ACHP 496 The Moon Said No, Iowa Said Fire and The vacuum Said Spy

Episode Summary

Episode 496 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast has the full crew back together — host Mike Palmer, engineer Phil McGuffey, and co-host Mike Szczepankiewicz — one show away from their 500th episode. The trio opens by recapping a guest-heavy week (Sweeney, Oliver, Jared, and Greg all sat in the chair) and launches a listener poll on YouTube and Spotify to decide who did the best job. They also get into the friendly feud with The Cigar Guys podcast, the mechanics of dropping guests into the show, the ideal three-person setup, and how the podcast has evolved from a single snowball mic on a card table to the current studio.

Merch and PCA talk follow: the limited "Mr. Magoomer" shirt that sold out in seconds, CHPOD.com deals, and an offer to rebuild a Wing Hazar patch hat for a listener. Palmer plugs Calendly appointments for retailers and cigar media ahead of the 2026 PCA trade show, noting Powstanie's placement as the number two cigar on Halfwheel and comparing their media availability to Steve Saka's approach.

The news block covers NASA's Artemis lunar station being pushed to 2028 at a cost of roughly $93 billion (plus a long, skeptical detour into moon-landing conspiracy theories), Idaho becoming the first state to make the firing squad its primary execution method under HB37 — including the ~$950,000 retrofit near Kuna and the five other states that allow firing squads — and a wave of hacked Ecovacs Deebot X2 robot vacuums in multiple U.S. cities, which leads to a long riff on robot vacuums, pet disasters, and Fabuloso.

Cigar news: League of Fat Bastards' Department of Honor, a PCA-exclusive four-pack honoring first responders and the six branches of the armed forces (Habano and Mexican San Andrés wrappers, Corona vitola, 400 packs, $46.25), plus Gran Habano's Persian King and Quesada Cigars' new logo, typeface, and "Spark Up, Here Now" tagline under Raquel and Patricia Quesada. The show closes with What's the Score on Patrick Lagreid's review of the CAO Flathead Speed Shop Habano Crankshaft — Phil's 88 nails the score exactly.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Guest Week Recap and the Listener Poll
   The hosts rank the week's four drop-in guests — Sweeney, Oliver, Jared, and Greg — and set up a YouTube/Spotify poll to let listeners vote.
2. 02
   Merch, Comments and the Cigar Guys Feud
   Sold-out limited shirts, a rebuilt Wing Hazar hat for a listener, and ongoing jabs traded with The Cigar Guys podcast.
3. 03
   PCA 2026 Appointments for Retailers and Media
   Powstanie's Calendly links for retailer and media meetings at PCA, free hats, and why the brand makes so much media time available.
4. 04
   NASA Artemis Delay and Moon Landing Conspiracies
   The lunar station slips to 2028 at $93 billion, sparking a long debate over whether the original moon landing footage holds up.
5. 05
   Idaho's Firing Squad Law
   Governor Brad Little's HB37 makes Idaho the first state with the firing squad as its primary execution method, with a $950,000 prison retrofit.
6. 06
   Hacked Robot Vacuums
   Ecovacs Deebot X2 units hijacked via credential stuffing to shout slurs and chase pets, plus the crew's own robot vacuum horror stories.
7. 07
   League of Fat Bastards Department of Honor
   Adam Levine's PCA-exclusive four-pack honoring first responders and the armed forces, with Habano and Mexican San Andrés blends at $46.25.
8. 08
   Quesada Rebrand and What's the Score
   Quesada Cigars' new star logo and 'Spark Up, Here Now' tagline, then guessing Patrick Lagreid's score for the CAO Flathead Speed Shop Habano.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

Welcome to A Cigar Hustler Podcast, episode 496. Really, 500 is next Wednesday. Wow. 500.

What did you get me? I have nothing planned. You don't have no presents? No.

Why am I giving you a present? You know what I'm gonna do? Make another shirt? Oh, you should make a shirt for the 500th episode.

No. No. Presale. No, we're gonna get-- You like to buy a 500 shirt.

What? Sorry. I'm gonna get Phil a mask. Oh, a new mask.

We'll give him a new mask. I'm gonna get Phil a mask. Alright. I'm Mike Palmer, your host, and over there in Engineering, we have the entire team back today.

We've got Phil McGuffey running the board. Hello, peoples. And as my co-host and travel buddy for the next two days, Mike Szczebankewicz is here again. Nice to have you back on the show, Mike.

Good to be back in my chair, you know? Yeah. It's weird when somebody else sits in your chair. Yeah, yeah.

We did have, but we had like an onslaught of people all of a sudden. Yes, did you see the Cigar Guys press release this morning? No, what did they say? Jared has left their show and is now the co-host of A Cigar Hustlers Podcast.

Nice. With a terrible picture of Jared from our show. show so they're fighting again yes now they're fighting again right they got in the truck and they had a fight around the end well if they had a fight on well if you want to be on that show then just go yeah you just be on that show then fine we'll press release tomorrow saying you're not on our show anymore all right so who did we have we had sweeney we had uh oliver we had oliver we had jared jared we had greg oh i didn't even count greg as a guest so yeah all right so we had We had four guests this week. Okay, so, out of that four, who was your favorite?

Wait, wait, don't say anything. I'm not going to say the best. Who was your favorite of the four? Okay, that makes it different.

Okay, Palmer, on three, me and you say. We're going to say the names together? Yeah, you're right. One, two, three, Oliver.

Triple G. Oh. Is it Triple G, right? That's what we're calling it, we're not a 3G?

- Interesting. So you thought Oliver was the best? - I liked Oliver, yeah. - I thought Oliver was the best, you said favorite.

- Your favorite. - Yeah, yeah, the favorite, yeah. - See, Oliver did the best job. - You think so?

- I think so. - I kinda think Greg did the best job. - Whoa. - Yeah?

He was my favorite. - I was super surprised by that. - Wow. - Yeah.

- Oliver is smart and extremely witty. - Right, yeah. - You know. - We talked about, I like how we sat there quiet for like five, ten minutes.

- Yeah. - To get the lay of the room. Okay, they're idiots, this is where I go. Yeah, and they said, "Oh, how would I do this?

" You know, like, all of that stuff, that was really good, but, you know, Greg was open, I didn't, I wasn't expecting Greg to be-- He was comfortable, he was relaxed. Yeah. Well, that's the fourth time he's done the show, so. Well, you didn't see his little fit, though, in the beginning.

He was like, "Why am I in the chair? I don't want to be in the chair. I should be over there. " Yeah.

Oh, he got-- I mean, like a panic attack. He's like a superstar. He's like a wide receiver. It's crazy, pre-Madonna.

Steve McDonald. Here's what we're going to do. On this show, we're going to put a vote on the bottom of who everybody thinks did, who they liked the best. All right?

Between Oliver, Sweeney, Jared, and Greg. Gotcha. On Spotify, they give you the option to make a poll, so we'll put that in that way. Well, it's the same thing on YouTube.

Oh, can you make a poll on YouTube? Yeah, so we'll do both. We'll do a poll on YouTube, and if you want to do one on Spotify as well, go ahead. Yeah, that was easy to do.

I didn't know you could do it on YouTube. Yep. All right, on today's show, the moon has been rescheduled. Perfect.

It's not made for a potato gun. Skynet is in all our homes. Of course. This is a different Skynet.

Then in cigars, the fat guy makes a new cigar. The king of Honduras is actually Persian. The fat guy makes a new cigar. And Quesada is making changes.

All this and then we have a what's the score. Nice. But first, Mikey, how do we get some of that CH pod swag that apparently is sweeping the industry? It's taken over.

First of all, what do you think of my Mr. Magoomer, looks nothing like me. My Mr. Magoomer.

I like the Mr. Magoomer, but it doesn't look anything like me. Very rare. What are you talking about?

It's you with the head of Mr. Magoo. Yeah, but that's what I mean. I thought it was Mike the Mailman.

That's Mike the Mailman. It does look like Mike the Mailman. I don't have hair like that. You're supposed to look like Mr.

Magoo. Oh, okay. All right. I like this shirt.

This is probably my favorite shirt. shirt it's the same outfit from the other one too exactly that's what i did i took the image and i said make this person look more like mr magoo right look alike you can't say mr magoo yeah right so boom here you are probably my favorite shirt ah good to date there's only only six of them have been made right oh yeah limited edition yeah because i offered them and then boom there i So I took them down. Right. So.

So they're all sold. Yeah. Nice. Yeah.

The other five are out in the ether. I think two of them haven't shipped yet. They're upstairs. For whatever reason, the postman didn't take them.

And just like that, within seconds, they were sold out. eBay LE. Yeah. They were sold before the show.

Exactly. He did an email blast. Right. Yeah.

And then I offered them on one show, gave the weekend, and then pulled it. Right. So, gotta be listening and paying attention at all times. com, where you buy one, get the second one 40% off, spend $100 or more, you're going to get free shipping.

Or check out the Shopify that's linked to our YouTube, where there isn't a discount, like and subscribe wherever you're viewing or listening to our show, and we have a few comments for today. There's been some this morning. Of course, there's always some. With our edge of attainment.

For the edge of my... , and then they're like, oh, let me get the comment in. Right. Let's see here.

T-Money's over there with bloodshot eyes because he hasn't gone to bed trying to get his comment in. Okay. I don't remember what the name was, but somebody texted me in the middle of the night, two nights ago, can you put up the Patreon? I need something to watch.

That's like Thursday. That's just Thursday. I think that was T-Money. " Wow.

You're right. Thank you, T-Money. But it's nice to get a fresh person in here, let them, you know, kind of work with one or two of the three of us, whatever that looks like, because it's always kind of changing. And, you know, to give other people, like, opportunities to kind of talk about their stuff, their life, their experiences, I think that that's cool.

I think that that's cool. Not necessarily etched in stone every time, but just kind of naturally integrated throughout the system, you know? - So what he's saying is, is he likes us. - This is my favorite, without question.

- Oh yeah, this is the best setup. - Are you saying T-Money likes us? - Oh, T-Money, yeah, he likes the tripod. - He likes the tripod, well, you know, yeah.

- Yeah. - I mean, but there's, he's specifically speaking of one piece-- - Of him. - That is integral. - Well, yeah, but if you weren't here with all of us, Yeah, he likes all of us.

You think so? Yeah. Okay. There's not another cigar show that just inadvertently drops people in.

I mean, they have guests, but when we have a guest, it's more a drop-in than, unless we do one of the special shows where you do an interview. This is where everything kind of starts to gear back up, and it's a cluster. Right. You know, you got school sports plus rec, basketball, rec football is in another week, and Teddy is now taken upon track as well.

Oh, wasn't she doing track before? She was doing it for the school, now she's doing it rec. Oh, oh. That's wild.

Are you the ribbon guy? Am I the who? Like for the finish line? No.

Are you the coach for track? No. Not at the school? No, that's not how it starts, remember.

He's gonna do something low grade first. Oh, that's right, yeah. Are you writing down the times? Yeah, I'm writing down the times.

Stopwatch guy. Stopwatch guy. I mean, realistically, the way that it all plays out, I don't know if I'm ever going to be at any of these rec track meets. Yeah, you will.

It's your little girl. She's... What were we talking about? You were reading Things People Say.

Yeah, but we were discussing something. Oh, I want to know if any other show had people that just dropped in. Oh, yeah. So, like, here's the thing.

What's awesome about the kind of vision that is this, it kind of matches with everything else. It's like, you know, we're flexible and we're fast to respond, right? So it's like, hey, this is what's going on, quickly adapt and boom, right? It's not like, oh, we get stiff and we don't adjust, right?

We're not, and I think that that's part of, for one, we're not scared to make mistakes, right? Obviously. Obviously not. Right?

Obviously. For eight years now, we've failed. And look, that's really what makes us great. Right.

You know, the reality is that everybody makes mistakes. Sure. Everybody screws stuff up. Just, some people are afraid of it, right?

Like, oh, yeah, we'll botch that, right? Like, okay, we'll make it better. Right, move on. You know, now it's to a point where people come in here like, oh my God, guys, look at this setup.

Right? Yeah, I want to be on your show. Can you imagine, I mean, think about what it looked like seven or eight years ago. First of all, it didn't even have video.

Right. Yeah, yeah. It was a cone. The snowball.

On a table. It was a full wall microphone on a card table. That was terrible. It was terrible.

So. I like how when we drop somebody in, it's not always, I mean like we don't always put somebody in that chair. Right. Like the other day somebody was in that chair, so you went over there.

Right. You know, sometimes I'm not here, you're here, somebody's there, and then I'm back over there. Right. Right.

Except Phil, we keep Phil over there. Right. And you know, and look, the reality is that you got a million things going on, I got a million things going on. Sure.

Phil has a million things going on. Right. I like to test the pieces, you know, like, um, Jared came in and I said, look, man, you stay there, right? Like, I'll step out, right?

Even though I was here, right? Like, let's see what that looks like, uh, you know, in this scenario. Cause I, one thing that I saw is I didn't like two people back there. It's just, it just winds up having, there's two conversations can break out, right?

At the same time. Right. Yeah. We, we could be talking back there where you guys are talking out here.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. So I think three is the, That's the ideal number for the most part, and I don't want to shortchange Phil if he's around, so I have no problem taking the backseat.

I appreciate it. I don't mind either, depending on who the guest is, we can figure that out. Yeah, but again, we can try that differently too. I mean, we have to some degree though, we've always put a person in that chair, but we've learned that some people are really good at that and some people aren't.

Right. " That's why we're ranked number one. Oh, that's the reason. I thought it was that they wear pants.

No, no, they don't wear pants. Oh, yeah, don't wear pants. Oh, that's right, he didn't have pants on. Yeah.

Listen, Cigar Guys, you know, you're number one in your own minds, and we respect your opinion. We know you guys are going through a rough time right now with your fights. All the fights. One guy's out of the country, he got so upset.

He kicked one guy out. Oh, Jerry's not joining the Cigars Podcast. And he's wearing my jacket. Right.

Well, that coat wouldn't fit Alex. That's my jacket. That would swallow Alex up. Well, it was probably one of the guys, the real Albanians.

Oh, yes. Yeah, apparently there's only two real Albanians. Yeah. Really?

The brothers. We cleared that up with Jerry. You broke that down. Did you break that down on show or off of show?

On show. Okay, good. And they're not identical. They're not identical.

Yeah, they look like they could be twins. Two possible Albanian twins. Yeah. Okay.

We never found out where Jared was from, did we? Jared? I mean, apparently Alex is not Puerto Rican, he's Venezuelan. He just said he was American.

I like that. He was going on that. He's like, "We're American. " That was awesome.

I don't want to get hung up at TSA. The ice guys are getting them. Alright, let's see, I think we got, oh, we got two comments here, so, John Yogerlite says, Greg needs to be a regular guest, no doubt. So I know where his vote's going on the polls.

" Well, maybe not quite $800. Oh, the hat. Yeah. Oh, I didn't see the hat.

You know, CW, you know, I still have a couple of those patches set aside for when I was messing with the beanies and they were doomed. So, CW, what I'm going to do is, I'll order another hat and I will build it for you and I'll reach out to you privately. And if I ask you privately, obviously, the price won't be $800. $800, $800.

No, it'll be the regular price, but if you want it, I want to make sure you're taken care of. Nice. Look at that. And then I got some short clips here.

Oh, Epicure and Smoke also wrote, from a few episodes ago, it's exactly that kind of show. I went and looked at what it was. Me too. When I said I wouldn't put my hand inside of Greg's pants, it's not that kind of show, he went, it's exactly that.

That kind of show. And he's right, he did. Oh, and dude, there's a lot. C.

character. Oh, I saw that. I don't know who Ray Palmer is, but I'll have to look it up. You don't know who Ray Palmer is?

C. world. He was your grandfather. C.

comics. Phil, we're losing him already. He doesn't even know who his grandfather is. No, I know it's my grandfather, but that's not who he meant as the Ray Palmer.

C. person. Yeah, the Adam. Oh, is that who it is?

Oh, is that who it is? Yeah. Oh. All right.

Uh, if you want to hear your comment right off on the show, comment below on this episode. If we like it, we will possibly, uh, speak of it. And, uh, what else am I missing? Oh!

The most important thing. " Look no further than the number two cigar on Half Wheel. Postana is going to be available. We'd love to take a meeting with you at PCA.

Hit the Calendly link below, and we're going to give you a hat when you take the appointment. Just to show our appreciation. If you're a retailer that's already doing business with us, and you're thinking, hey, I want to see what's up on the horizon for Postana. I want to have a conversation.

I want to meet and touch Mike Palmer. Ooh, touch. It's that kind of show. Hit the Calendly link below and set your appointment.

It's that kind of appointment. If you're a media guy and you want to do an interview with us, you know, how are we so amazing in cigar media? Why are we crushing continually? How do, you know, we can do media 101 or we could just have fun because that's what we're all about.

Hit the media link, Calendly media link below because, again, we like talking with you guys. We have nothing but respect for all the people that are in cigar media. It's a lot of hard work. The pay is not great, and you're just doing it because you're passionate.

So if we want to show our support and appreciation, you're also going to get a free hat. I'm thinking, before you're about to jump. Bob's going to comment on that, but go ahead. No, no, no.

Go ahead. I'm thinking, for the events at Dothan, at Humidor Fine Cigars, and at Bull Weevil, maybe we bring a couple of the Wing to the Czar hats. Oh. Just a couple.

Nothing crazy. Just a couple? So, if you're going to be up in Alabama or around the Alabama area tomorrow, or actually today, where are we at on Friday? Today we are at Humidor Fine Cigars.

We're at Humidor Fine Cigars in Dothan, Alabama? No, they're in Enterprise. Humidor is in Dothan. No, I'm not sure.

Yeah. We're at Enterprise. I mean, we're at Humidor Fine Cigars. This is where we wind up in the wrong place.

Okay, so we're going to be at one of the two of these places. And then we're going to be at Bull Weevil, supposedly on Saturday. Bull Weevil on Saturday. Bull Weevil Cigars on Saturday.

From 11:00 to 4:00 and 5:00 to 8:00 on Friday. If you want a chance to win a hat and you're a customer, this could be one of your only opportunities to get one. The only other way that you could possibly get one is if you are a customer in a retail shop, they don't carry Powstanie and you're like, "Hey, listen, I'm tired of buying this product online, I want to support you, I need you to take this meeting at the show And get Postana in our store, and they're going to give you a hat, and I want you to give me the hat as well. That's the way that you get it if you're a customer, right?

Right. What now? You didn't pick up on that at all? No, sorry.

You just got, you just looked at, you were just like staring blank at me. I was lost in your eyes again. Alright, I need you to focus. I confused.

Okay, I need you to focus. Right. So, if I'm a customer at a retail store, and I love Postana cigars. Right.

And I don't want to, I want to give that retailer my business, I don't want to buy online. Right. I think they're going to be the retail and say, hey listen, go to this YouTube page, hit that Cali link, set the appointment, that way you guys can start carrying the products, and I don't have to buy online anymore, because I want to buy these from you. And then when you say, hey, you're going to book and you're going to get this hat, I'd like the hat.

Oh, okay, they get the hat from the retailer. You've got to set that up with that, I can't guarantee it. Yeah, we can't help you with that, you've got to set that up yourself. Right.

Now, what was your comment about the Cali stuff from prior to? I think we might be one of the only brands that make this much time available for media. I mean, because there are media hours for the show. I mean, that's just an hour.

I mean, we schedule appointments over the three days. I guess there's other brands that do that, too, but it just seems like we go above and beyond. Yeah, Saka does a great job of it as well. Yeah, I was thinking Saka does that.

But yeah, absolutely, man. We try our best to be available. Yes. I'll be available.

Okay. All right. You ready? We're moving on?

I'm ready. All right. The moon has been rescheduled. NASA's Artemis program.

Now, this is not the launch, which has also been delayed. There's no launch today. Now, the launch is tomorrow. So, actually, the launch would be, oh, today, when the show airs.

But that's just the flight that goes up and goes around. Okay. Around the moon? It just goes around the moon.

They're just checking out. They're taking a look. It's still there. Does it test it?

There's a lot of stuff lately about how the first moon landing was faked and all these reasons why you can tell. That's because it's a hot topic now. Right, right, yeah, yeah, it is. But they're delaying the building of the moon station.

We're holding back? Right, to the totaling $93 billion so that they can push it back to 2028. Okay. Why are they pushing it back?

Because they're not ready. We're not prepared for this. We're not prepared with it. We're going to do it next year, but now they're pushing it back another year.

Do we get to claim it at that point? The moon? Yeah, the moon station. Has someone else been there besides us?

Well, and the question is, have we really been there? I don't think, you know, like, that's the argument. Has anybody ever been there? I think we've made it.

See, now, I always thought we did too, but the stuff I've been seeing, there's an awful lot of it on reasons why. Like, how did the rockets ignite because there's no oxygen? You need oxygen to make fire? So how did it take off?

In the newspaper, the day after the landing, there were crystal clear photos of the moon landing back then, when we didn't have the technology to send crystal clear images from the moon. Was it on like Twitter at that time? There was no Twitter. No?

Are you sure? It was on the newspaper. It could have been on Twitter. I don't know.

Twitter's down, by the way, but we're not covering that because time this show goes, it'll already be done. I've been on Twitter all morning. Well, it was down yesterday at 4:30. Ah.

Well, it's up now. Well, it's up now. Well, that's why I just dropped that story here last night. Got it.

We got a new one. So you don't think we landed on the moon? I don't know, man. I mean, now they're saying who took all the photos of the three, I mean, there was three guys.

Yeah. Who took the photos of the three guys climbing out of the space capsule? Right. There was no, there's not a fourth guy who got out first.

Right. Tripod. Yeah, but somebody had to go out and set it up. And there was no footprints of the guy going to setting it up.

What do we do every day with this podcast? Maybe there was a Palmer, and he set up the tripod, and then he ran back into the capsule. Well, you would think, but then there would be other footprints, you know, instead of the footage of the first footprint. Maybe he took one of those baseball rake thingies, raked it as he walked into the capsule.

Raked it back up, made it look real? He dragged a palm leaf behind him like the Indians did? Yeah. And then the footage of the, this is the stuff I just saw this morning, the footage of the Moonlander car thing, when the tires are spinning in the dirt, The air just goes up and back down.

If it's weightless and there's no gravity, wouldn't it go up and stay up in the air for a few minutes? Well, there is some gravity. No. It's very low gravity there.

So they're also saying when they walked and they were jumping, because of the type of gravity and the weight, somebody did the math to figure out exactly how high, they should go like seven, eight feet in the air. Not as high as you could normally jump. Got it. Maybe they didn't go to the bathroom yet.

Can we just have hopes and dreams of believing that we landed on the moon? I know. Like, what are we doing? Why?

Like, why do we have to... Ah ha ha! See, the government always wants. Because everybody's about the conspiracies now.

I mean, that's... Yeah, but that same guy that says that we didn't land on the moon is the same guy that's posting pictures about aliens coming around a corner. We have those. Yeah, exactly.

We have those. I just think that it's funny, it's like... We have illegal aliens. It's like, hey, we knew that the...

I didn't hear what he said, but, you know... - I have no idea what that was. - I don't either. - You know, it's like, oh, I see the government lies, like, well, yeah.

- Oh, they lie all the time. - Yeah. - It's for our protection. - We're well aware.

- We don't really want to know all the bad stuff. - Yeah. - Right. - You know?

That's like that Matrix movie where the guy's eating the fake steak and says ignorance is bliss. - Right. - That's what this is. - But it's okay, it tastes like gross steak.

- Yeah. - Yeah, nobody uprored about that. - About the fake steak? It's a fake steak.

About the Matrix. Oh. That's not trending right now. Not trending right now.

We're going back to the moon. Yeah, that'll pick. And why are we going back to the moon? Because we haven't been there before.

So wait, we think it'll be something new up there? Yeah. A Costco? We're trying to build a hub.

Oh. Yeah. To go where? I don't know.

Maybe jump from planet to planet. Also, in the background of the videos and stuff from the moon, you can't see any stars. Yeah. You wouldn't see stars.

Really? Well, they're there. Right. It's no different than if you look up in the sky at night here.

Well, there's no night here. There's no light pollution. So you should see more. Yeah.

Right. But do you see none? There are no stuff. Well, maybe the light's not hitting everything correctly.

Hmm. He really wants to believe that we went to the moon. Yeah. No, I don't believe we went to the moon.

Oh. Oh, wait. So we didn't go to the moon? You seem very out of it.

No, there's no reason to go to the moon. To go back or mean to go the first time? Either time. Well, the, we went the first, we went the first time because nobody else had been there, right?

Well, we were trying to get there before, uh, well, the Russians, Russians, yeah. What do we find oil on this moon? It's a dead rock, they said. Then we claim it.

Oil? Yeah, then we're going to kill somebody because that's usually how this works first. That's how it works? We take them, capture, or we kill them, and then we take the oil.

Well, there's nobody to kill there. It's the moon. You haven't seen that? There may be...

There's an M&M commercial where there's the alien monster that kills two of the, kills two of the astronauts. Do you think that's going to happen? Yeah. There's a dark side that nobody ever talks about.

Maybe there's 49 guys up there. That's what the... Do you wait and have a meeting? That's where the Transformers are.

They're on the dark side of them. That's right, they're the Transformers are. Now on the plus side, they're saying if it had been faked, don't you think the Russians would have leaked that information by now? That's true.

Especially back during the Cold War? They tried, but nobody could understand them because they've been drinking vodka all day. Well, I don't know who enough their underwear. All right, let's stay on track here.

We got to move on. We got to move on. You wanted more of a conversation and less information. There you go.

There you go. That's fair. Now we should move on. All right, Idaho is making a firing squad as the only choice for killing prisoners.

You to what? Idaho. You to what? To what?

Idaho. Wow. Just stop on or just move on. It's a primary execution method and is now physically building the infrastructure to carry it out.

They are spending, anybody want to guess how much they're spending to set up a firing squad? 20 bucks. You would think, just a bite of bullets. Yeah.

Nope. Housing for the illegal aliens that they're using for this method. I said how much, not how many. 20 million.

Oh, you're really guessing that? Yeah, yeah, you're really guessing. Okay. Let's wait a minute.

I would say more than that. It's probably like $500 million or something. - $950,000. - That's it?

- They're turning the room with the electric chair in it into the retrofitting at maximum security prison near Kuna for firing squad executions. - That still seems high. - It doesn't it? - Yeah.

- They take the chair out, all the wiring, I mean, it's already a concrete room. - Yeah, what are we doing? - There's a window, so you can watch. - You gotta build like a berm?

What are you doing? - It's a concrete wall. Why are they building a berm? - You don't want it to ricochet if the fires, you know.

Yeah, I feel like that room's a little close. Governor Brad Little signed HB37 in March, making Idaho the only state in America to designate the firing squad as its primary method of execution. If they miss, they still have lethal injection as a backup. If they miss?

Apparently, it says it's a backup, so, I mean, the lethal injection didn't work. It's a 10 by 10 room, man. That guy should live if you miss. So, you know, okay, so listen.

Okay, so listen, so here's the thing, like at this point currently, I'm assuming that a person is going to shoot the other person, correct? You would assume firing squad, normally it's four or five guys, they have all the same rifle, four guys have blanks, one guy has a bullet, but you don't know who has the bullet. Well wait, most of them have blanks? Yeah, that way you don't feel guilty, you don't know if you actually killed the guy.

So at what point are we replacing it with just kind of like a thing? Like when does it start? Like, you know, like a system that, you know... Oh, you mean automatic weapons of some sort?

Yeah, without actual people. Maybe that's why it's so expensive. Like a Terminator style. That's what I was kind of leading towards.

That wouldn't be hard to do. I mean, we got the cornhole guy shooting the gun. By the way, I saw the video of how he shoots the gun. You can't sneak up and do that.

- Yeah, no way. - Oh, there's some prep involved in the way that, 'cause it's a video of him shooting a gun, I've seen it. - Right, yeah. - There's some prep.

- You think we can get like Grok or something to, like AI, to handle the bullet? - I'm sure you could. - It's not supposed to kill people. - Oh, is it, oh, is it like the three rules of robots or something, like on the iRobot movie?

- Yeah, maybe this is-- - No harm to humans? - Maybe this is how it starts, how it starts justifying, 'cause it learns. - It learns, right? - It's smart.

Oh, they think it's okay, now you can kill all of them. Right, I'm just eliminating the threat. What do you think the next guy up in line thought when he saw this bill pass? Oh, you think he passed out flyers inside the prison?

Yeah, like, alright guys, this is it, it changed. " What the hell? It starts July 1st, so they need a couple months to set this thing up. " -They also had an electric chair.

-Oh God, that sounds old school right there. -Oh yeah, it's the big wooden chair where they strap you in and put the thing in your head. -And with the cost of electricity these days, you know what I mean? -I mean, the one bullet's got to be cheaper once they spend the retro.

-All right, there's five other states that have firing squads. Anybody want to guess? If you can get two of them, we'll call it a win. -Okay, Texas.

-Yeah, Texas. -Nope. -Texas, not one. -Really?

-Nope. -South Dakota. nope how long did you just read for well there is a south but I was making sure it wasn't Dakota South Carolina yeah South Carolina that's the only other south he missed and magooed that you know so I got one Kentucky has to be one nope hold on Tennessee Virginia Virginia. Nope.

Georgia. Which one? Georgia. Nope.

I'm just going to read them. Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. Utah? Utah.

I would have never guessed Utah. It's a secondary or last resort option. It's not the primary. Oh.

What's a last resort? Can't find any lethal injection. Can't find any lethal injection stuff. The chairs come unplugged.

We don't know what's going on. There seems to be an issue. Get the guns. Get the guns.

Let's just get this over with. - Has there ever been anybody that has survived a lethal injection? - I think so, I think so. - Oh.

- It's gotta be horrible. " - So, you put out your-- - That's a good argument. - And then we killed him again, or what? - Yeah, then they killed him again.

- Idaho will be the first to make it the default. This is just what you get. - I'm surprised they didn't think it was Jesus. S.

firing squad execution in 15 years on March 7th of this year. Wow. So there are currently 12 eligible for the death penalty. Idaho now has both the harshest sentencing law and the most direct execution method for convicted child sex offenders in the country.

Just send somebody in there with a big stick and just clear them out. Just beat the shit out of them. I think a lot of people would find that as a privilege. Hey, you know, these people have abused children.

Okay, like, here's the bat. Uh, there is a prisoner that just killed two sex offenders in his prison. I know. And he's wanting to get, like, time off for helping or something.

Not necessarily against. I just did you a favor. Well, it depends on what he did. Actually, we're gonna stack some charges on you.

What's he in for? That's what I mean, I don't know. I didn't read them, sorry, I just read the headline. Speedy.

Speedy. Marijuana trafficking. He had a joint in his pocket. So, just for the record, several people have survived attempted lethal injection executions in the United States, primarily due to botched procedures where execution teams could not successfully establish intravenous access or administer the drugs.

Wow. These cases involve prolonged attempts to insert IV lines, often causing significant pain and trauma. Before the execution was called off, no one has survived after the full lethal dose of drugs was successfully administered. Wow.

How many death penalties have been carried out in Idaho since 1977? Which is apparently when they had their first one. Since 1977? Yes.

I'm gonna say something ridiculously low, like 17. Phil? I've never heard of Idaho much, so... I'm going to go 18.

He went the wrong way. You went the wrong way. It's three. Really?

So, since 1977, we've had to put three people down. Let's spend $950,000 so we can take down another one. Maybe we're trying to speed things up. Maybe we're not happy with our rate of return there.

You know what I mean? It just said they have the fastest one on record. If you get the death penalty in Idaho, there's no waiting around for a long time, like you can in some other states. Right.

hmm that's why they're so there that's why they don't so their lack of better words pull the trigger they're prolific you're speaking over me again okay I was trying to say the word all right all right to move on yeah robot vacuums in multiple US cities were hacked so while these things are running around inside your house they don't go where you want them to go right and apparently they now You now have speakers on them, which I was not aware of, and the attackers yell obscenities and racial slurs at you from the speakers. Really? I don't even know what type of race you are. Well, that's another, well, I don't know, maybe they're just generally yelling racial slurs.

I think that's just like the go-to for any hacker. You know what we're going to do? You know what's going to be offensive? Let me drop the N on you.

Yeah, let's do some racial slurs. Like, I'm a white guy. Yeah, but still. Are you sure it wasn't the Grammy winner?

No, it wasn't the Tourette's guy. Oh. Wasn't he an Oscar winner? Yeah, I wasn't an insurance guy.

I thought you meant, what's his name, slap the other guy. That was in Europe or something. Will Smith. Will Smith.

He's not allowed to go back to the Oscars for the rest of his life. He's been a lifetime banned. Yeah, but who cares? Well, I know, but I mean, that was just in the news the other day.

Right. So I mean, they just finally decided to get, oh, because the Oscars were just on. Just bringing this up. You know the group of people where we all get together and then we vote for movies that nobody ever watches And if you want to take their watches, and give them nods, and ignore all the other people that worked really hard, yeah, he's not allowed back in there.

It wasn't even on the news much this year. Yeah, like nobody cares anymore. Nobody cares, right. I know, we're all tired of, you know.

Because it's legitimately that, like, because then you go, you're like, oh man, I guess I should watch that movie, and then you watch it, and you're like, what the hell was that? Yeah, that was stupid. Right? And then, to make it worse, no matter what, somebody's got to give you a political stance speech, no matter what side it is, and it's like, I'm not here for this.

I'm not here for this. Right. Like, if I wanted to hear some political views and opinions, I'd go watch CNN. The propaganda news.

Right. Whichever one that is, right? Like, I'm not, I just wanted to see what movie you guys liked. Yeah, your movie star, Dance Monkey, that's all I wanted to see.

No, no, you can't say that. That's not okay. Why can't I say Dance Monkey? No, Dance Monkey's not okay.

I like when you watch it, though. It's a little racist. It is. I mean, I didn't mean just the specific group.

I know. But because you make a monkey dance when you crank the thing and the monkey dances. I understand where you're going. I'm just saying that it could be interpreted out of context.

Yeah. Oh, good. Don't worry, it'll be on a short clip and someone will be mad. I like when you watch it.

There's like the movies that come up for awards like you've never heard of them before. Like Indians in Australia. You're like, what? That's what I just said.

That's what he just said. Yeah. That's one of the things when nobody's seen any of these movies. Phil's the Department of the Redundancy Department.

Yeah. What state is next in Tennessee? They want us to give you a geography test. Yeah, what state is next in Tennessee?

What state is next in Tennessee? You want to say North? Next to. North, South, or West?

Let's say West. West? What is West? That's the easiest one.

I don't know. Just throw one out there, because it'll be fun. Just say one. You have one in 50 chances.

Kentucky. One in 40. Oh, he actually got it right. There you go.

Oh, look at you. I don't know how to tell you. He got it right. See, you're smarter than you think.

There you go. There you go. So if you have an Ecovac Deboot X2 model, that is the one that they have been hacking. Okay.

It's a specific one, so they must have figured out how. Alright, there's two things I want to talk about here briefly. Okay. Number one.

Oh, there's a camera too, sorry. Okay, number one. I remember back in the day when somebody hacked their own and it was hilarious because they added a sound and every time it bumped into something. Oh yeah, I saw that, that was great.

Alright. Sorry, go ahead. I mean, I haven't even finished what it was. I get excited, I'm sorry.

I'm excited, I'm sorry. Oh, I thought that was great. The people are like, what the hell are we talking about? I've never seen it.

All right, so, well, Palmer's seen it, so I guess we're just going to move on. No, tell me more. " Oh, nice. And that I thought was hilarious.

I thought it would be, maybe it would be funnier if there's that one sound that everybody uses. Oh. Like one of those, no? No, what sound?

Everybody uses that sound? Yeah, you never heard that one, like on the TikToks? No. When somebody does something stupid?

I haven't. My TikTok's filled with people beating the crap out of each other. I'll send you one. No, please don't.

I don't need that in my feed. I don't need that in his feed. That's all you're going to see for a week. Yeah.

I don't need that in my life. He'll be sitting there, and his wife's going to hear, ah, ah, come from his phone, he goes, "What are you doing? " Yeah. You don't watch TikToks while you're coaching, dude.

No. Alright, yeah, don't. And number two, people are still buying these vacuums? Yes.

How many of these have you had? Me? Me? Yeah.

One vacuum, one mop. Okay. And do you still use them? No, no, they're gone.

Okay. Have you ever purchased the said vacuum at home and mop at home? I'm not sure which one it is. The only one I have is the one that you recommended to me.

The automated? Are you still using it? Yes. You still use it to this day?

Hell yeah. Every day. Are you sure? I swear to Allah, God, whatever one day you want to talk about.

Well, I mean, I've had these in the past, and then, they shit the bed, like they just don't work after a while, I get angry, 'cause they get tangled up, or stuck somewhere, or something, and, you know, you gotta replace the parts, and all this other crap, like, no, I liked, I did like the mop one, but eventually I just gave up on that one too, I love mine, 'cause the house would smell nice after the mop one, yeah, yeah, it's like, ooh, yeah, you're like, ooh, it's been mopping, but I wouldn't use their, you know, you gotta buy our specific stuff, like, hell no, man, I'm dropping Fabuloso in there. That's what we put in it, too. Let's go. Paul has one, but when he got his, they were offering a contract where if it breaks or anything, they would just immediately replace it.

So he just gets new ones all the time. Really? Yeah. That's the way to go.

Have you ever had one run over, like, dog poop? No, but you have said this. Yeah, we did. Go ahead.

Oh, it was terrible. One of the dogs got sick and shit on the floor, and then the vacuum ran through it. I had to take the thing completely apart underneath and clean it out. You should've just got a new one.

Oh, there's shit everywhere. $1,000! They were very expensive back then. It's been a long time since I've had one.

They're probably still very expensive. They probably are. You were traumatized. You had the combo that went back to the charging station.

Yeah, and then the vacuum would dock and then the mop would come out. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's a great one. Yeah, it was great for a while, but then eventually, I'm surprised that yours is still working. Yeah, no, that was great.

I threw mine out years ago. Actually, I saved it. I put it in the garage. " And I checked it.

- I have a robot in my office. - Yeah? - Yeah. - It does mop and vacuum.

- Oh, I thought you meant just a robot. - I'm also extremely, well, you know, we have two big dogs. - Right. - And the Shepherd sheds all the time, right?

- So like. - Yeah, that's hard. - Yeah, so I get frustrated, just the tumbleweed. You know, like, as soon as you vacuum the entire house and it's perfectly immaculate, then all of a sudden you see, like, there goes one.

- Right, now the floor is clear, so I can roll out from under the dresser. - I mean, I will move furniture, I go nuts. But like, and I feel good, I feel good when it's done, but iRobot ain't getting that, iRobot isn't handling that kind of weight, you know what I mean? Right.

Yeah. Some low level, like some cat fur stuff. It's not Shepherd style. So, okay.

All right, they have similar cases, Los Angeles, El Paso. There was one where the robot chased the dog around the house. Parking at it? Perp, perp, perp.

And others targeted specific users late at night. Was it saying racial slurs of the dog? The dog wouldn't have gotten it. The dog wouldn't have understood.

Yeah. You stupid cat. Stupid cat. Okay.

So, let's see, the attacks were from credential stuffing, security flaws, blah, blah, blah. All right, do you have a video for us today? Of course. Man, I hope it's the one I was talking about.

I have a video for you guys. Every day. Okay, so listen. I don't want you guys to play the audio with it, but just play the video.

Yeah, do that. I'm surprised your watch hasn't gone off. And we don't have to watch the whole video, but I do want you to play this. And then once you get it, I'll start talking about it with you guys.

It's wild. I can't believe, like, I mean, I can believe, but, did you get it yet? Nope. Nope.

It's a long video. It's still sending. It doesn't send. Oh, there we go.

Okay. There it is, no audio. All right. All right, you see it?

I see it. I'm going to start playing it. Okay. So, allegedly, the female homeowner of this house was having her roof done, and right before it got completed, she called ice on the roofers.

I know where this is going. No payment. It's these Guatemalan roofers that apparently, or supposedly, she had known that they were illegal immigrants. And right before the end of completion, she called ICE.

So she didn't have to pay? Supposedly. Like, that is some cold-blooded wild stuff, man. Like, here's the problem.

There's a lot of issues with this, but... These guys are wearing masks. What? Who?

The ICE guys? The ICE guys do all the time, so you don't know who they are. Well, the ICE guys are, I mean, that's irrelevant. Like, the scarier part here is the fact that it doesn't take much for somebody to figure out who's home this is, right?

And this could easily escalate for this person very, very fast. Where a $10,000 roof, you know, stealing from a $10,000 roof is not gonna... Recover, possibly recover all the other stuff that could happen to this person. I mean, the person blatantly shows the house, right?

And, like, I'm sure there's a report, like, it's probably not hard to put this together. Right. " No, I've heard about this in the past, you know, but this is the first one that I've seen, It's actually on social media. Oh, you've heard of this happening before?

Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, you would think this is a rocket science, I mean, it's an easy scam to pull. Right.

Well, I mean, I don't know how easy it is, 'cause you, like, you have to find a roofing company. Oh. You know what I mean? " That's solely illegal immigrants.

Right. How do you figure that out? Maybe ways. You know?

Just because somebody speaks Spanish only doesn't mean that they're illegal. Right, but maybe you ask. How's the warranty working on this? Oh, wait, so you're not a company?

Oh, you're not a legit company. Well, how do you get the permit? You gotta be a legit company. Well, you could not get a permit, too.

I mean, it could be unpermitted work. Unpermitted work? Yeah, you're right. " Yeah, but now that it's, now that it's at this level, somebody can report it?

Right. Well, first of all, the guy that comes to your house to sell you the roof, doesn't have an accent, and is usually quiet. Okay. The workers that come may have the accent, but they usually aren't talking to you.

The only way you can tell, and I'm not being racist, I don't know what I'm gonna say. Okay, yeah, okay. It sounds like you're being racist. If they go lay under trees during their break.

Wow. Wait, that's how you determine it? That's what makes them? That was definitely racist.

That was racist. It was 100% confirmed. It's funny you talk about this. I'm redoing a house out by the beach.

Are you using undocumented workers? No, I haven't. Allegedly? Allegedly.

So, this lady was like, she's got some money. So, like, things like this are not in her world. Right. " - Wow, that was weird.

- Yes, ma'am. - Okay, alright, bye. - I thought he was talking to me, I had to look at the screen for a second. - Yes, baby, I call you baby.

- Yeah, I was like, uh... - She doesn't normally call, I thought maybe something was wrong. - Oh. " I'm like, man, that was me, I would have told him, you shouldn't be so close to the road, you know, and she's like, well, what do you mean?

I'm like, then I had to explain to her, I'm like, well, did anybody speak English? She's like, no. I was like, oh, yeah. That's what I meant.

I like how you're walking this back now. Right. And you're saying less. No, no, no, I wasn't.

No, I was trying to, I was trying to tell her, but I didn't want to be like, well, that's because you hired illegals. You don't know that, though, buddy, you don't know that. I don't know, I just feel like I've seen enough. You've seen enough?

I feel like when they, if they leave the job site during lunch, they have papers. They're not illegals? Yeah. Really?

Wait, wait, what, you determine whether or not they stick around for lunch? Yeah. That's interesting. How does that, what does that make a difference?

I don't know, man, it's just, it's just like something I've seen. We need you to media report this. - We need to go out on the field and confirm. - I'm gonna start, when I drive around to see a work crew under a tree, I'm gonna call ICE.

- Yeah, I just-- - Oh my God. - Wow. - Apparently that's-- - That was cold blooded. - That's what he said, that's how you tell.

- He's just trying to take a yes to my dude. - My guy's working his ass off and we're gonna, you're gonna rope him. " - You might have a better shot going to the Home Depot Over there in Orlando, off of Lee Road or something, and looking at those guys. - Well, you figured if that was true, that's where ICE would hang out.

- You know, that's a good, if I was an ICE agent, I know of all the spots. - Oh yeah? - Yeah. - You know of the spots?

- Yeah. - Oh my God. - Cubans on the run, I'm going there. - Oh, geez.

- Dude, we're gonna get some aggressive comments on this one. - We're all going to hell. Please note that Phil speaks for himself and not for all three members. Not for, yeah.

His comments are his own. It is not the practice of the Cigar Hustler podcast, Mike and Mike Productions, or Sammy Palm LLC to discriminate. It's a secret company. All right.

Cigar news, everybody. Going into cigar news. Thank God. We got some fat guys making a cigar.

Oh, the fat guy. - League of Fat Bastards releasing Department of Honors as first PCA exclusive. - I'm so glad he said League of Fat Bastards. - That's the fat guys.

- I know. - Next month, League of Fat Bastards will unveil a new limited edition project that will honor first responders and the six branches of the United States Armed Forces, and which will only be available to retailers attending the 2026 PCA convention, a trade show. The Department of Honor is a four-pack of cigars that contains two each of two different blends, both offered in a Corona Vitola, though the specific size has not yet been disclosed. I don't understand that.

They're saying it's going to be a Corona, but they're not saying it's going to be a Corona. They're not telling the actual dimensions. Oh, the dimensions, gotcha. The company initially announced that it wasn't disclosing the blends, only that one of the milder side and one of the stronger side.

Okay. However, Adam Levine, founder of League of Fat Bastards, told Half Wheel that the lighter blend uses a Habano wrapper while the heavy blend uses a Mexican San Andreas wrapper. Got it. O.

League of Fat Bastards Cigar Team and the company's mental health advisors. Corona Gorda. Corona Gorda. Now, listen, I'll agree that I think the Corona Gorda, which is actually what I'm smoking right now, is probably the best size, right?

Right. It's one that I enjoy the most, uh, Toro, you know, I probably smoke, I don't smoke a lot of Robustos. Yeah. Just a waste of time for you.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, even if I don't have time to finish the Toro, I'll just throw it out and get another one. Right.

So, but you know what is kind of cool about the, what's fascinating with the Coronas is I'll, if I, if I know that I'm really limited on time, I'll cut it in half before I light it. Oh. Yeah, I'll take the scissor to it and cut it. Like the vice versa?

That we talked about on yesterday's show. Yeah, only just standard Corona. Right. Yeah.

What do you do with the, with the half that you cut off? I cut, I smoke the bottom half first. Oh, so you do smoke both parts? Yeah, I'll smoke the top half later.

Okay. Because that way, like, the integrity is protected of the cap and stuff, right? Right. I mean, this sounds more along the lines of, like, we want to make the announcement, and we want to get it out before the show.

Right. We don't have everything together. Right. We don't have all the details.

Yeah. And I understand that. I get it, because you want to be able to announce something. You know, Charlie's been kind of bugging me about what's going on with our newest button.

But I'm like, well, you know, I'm finalizing a couple things here, so, like I get it. Only PCA though, like releasing it only to PCA members, the only way that really kind of works is you produce it after you had your orders taken, right? If you already have X amount kind of squared away and you don't sell them all at the show, that means that everybody can get them. And nobody can get them.

Right, you're going to open up after. You're going to have to sell them. Right. So, I mean, that's usually the design that more people have been leaning towards, in my opinion, especially when it comes to TAA or all this other.

This is for TAA members only until it's no longer for TAA members and then it's available for everybody. Six months later, maybe you can have it too. And I think that, to be honest, I think that that design really kind of pisses off both parties because now TAA members don't get the exclusivity. " Right, then we're only gonna be able to get this from me.

" Right, you lose on both ends. Yeah, so I think that that's probably the worst approach, you know? All right, well, with that being said, they're only making 400. Oh, so they've announced.

Unless they sell more, then they're gonna make more. 400 packs. We can expand production if demand exceeds the $400. You think they sell the $400?

I don't know how popular they are at the moment. What are the packs of? Packs of $10? No, packs of $2 of $4, so $8?

Packs of $8. Hold on, I think that's what I said back here. It doesn't really say. Okay.

But there were four cigars, so it can't be ten, it's got to be eight. So it's two and two? Yeah. So maybe it's four packs of four?

Well, they're making four different cigars, you get two of each one. Okay. So you get eight. So they're packs of eight.

Packs of eight. So do you think, Phil, do you think that they sell 400 packs of eight at the show? Yeah, I don't think that's hard. I'm confused on four cigars with six branches.

- I mean, that's a good point. - Well, they're paying homage to all six branches. I don't think they made a cigar, you know, not like a, not a Marine cigar, a Navy cigar, an Army cigar, a Coast Guard cigar. - That's how I understood it.

- Right, that's the way it reads. No, I think they just made, they just made four different cigars. - Yeah, okay, so that's what, that's 3,200 cigars? - Yeah.

- That shouldn't be difficult. - I don't know, I think that it's more challenging than you'd think. - Yeah? - Yeah.

I mean, this isn't the first time I've heard of League of Fat Masters. No, they've been around for a few years. Yeah. Uh, they weren't, their booth wasn't far from his last year, with him waving distance, you could see him.

Yeah. Did you wave? Adam seems like a good guy, you know? Uh, I don't know him, I know, uh, I can't think of his name.

Eddie Tarazona? Yeah, I know Tarazona. Is he still there? Uh, as far as I know.

Yeah, I haven't heard of him. Maybe not. I don't, I don't, I don't know. A lot of his, uh, social media posts are a little questionable at the moment, so.

Well, if he goes out, we know who's coming in. Who's that? Tony. Tony who?

Tony Gomez. Tony Gomez. No, he's at Artista now. He's found a new home.

Oh, that's good. Yeah. He's been there for a while. All right, who wants to guess on the price of what these packs are?

Go ahead, Michael. It says it's a four-pack, so I don't know. The price says blank per four-pack. Oh, so it is only a four-pack.

Maybe it is only four. Okay. You want to go first? Sure.

Let's go 60 bucks. I'm gonna call it 40. 25. Boom.

A little over $10 cigar. Company anticipates that the Department of Honor will begin shipping mid-May. It's a nice-looking package, but it's gotta be AI'd because it looked really nice and clean and sharp. Right.

You can't tell anymore with AI. You can't tell. Well, the pictures aren't nearly as good when they're not AI'd. Right.

You can tell. So there's a difference to them. All right, Gran Habano. Let me ask you, how many news articles do you have for the next?

I have three. Just like a standard show, we have three, and then three, and then three, and three. Okay, 'cause you're running a count of long, do you have enough trending topics as well, so you're good to go? Yeah.

All right, 'cause you could always cut this short if you wanted to. If you want to, we can, I mean, hold on, I think the last, 'cause this one's about Gran Habano, which was just sort of a filler story. They're making a Honduran cigar called The King, Persian King, and then the next story. Ooh, it's a long story apparently.

Not even cuts him out. Ooh, Quesada is changing his logo. Ooh, No More Leaf? No More Leaf.

Okay. The latest change at Quesada Cigars is a new logo. " This is the latest change for the Dominican Cigar Company. In 2024, it was announced that Manuel Manolo Quesada Jr.

and his immediate family had bought out the other investors and owned 100% of the company. Previously, other family members owned various stakes. While Quesada Jr. moved to Spain, his daughter Raquel and Patricia are now running the company.

Is it going to be an arm, like a flex? It's a star. It looks like the Bethlehem star. Oh, really?

Spark up here now? Spark up here now. That doesn't really kind of roll off a tongue. No, not really.

But, you know, they've changed the name, the packaging, everything else. I don't think I'm really putting a cassata on my tongue, either. Change the distribution company. Like, I think that they were aiming in the right direction, right?

Yeah. But they missed, like, one of the firing squad guys? Yeah, like a three-word kind of slogan, maybe pushing to four. Yeah.

Like, I get that, that, you know, you want something that, I mean, just do it. Like, let's just do it. Right. Nike?

Yeah. Oh, I thought you made out many words. So, you know, like that makes sense to me, but like spark up here now, I don't know. And there's a comma.

And there's a comma? Spark up, comma, here now. Spark up, comma, here now. Right.

So it's five. And a star. The star is the new logo. Like, not even a five point, 'cause it's like the star of Bethlehem.

Right. The way that looks when they do a cartoon or something. Okay. Yeah, I mean, we'll see.

We'll see, maybe I'm wrong, you know, I've been wrong before, I don't, I don't know though. It's gonna be weird for bands. Nah, it'll work on a band. Okay.

All right, now it's time for the industry's favorite game. What's the score? Today's cigar is for March 25th, 2026. It is a recent review.

Patrick Le Greed Cigars. It is the Scandinavian Tobacco Group, CAO, Flathead Speed Shop Habano. A cigar we did not long ago on the Patreon. Okay.

Patrick. Patrick. CAO. Speedhead.

Speed Shop. Speed Shop. Habano Crankshaft. I'm not sure on the size, but don't say it yet.

I'm gonna go 88. I don't remember if I like the cigars, I'm just going to say 85. Okay. Yeah, that's it.

I don't remember either. Zio Flathead Speed Shop Crankshaft, Nicaraguan is from STG Esteli, Wrappers, Ecuador and Habano, Binders, Mexican San Andreas, Filler, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua is a six and a half by fifty-four box press, and they smoked free. Eighty-seven. Eighty-six.

Clue number one, the cigar delivers a really enjoyable balance of toasted grain, creaminess, and pepper, with flavors involving nicely throughout the smoking experience. Eighty-seven. - 87. - 86.

- Construction is solid overall with good draw and consistent burn performance for most of the cigar, allowing the profile to shine. - Yeah, that doesn't really say much when it regards to a box press, especially one with a 54 gauge. 87. - Sparky over there?

- We're getting to the end of the show here. It was about to light up. - I feel like I'm starting to remember it now. - It's coming back to you?

- Yeah, 'cause, I mean, I remember I had the question, I was like, who ordered these when you brought them downstairs? Because I know Melvin likes to smoke these. - Okay. - So I had never seen them before until Melvin started smoking them, and then I saw you guys, I got them.

This wasn't a bad cigar, I'm gonna go to 89. - Third glue, the cigar can develop heat and sharpness in the final third if not smoke slowly. Which slightly detracts from the overall experience. 87.

89. Final thought, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the profile claims made about the CAO Flathead Speed Shop Habano, but I did find it to be a bit lighter and more refined than what I recall from the other experiences. With the brand, the profile isn't the most adventurous I've ever had, as it tends to stay pretty close to what I would call Familiar flavor notes, but it does do a good job of moving between those flavors, much like a well-tuned car, taking on a road curvy enough to provide some thrills, but also maintain enough speed while keeping some pretty decent guardrails in place to keep things from going off the cliff. Wow, way to stay in character there.

Yeah, good job, Patrick. Nicely done. 'Cause he's saying, like, he liked, he wasn't sure of it, it wasn't, you know, a lot to it, but he kind of liked it. 88.

A decision must be made, Phil. Maybe if you did the rev, there you go, he's revving, there you go. There you go. Mmm.

Mmm. Mmm. Well, 87. 88.

Boom! You didn't see this, did you get it? It was from today. No.

I never see any of these. The only ones that I see are Postano ones. Gotcha. Just checking.

I mean, you hit it right on the nose. Do you guys want me to just stop it when somebody hits it on the nose? No. It's like when you get 21 when you're gambling?

No. We like the anticipation. I love that. Because, I mean, like, he was screwed either way.

" - Oh, yeah, I could. - Oh, I forget you guys can do the same. - Right. But you're giving up a lot at that point.

- Yeah, we're two, I think we're both two alpha to really guess the other's number. - Alpha. - Yeah, like, we don't want, like, we want to try to beat each other. - Well, we're competitive.

- Yeah. - Well, yeah, that's what I mean. I mean, whatever. - Ah.

- Whatever word you mean. - We are very alpha. All right, tonight we're at Humidor Fine Cigars, And then tomorrow afternoon we will be at Bo Weevil Cigars. And we may have a couple Wing Hazar hats.

Wing Hazar. Ooh. Yep. Only PCA swag for you to get.

Bill Yarny? Then April 1st I'll be doing a Zoom herf with the Beer Guys 911. And yesterday I was on a Joe Pasquale show. Oh, did you actually get that done?

I will tonight, but yesterday I was on. - Oh, that's right, yeah. - All right, guys, that's it, we gotta go, thanks. - All right, thanks, bye.

- Goodbye. - Like and subscribe.

Show Notes

The Moon Said No, Iowa Said Fire, and Your Vacuum Said Spy

On todays show The Moon has Been Rescheduled, Its not for a potato Gun!  Skynet is in all our homes!  Then in cigars The fat guys make a new cigar, the king of Honduras is Persian!  And Quesada is making changes all this and a what’s the score

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