Having discriminating tastes and being a snob are, in my estimation, two different things and sometimes confused...like strength and harshness in a cigar——mutually exclusive ideas. One is not a snob about something just because he is a connoisseur, nor is one a connoisseur of something just because he is a snob. I do not allow anyone to make me feel as though I am snobbish just because I have discriminating taste in cigars. I maintain that all prducts MUST have a discriminating demographic, otherwise, standards lower across the entire board, from cigars to cars to electronics to cheese.
interesting question, my son and I were having dinner last night, and he asked me why I smoked cigars ( I don't smoke anything else) I returned the question and asked him what he thought. He said I did it as a sign of success, and affluence ( I guess from a starving college student's perspective I am doing ok). So the perception is out there.
I answered that I like having a cigar because it forces me to "do nothing". I am hyper by nature, I never "do nothing" and sometimes you need to "do nothing". TIme is precious to me, but occupying it with a fine stick is ample justification.
Cigar's have helped teach me to relax.
and on the flip side, lighting up a fat stoggie irritates a certain breed of snobs, and to quote Doc, "....I like it"
This message has been edited. Last edited by: hsmunoz,
Being in school means that I certainly don't have a lot of money (hopefully this will change one day), and spend very little of it on myself (none of this should come off as patting myself on the back or anything... really not trying to do that). I'd rather spend money when I get it on people that I care about. The weird thing is, I have a friend who started trying to make fun of me a few days ago. He was implying that my hobbies are things that people who are born with a silver spoon in their mouths are into: yachting, stock trading, etc. I was thinking neither of my parents finished college, and I'm currently making little money from grad school.
I will say this: I enjoy cigars for many reasons. If I were honest, though, part of it is the exclusivity of it.
This is one of the things that bothers me most when I am smoking a cigar outdoors. I don't like people looking at me and thinking I am a rich snob, or even worse, I hate if people look at me and say "oh, he's just a kid showing off". This is why I almost always smoke in places where I can pass unnoticed. I can't stand anyone thinking I am showing off, or being a snob.
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Posts: 1179 | Location: Egypt | Registered: June 14, 2007
To me, being a snob is having lots (way more than avg) of passion and knowledge for some thing, to the extent that other peoples' ignorance about that thing annoys you.
I am a music snob.
I don't think smoking a cigar makes people (in general) perceive you as a snob. Combined with some other things (appearance, ride, demeanor) it can add to the perception I guess.
I don't drink much or smoke much, so when I do, I drink and smoke the best that I can (not necessarily the most expensive, but the best smoke and the best drink for the moment at-hand).
I take the time to learn about my passions (and be passionate about my learning). And I have a decent income - enough to indulge myself in at least some of my passions.
But am I a snob?
Nope. I just like good stuff.
So many cigars, so little time...
Posts: 1594 | Location: South of the Mason/Dixon Line | Registered: September 24, 2007
Originally posted by Gregory Mottola: Having discriminating tastes and being a snob are, in my estimation, two different things and sometimes confused...like strength and harshness in a cigar——mutually exclusive ideas. One is not a snob about something just because he is a connoisseur, nor is one a connoisseur of something just because he is a snob. I do not allow anyone to make me feel as though I am snobbish just because I have discriminating taste in cigars. I maintain that all prducts MUST have a discriminating demographic, otherwise, standards lower across the entire board, from cigars to cars to electronics to cheese.
Good points. But discriminating means creating a hierarchy, and once you have done that you have discounted or dismissed the tastes of others. In essence, you think you know better than someone else. But then again, it all has to do with how you present yourself, no?
I also wonder how much "discrimination" is really just the result of people buying the most expensive thing available. For example, Cohibas are not the best Cuban cigars out there. They are the most expensive, but there are a number of Montecristos and Ramon Allones I would prefer to smoke before a Cohiba. But how many times have we all seen the "Cohiba guy" flaunting his gold band for all the world to see? And no doubt some people in the room think, "he only smokes the best."
I read an article a while back in Fortune or Forbes (can't remember) about a guy who is hired by wanna-be intellectuals to build library collections for them. They pay him, and he goes out and buys books that make the buyer look smart. Are these wealthy buyers "discriminating" in their tastes? No! It seems to me that a lot of people out there think they can discriminate the "finer things," but really they just have deep pockets.
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Good points. But discriminating means creating a hierarchy, and once you have done that you have discounted or dismissed the tastes of others. In essence, you think you know better than someone else.
Well, it's okay to create a hierarchy of things that have great value to you when compared to those things that offer you less. It doesn't necessarily mean you discount those different things in which others might find value -- not sharing another person's taste in something isn't tantamount to discounting it, just that you don't derive the same pleasure from it. In essence, you think you know yourself better than someone else, and you should.
quote:
I also wonder how much "discrimination" is really just the result of people buying the most expensive thing available. For example, Cohibas are not the best Cuban cigars out there. They are the most expensive ...
Yeah, absolutely ... it's true a lot of people equate worth and value. I have an acquaintance who truly envies and even idolizes extremely wealthy people, just for the fact of their wealth and their toys. Regardless of how they acquired it. It's also his opinion that a bottle of wine that costs $100 has to be four times as good as a $25 bottle.
'Question authority. Think for yourself. Filter out the spin. Engage elected officials critically. Make them defend what they're doing in your name. Derive the truth. Speak truth to power.'
Posts: 2031 | Location: Boston | Registered: April 16, 2005
Originally posted by Coriolanus: It seems to me that a lot of people out there think they can discriminate the "finer things," but really they just have deep pockets.
If one hears a bunch of guys talking guns, cars, scotch, wine, beer, computers, cigars. One hears a lot of clichés, misconceptions and outright bullsht. They feed on their own stereotypes.
It is the neophyte wind tasters that make me laugh. I tell them that my favourites wines were Bordeaux. I have heard these children replay "there a great South African and Chilean wines". Typical pseudo expert tactic of trying to impress by changing the subject.
Pseudo expertise in these consumer goods can be attained in a fraction of the time it takes to get a university degree.
QM Quality does not occur by chance. It is the result of intelligent activities.
Posts: 6981 | Location: Cigar land | Registered: March 10, 2003
Hey Coriolanus, I'm a college student and I am planning on being a lawyer. I do not want to be a public defender. As I am pretty young, and looke ven younger than I really am, people often think I am trying to look "cool" when I smoke cigars, and that I don't know what I'm doing. I am often hassled by the people some might call "cigar snobs."
Posts: 36 | Location: Detroit | Registered: January 23, 2008
Well, it's okay to create a hierarchy of things that have great value to you when compared to those things that offer you less. It doesn't necessarily mean you discount those different things in which others might find value -- not sharing another person's taste in something isn't tantamount to discounting it, just that you don't derive the same pleasure from it. In essence, you think you know yourself better than someone else, and you should.
Sure, but the tendency is to rank things and then pass those rankings off as a form of objective measurement of what is good and what isn't. Take the CA top 25, for example. They aren't saying, "these are what we think are good and we are okay with what you think is good." The message is that the cigars listed here are THE best and that the CA brain trust has the "expertise" to back up that claim.
In other words, you can make it into an issue of subjectivity, Jack. But the fact of the matter is, some things are objectively better than others and I don't have any problem thinking or saying it. And therein lies the rub. I don't think a person can objectively say that a Padron 3000 is as good as an Edmundo.
______________________________ "The word Fascism has now no meaning except insofar as it signifies 'something not desirable'." -- George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946
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Pseudo expertise in these consumer goods can be attained in a fraction of the time it takes to get a university degree.
One of the columnists over at Wine Spectator wrote a great article about this a while back (it's the guy with the glasses). He talked about one of his "friends" would call him up and ask him about which wines and regions were "hot" at the moment and then go to dinner and talk as if he were an expert. The two-minute wine master.
______________________________ "The word Fascism has now no meaning except insofar as it signifies 'something not desirable'." -- George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946
High Post Count = Manliness and Importance
#2 Most Friendly Guy, Connoisseur of All Things Fine, and Elitist Ass
Originally posted by Coriolanus:The two-minute wine master.
Often people pick up pseudo expert fabulations.
Ask a person why it is better to hold a wine glass by the stem. U get all sorts of cocamany rationalizations. The main reason is to keep your glass clean. Fingers that have been handling ribs, chicken and olive pits leave marks on glasses. The glass looks like a pig sty.
Another favourite. Corks are used because they allow the wine to breath. Yeah right. Why do they put a zinc cover on it. Zinc breathes?? Why doesn't champagne lose its fizz through the cork if the cork breathes???
QM Quality does not occur by chance. It is the result of intelligent activities.
Posts: 6981 | Location: Cigar land | Registered: March 10, 2003
