Art Deco Sterling Silver Cigarette Cases

These days in most places you're treated like an escapee from a leper colony if you admit that you smoke. If you pull a pouch of Bugler out of your pocket and start rolling a cigarette people range from rapt fascination to wondering when you fell off the turnip truck. Light up an Indian bidi and you'll engender some mystery and intrigue into your nicotine habit. Casually slide a sterling silver cigarette case out of your pocket and suddenly you become a dashingly handsome character out of a 1930's movie in some exotic locale. The ladies don't chastize you for smoking. They want to hold it, to feel it, and they'll often say something along the lines of "Ooh, I haven't smoked in years, but may I please try one?" followed by "Where did you ever find it? It's just so beautiful!"

My good friend, the late Mary Poh, had an antique shop for years right across from city hall on 125th St. and often I'd drop by just to say hello and see what interesting new things she had in the shop. The one with the gold bands and fancy engraving has no makers mark. The engraved initials are actually an AH but it looks close enough to an AK to pass. The other one is marked Sterling and it's also marked Tiffany. A jeweler friend put the little plate with my initials over the place where sombody else's initials were once engraved. Smoking is respectable again. Sort of...

You Have To Go To Germany To Smoke Miami Style?

I've never been able to find Miami Style cigarette tobacco in Miami but for several years you could buy it in Germany and probably elsewhere in Europe. I've been rolling my own for decades now, going back to when fifteen cents would buy a pouch of Bugler.

Claudia and I have been divorced now for more years than we were married but when she goes back to Germany to visit her folks her dad always gives her a few pouches of tobacco for me, and there are always a few tucked in the box she gets for Christmas. Fritz, her dad, is the one who first discovered Miami Style and he started smoking it and thought that I might enjoy it also. A year or three ago Claudia couldn't find any when she went to visit her parents and the Christmas boxes started to contain a couple of pouches of other brands of tobacco. Fritz quit smoking and I'm back to Bugler, but thanks to Mukul Dube, a photographer in India, I've also discovered bidis. Maybe I should send some to Fritz.

The Bidis Arrived

First off I'm pleased to note that this blog has 7 regular followers who took the trouble to register. Thanks, folks.

This morning I got my parcel from Dehli, India. 500 bidis, those strange not-quite-cigarettes, not-quite-tiny cigars that are hand rolled in India. If you buy them in the U.S. they're a bit cheaper than cigarettes and come in boxes of 20. In India they're just bundled and wrapped in these pretty paper wrappers, no boxes, and extremely inexpensive. If you don't keep puffing they go out and you have to re-light them. Not only are they dirt cheap but I smoke half as many! Thanks Mukul. The photo shows the wrapper which is a bit torn because they seem to glue them together around the bunches of bidis.

Film For Bidis? ~ International Trade And Free Dress Shirts

Bidis End On

BIDIS ~ India's Answer To The High Cost Of Lung Cancer

My photographer friend in Dehli, India, Mukul Dube, is the one who turned me on to bidis. I'd mentioned the soaring cost of cigarettes in the U.S. as both the states and the feds are trying to balance their budgets on the backs of good law abiding patriotic smokers. Mukul told me about these low cost cigarettes in India, so low in cost that it's just the low class poor that smoke the things at penneys a pack. I decided to look about and see if our local Indian population was being properly seviced by our local convenience marts.

The first two that I checked out said "no". I had high hopes for the third one though. It's located directly across the street from what had been an Indian restaurant until it was done in by the current economic situation. A good sign was that the guy at the counter looked Indian and had the proper accent but he seemed taken aback when I asked if he had any bidis. "You know, Indian cigarettes with the leaf wrapper and the silk thread" I added. He reached under the counter and handed me a pack of Sutra Full Flavor Bidis. I asked price and was told $3.00. I put $3.21 on the counter. He took the bills, pushing the change back to me while saying "no tax".

They have a sightly sweet taste and they did a good job of keeping my nicotine addiction in check. They go out almost before you finish taking a toke so they last a long time. I just counted what I have left. I still have ten of them! Not bad at all compared to American smokes. A day's smokes for a buck and a half! I smoke about thirty cigarettes on an average day, and at much higher prices. Thank you, Mukul. Pretty soon I can buy myself a new SUV with the savings!