Moon shot

Hubby and I spent a fair while this evening on the back patio enjoying fine tobacco, crisp ale, luscious Jamaican rum, and a rare treat in the skies.

Got some photos of the big event. Not bad for an amateur astrophotographer! (Click directly on the photo below to open the full-size version.)

By the way, the "star" to the lower left is Saturn; the one directly above is Regulus.

Smoking to the glory of God

That last post got me cranky. Then I found this from The Sacred Sandwich.

I checked. It's true. The great Calvinist C. H. Spurgeon was a cigar aficionado. Here's what he said in 1874:

"Well, dear friends, you know that some men can do to the glory of God what to other men would be sin. And notwithstanding what brother Pentecost has said, I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed to-night.

"If anybody can show me in the Bible the command, 'Thou shalt not smoke,' I am ready to keep it; but I haven't found it yet. I find ten commandments, and it's as much as I can do to keep them; and I've no desire to make them into eleven or twelve.

And yes, people still wig over this. And over the fact that Martin Luther drank beer.

God bless 'em, and thank God for the Reformation.

Read today's devotional from Spurgeon's classic work Morning and Evening here.

ADDENDUM: As dear hubby pointed out, it's not like Christendom had a problem with beer and cigars before the Reformation. Still, Spurgeon was a Baptist, and that just is too much for some people to bear.

Annoyance

Hi, bunkies! The GGB is tucked away in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, with her sweetie. Hubby and I have had a marvelous time, and a full report is forthcoming later this week.

Rich and I sampled some fine cigars this weekend, and I've been 'Net-searching tonight for recommended cigar-friendly hangouts. Let me just say, I am getting so tired of non-Alabamian reviewers being so friggin' surprised that anything quality exists in Birmingham, like this brilliant beginning of a review of the Blue Monkey Lounge from WineSpectator.com by one Jason Sheftell:

There's an old joke that goes something like, "What's the best thing coming out of Alabama?" The punchline, "Highway 20/59."

While Alabamians enjoy a good laugh, they know their state has heaps more to offer than rednecks and ugly documentary footage. The GulfCoast [sic], the Robert T. Jones Golf Trail, the Alabama-Auburn rivalry, barbecue and Southern hospitality are the least of it--especially for the hedonistic cigar aficionado.

Yeah ... we all think that joke is just HI-larious. By the way, nice of you to admit we aren't ALL mouth-breathers.

If remnants of segregation still linger in certain parts of the South, the Blue Monkey isn't one of them. A diverse crowd lounged around as if they had nowhere to go and nothing to do but sit and be lively, sip their drinks, relax, and revel in a nice smoke and cordial conversation with a passerby or an old friend.

I just love it. He might as well say: "Even though some Southerners still think George Wallace was just a super cool dude, the Blue Monkey is decidedly not one of those places where you'll accidentally walk in on a Klan meeting."

I am so relieved that Wine Spectator has declared one of the 'Ham's most popular bars a Bubba-free Zone (TM), aren't you?

Can't help wondering if this is by the same Jason Sheftell. If so, he seems to have a preoccupation with ethnic stereotypes:

Orthodox Jews race around in black hats carrying heavy books and bags of bialys. Chinese people worship in Buddhist temples next to electronics shops and restaurant supply stores.