i'm putting together a paper for the sole purpose of overturning a smoking ban here in Texas. i need a lot of stories as examples of how bias the modern society is against smokers, cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. something along the lines of how you had a tobacco product of any kind, and how someone intruded on your wonderful smoking experience, rudely preferably, but poilte will be alright. case in point: i remember once i was in a bar, in Pittsburgh, with at least 6 or 7 people smoking the small white cancer sticks, so i thought it would be ok to pull out a Fuente. hadn't even lit it, just had it in my hand while i downed a beer. this snotty faced heap of parrot droppings excuse for a woman comes up behind me and starts coughing, comes up right beside me, and starts complaining about the smell of my cigar. i told her, very politely i might add, that she must be mistaken. she gets very beligerant with me, saying how rude i was, that i must not have been raised correctly by not holding the comfort of others in high regard, so on and so on. i told her that she was mistaken, once again, and to prove it to her that my stick was not lit, i showed her the end, blew on it, no smoke, and held the foot against the palm of my hand, all to prove to her that she was an obnoxious pleasure police member, trampling on my right to a good time. needless to say, she quickly stormed off in a huff, seeing the error of her ways. this story is one of a dozen i have lived through, and it's the type of story i need for my paper that i will be presenting at the next town hall meeting. i thank you, my wife thanks you, my mother and father thank you, my whole family thanks you.

If you don't mind a few stories from the UK, I'll be pleased to mention a couple

Here is a story. I live in San Francisco, and we have not had smoking allowed in restaurants or bars for many years. Yet if a bar has an open air patio, then it is ok and legal to smoke when standing in the patio area. Of course, can't use ashtrays as that would be illegal, but it is legal to put out cigarettes or cigare on the concrete.

So I was at such a bar one Saturday night about two years ago. I made a point of going to an open area (closest person was 15 yards from me) odf the bar, and I lit up a cigar.

Over walks some guy ... a real jerk ... who has a lit cigarette in his hand and he tells me that "he doesn't like the smell of 'those things' ". My response was, oh so you don't like how the cigar smells. He said, no he did not. I didn't make him wrong and I refused to get into an argument. I then pointed out that he (along with 6 other people...all of which were smoking cigarettes ... that they were standing 25 yards away from me.

At that point, he walked back to his group. He did give me a few evil looks now and then, since he obviously thought that the smell of a cigarette was fine but the aroma of a cigar was just something disgusting and intolerable.

Anyway, that's the story.

no, not at all, TMG. anywhere in the world, cigar stories are welcome. all i need are examples of how the cigar is viewed by other people. good views are ok, but for my study, bad experiences would help our cause more. thanks!

I posted this on on another thread (why smoking bans will endup hurting our right and our democracy). I have had a few other that were bad but this one just plain is the champion of them all. Here goes.

It was a beautiful afternoon, weather in the mid 70s and I had to take my daughter to her ballet class so I thought while she is taking the class I will stop by Starbucks for a nice cappuccino and take a cigar with me to smoke. After dropping her off I drove to Starbucks for that java. However, because of the beautiful day, no outside tables were available so I got back into the car and drove to the ballet school parking lot where I proceeded to park next to a dumpster more than 20 yards away from the nearest car. Enjoying my cigar and the java to the fullest I noticed this lady practically running up to my car, literally 30 yards or more from where she was standing talking to some other parents I think. The first words to me out of here mouth were If I wanted to kill myself I should do so somewhere else. Stunt for a moment I asked her what she was talking about. Her next statement was even more vial calling me discussing, how I was probably ok with hurting children and I would be in jail if she had her way. To this day I still don’t know how I remained calm as I did (thank God she was a woman because if this was a man it would have been physical), but calmly I proceeded to point out to her I was very far away from everyone, that its my life to do what I wanted to with, that this is after all the US of A and not China (but lets face it in China we would be able to smoke EVERYWHERE) and that she had but a few seconds to get back to her friends otherwise I would be calling the police for verbal abuse. With the last “you are a disgusting and vial man” she turned around and walked back to proceed telling here friends how brave she was and how she has done her good deed for the day. A few minutes later they all went their way and that was that. Fully expecting to see her again (thinking that here daughter must be in the ballet school) I must say I have not. But I will tell you one thing, spring is just around the corner and this time not only am I not parking next to a dumpster to smoke but if I see her out there I will make it a point to park as close as possible to her before I light up.

A few years back, I was at a local steakhouse that is cigar friendly. In fact, they had a small humidor with cigars for sale behind the bar.
I'm just finishing dinner when in walks a couple and sits down to the table next to me.
We were both seated in the smoking section which was on the complete opposite side of the building from where the non smoking section was located.
As the couple sits down, they both light up their paper and chemical sticks. While after eating a hearty steak dinner, I lit a cigar. The couple called their waiter over and complained about my cigar. The waiter kindly explained that it was a cigar friendly establishment. I stayed longer than I intended to because I wanted to savor the moment of these jerks being defeated.
Cigar smokers are really treated with disrespect even in a smoking environment. It's crazy that cigarette smokers think we cigar smokers are vial and they fail to realize that they are addicted to a chemical in which they can't go 2 hours without smoking one.

I live in the Metro Detroit area and we have an MGM Grand casino in the city. Me and my wife went there last weekend and I was smoking a cigar on the floor in the (lowroller) blackjack section where cigar smoking is permitted. Some lady fifty feet away came over and complained about the smell of my cigar. She wasn't smoking a cigarette, but there must have been 200 other people in there smoking cigarettes. I told her smoking was allowed here and she skulked away. About five minutes later she came back with on of the security guards who asked me if he could "see" my cigar.
The woman had told him that I was smoking marijuanna(sp?) and concealing the smell with a "stinky" cigar. After about 2 seconds of "inspection" he handed it back to me and said he was sorry for the inconvenience and then told her that cigar smoking was allowed in th casino and that there was no weed in my cigar. She got very upset and said she spends a lot of money here and would take her business to Motor City casino (where cigar smoking is also allowed). She was playing nickel slots!! How much money could she spend?
She then stormed away back to her girlfriends, two of whom were SMOKING CIGARETTES!

here's mine but it happened in Vegas at the MGM. I posted this earlier:
"I went to Las Vegas last year and finally had some downtime after a long seminar. I walk up to my favorite table game (roulette) and break out a Padron Anniversario Exclusivo (natural). I afford myself to let my guard down and as I am lighting my cigar a woman passes by and says "You're too young to smell that bad." And walked away quickly. She did a drive by put down! I was dumb struck!"

Here is a Las Vegas one.

I was going to Whiskey at Green Valley Ranch to listen to a friend play. This was a Sunday night and the place was pretty empty. I ordered my overpriced whiskey to enjoy with my cigar. I cut my cigar and lit. I only took a few puffs from it when one of the security guys told me that they did not allow cigar smoking and I would have to put it out or go outside. Now there were no signs stating this, no one complained and there were people smoking cigarettes. So I went outside and enjoyed my cigar.

I went back in and asked the security guard why they did not allow cigar smoking. He told me people complained about the smell. I then asked what if someone complained about the cigarette smoke, would you ask them to put it out or go outside. He said no.

If you are going to allow smoking, then allow smoking, not this only cigarette policy. That is discrimination. I should have given them back their overpriced whiskey and just left and told them I would be in a place that discriminates. I have not been back since.