The Brotherhood of the Leaf

Posted By The Cigar Soldier on December 30, 2010

In a matter of days we close the cover on the year 2010 and much like anything ever written by Al Gore on Global warming, many hope to never crack the binding on this novel ever again.  It was a year filled with ups and downs as major catastrophes, both natural and man made, saturated the headlines for months at a time while 700 billion plus was dished out to banks standing around banging their tin cups for help so you can still continue getting charged an additional two bucks to get your own money out of an ATM.  Is it just me or did this year seem to blow by faster than Courtney Love through a bottle of percocet and vat of Jim Beam?  I swear it felt like only 12 months ago we were ringing in another new year with bright hopes of economic prosperity and a renewed sense of pride in the greatest country on earth ready to face the worst meltdown since Mel Gibson’s arrest and less than flattering description of his Jewish friends.

I’ll let you guys decide for yourselves what stories from this past year make your list of the best headlines because to some of you it may be a toss up between the BP oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico, the devastating earthquake in Haiti or the health care overhaul.  Yet to others it may have been the loss of Gary Coleman.  We all have a level of what we inwardly feel is important or relevant when it comes to the news that affects us, for many that meant excessive over legislation by an exceedingly intrusive government and for others it meant that NASCAR was going to allow bump-drafting at Daytona and Talladega.  A few of you guys probably already knew that but I had to look up that kind of obscure shit. 

The constant stream of negative stories that choked the headlines this past year were enough to make any man want to load up his booze and cigar collection into the family truckster only to go hide out off the grid in a remote cabin living off the land with no more than the basic necessities of life and maybe a few Dean Martin CD’s for the long winter nights.  Chaos and destruction are what attract viewers and we don’t care if that means to the planet or if it’s that train wreck of a former child star Lindsay Lohan roughing up the staff at the Betty Ford Clinic.  As a collective mindless group of simpletons, we as society seem to feed off the misfortune of others and that is why the top stories of the year all need to be so depressing.  Once you’ve spent an entire Saturday in your stained sweat pants jamming fistfuls of cheese-balls into your pie hole watching a Celebrity Rehab marathon you can at least kick back knowing that as screwed up as your life is it could be worse, you could be a excessively rich Hollywood star with a drinking problem or a Chilean miner trapped in a rabbit hole for two months.  I’m just saying.

I hope that for most of you 2010 was a year that had more bright spots than hardships when you finally get a peaceful moment to sit back with your favorite cigar and reflect on it.  I had my share of misfortune but it was no more than thousands of others have gone through or will experience at sometime in the foreseeable future so I take comfort in the fact that there are many other people who are just as miserable as me at any given moment.  All in all just making it through another 365 days without going completely bonkers and running that asshole on the highway into a ditch or bitch smacking the wrinkled up leather face ancient Eco zealot in a teal warm up suit for her dirty looks when you light up your cigar in a park miles away from any other human being is enough reason to celebrate surviving this past year and look forward to 2011.  Hey, it’s gotta get better at some point right?  If not at least we’ll still have Cigar Nights.

I’ve got some quick reminders before you saturate your cortex in Champagne this weekend and forget what is planned next month.  First on your can’t miss list will be Cigar Night on January 4th at TitletownTobacco.  I can’t think of a better way to start off the new year than an evening with The Brotherhood in the comfy confines of The Lounge at Titletown Tobacco.  Bring a guest because I’ve been gracious enough to extend my offer of free cigars to anyone that brings in a new member.  Damn, I’m the nicest guy that I know.  The next big event will be on January 13th and is the Second Annual Chili Cook Off at Titletown Tobacco.  Bring in your best chili recipe for the gang to try out and possibly win yourself some great prizes.  There will also be in store specials that evening so run down for some primo cigars and have dinner at the same time.

Thanks again to each and everyone of you for making it another wonderful year for The Brotherhood of the Leaf and for allowing me the chance to flood your inbox with my rants and club news.  I hope we can keep up the momentum and add more members so I challenge you to make it your New Year’s resolution to bring in at least one new guest per month.  You should easily be able to do that and I’ll even reward your efforts with some good prizes.  Yep, I’m still the nicest guy that I know.  It’s going to be a long weekend with New Year’s parties, the Badgers playing in the Rose Bowl and of course my Green and Gold battling it out with the Bears at Lambeau for a playoff spot so I’m wishing you the best for a safe and Happy New Year’s before I’m too drunk to remember to do so.

See you fellas next year.

The Cigar Soldier

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