. Sgt Major Mike was smoking the Pledge at the table.
- Alec Bradley’s new Chunk comes in squat sizes, including a 4 by 80. The jokes wrote themselves.
- LFD is releasing an Andalusian Bull Maduro for the 10th anniversary. For years it was supposedly something only VIPs could get. We also noticed a trend: a popular Connecticut gets a Maduro, and the reason we liked the cigar in the first place was that it was a Connecticut.
- Marshawn Lynch has a King Makers cigar called Beast Mode on the way. Nobody was excited. If a free one shows up, we’ll smoke it.
Listener Questions: Tunnels, Snobs and Buying Blind
Our Discord supplied the listener questions, and for once we barely disagreed. Given a month of either tunneling cigars or tight draws, every one of us picked the tunnel. Asked what cigar people complain about that doesn’t matter, the answers were smoking off the truck, aging cigars for twenty years, chasing exact humidity, and Cuban snobbery. Most of us don’t bother with hygrometers anymore, since Boveda packs do the job. As cigar Jesus for a day, the edict was don’t gatekeep. Eric said he’d keep every lounge open 24/7 with no memberships.
For a special occasion, the room picked a proven staple over an untested limited edition. Nobody wants to find out a $60 cigar is a dud at their daughter’s wedding. On 10-count boxes, we like the idea, but a box that small isn’t good for much, so we’d take a bundle. Because we try to smoke as much variety as we can for the show, smaller buys suit us.
The best answer came on buying a whole box of a cigar you’ve never tried. It was a firm no from everyone. Buy a single or a five-pack, because a great factory can still make a cigar that isn’t for you. If you smoke two or three and love them, then buy 20. The question section starts around 43 minutes if you want to follow along.
The Sentinel Makes the Top List
Eric was smoking the HDA Sentinel, and he’s now had three. We’ve all been enjoying them, and it earned four swords, “encroaching on five.” That put it on the Top list at about number 11, just above the My Father Blue.
Then someone pointed out that we’d never put a candela on the list. The RoMa Craft Fomorian went in just above the Padre Eligito, which brings us to 22. That’s two additions for Brad Wiggley, who told us the Top list is one of his favorite parts of the show. We don’t feel obligated to hit 25. The list closes when the last episode of the year publishes, and then we start over on 2027.
Best Cigar, Worst Cigar, and Why We Can’t Remember Either
Mike asked for our best and worst cigar experiences. One of us named the Adabay Black Ritos as his cigar of the year. Another picked the Platino A, which he refused to put down, even at that size. The worst was a $42 Vincente that blew up on Mark.
Partway through, we realized that none of us really remember the cigars. We remember who was in the garage and what happened that night, which is probably why the cigars we love most are tied to a good evening. That’s about all the wisdom this crew has to offer.
Stay in the Conversation
We hit 100 members on the Discord and we’re running a giveaway to celebrate. A listener donated a five-pack and we’re adding a pile of swag. Come hang out with us, and tell Eric the Elder and Bruce we said they’re invited next time.
