Happy Holidays and a festive New Year to all cigar lovers everywhere! This week, we bid a sad farewell to one of the most loved cigar smokers in television history, meet a Hawaiian tobacco grower and get the lowdown on a cigar bar owner who’s being bugged by the law.

R.I.P. Oscar Madison


Jack Klugman, the craggy actor who played the cantankerous cigar smoking Oscar Madison on the hit TV show “The Odd Couple” has died. The actor was 90 when he passed on Monday, December 24, in his Northridge, CA, home.




Klugman first caught the attention of the public in the 1957 courtroom drama “12 Angry Men,” but the part that brought him major fame was his role as the lovable slob Oscar Madison, who shared a small New York apartment with neat freak Felix Unger (Tony Randall) in the series “The Odd Couple.”


The show, which was adapted from the Broadway play by Neil Simon, ran from 1970-1975, and his portrayal of slovenly sportswriter Madison earned Klugman two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. Klugman went on to several more years on TV as the star of “Quincy M.E.,” in which he played a gruff medical examiner with a keen eye for solving murders.


The New York Times described Madison as “an outgoing slob with a fondness for poker, cigars and sexy women,” and that’s how most viewers will remember the character with fondness.


Madison would probably be too politically incorrect for today’s sanitized network TV, but his fondness for cigars was one of the things we loved most about him—and the way Klugman played him.



Fargo Cigar Lounge Facing Legal Action


The owner of the JT Cigarro cigar lounge in Fargo, ND has been allowing smokers to light up in a “members only” private room despite a statewide smoking ban. Now he’s been threatened with some major fines by legal authorities.




Since the ban went into effect on December 6, Dana Coulter has been allowing customers of his cigar bar to smoke in a private room inside the bar, citing an exemption to the ban that permits smoking in areas “not commonly accessible to the public and which is part of an owner operated business having no employee other than the owner operator.” Only customers who have paid a fee to join the private club and have been issued an electronic key are admitted to the inner sanctum.


This does not satisfy Ruth Bachmeier, the director of Fargo Cass Public Health, who has stated that she intends to file a complaint with Cass County prosecutors against Coulter. She claims that attempts to contact the owner of JT Cigarro have been rebuffed, leaving her no choice.


Bachmeier told a reporter, “I don’t anticipate that by our education we’re going to change the mindset. He believes that he’s found a loophole, and no amount of education is going to change how he is interpreting the law.”


Assistant City Attorney Jason Loos gave this opinion on the matter: “In this case, it’s an interpretation of the law. Dana’s not denying what he’s doing. It’s not like anyone needs to catch him at it. It’s just a matter of determining what the judge thinks.”
Loos added, “Granted, the steps he’s made give him a better argument, I don’t think it gives him necessarily all that good of an argument.”


There’s a lot at stake in Coulter’s defiance of the ban, since a first offense carries a fine of $100, the second $200 and each offense thereafter, $500.


In the meantime, the owner seems to be taking the controversy in stride, saying “I’ve had no complaints. In fact, to me, it’s just business as usual.”