Liquid Courage: Huff 'n Puff by Sharon Lurie

© 2019 David’s Harp and Pen

*DISCLAIMER:  Certain names, places, and situations have been changed to protect the innocent from harm and the guilty from embarrassment.*

In my never-ending quest to become a better writer, I decided it would be a good practice to start trying new things and then blog about my experiences.  My first new thing to try was a cigar, for two reasons.

The first reason was that one of the guys from Beer and Bible opened a cigar shop.  (If any of you are in the vicinity of Dickson, Tennessee, please stop by Big Boy’s Cigar & Lounge, especially if you are a career politician with a large discretionary income and poor money management skills.)  Big Boy is one of my best friends, and so when he opened his shop, I got to learn a thing or two about cigars.  When I picked up my blogger hat again and was searching for something to try and then report on, I thought, “Why not try a cigar?  If it goes well, I can move on to something more adventurous, like flamethrowing or skydiving.”

After Beer and Bible one night, Big Boy talked me through the process of cutting the ends of the cigar and then lighting it with something that felt like a flamethrower.  I had asked him which would be a good stogie to try for a newbie, and so he hooked me up with an Atsiniki Nanaiya.

I didn’t know what to expect.  My only other smoking experience heretofore was taking a drag from a cigarette when I was 12, and it was not an experience I cared to replicate.  Cigars are different from cigarettes in that one doesn’t inhale cigar smoke, and they don’t burn as fast.  We sat on some swings behind the bar where we had our Bible study, and there was something rather peaceful about smoking the cigar while in motion with the cool spring breeze blowing against my skin.

The most surprising part of my experiment was the way the flavor of the cigar changed the longer it burned.  When I first lit it up, I tasted a mocha flavor.  I don’t like coffee, so I was not a fan of that initial puff.  As time passed, the flavor changed to a slightly sweet and spicy mixture of cinnamon and ginger, and finally, to notes of citrus, like a blend of lemon and orange zest.  Big Boy said that is a regular phenomenon among cigars.  I must say the I liked the last flavor better than the first or second, and I’m glad I kept at it long enough for the flavor payoff at the end.

My second reason for wanting to try a cigar is that a pivotal scene in one of my favorite movies of the last decade or so involves cigars.  Miss Pettigrew Lives for Day is about a regimented and uptight governess named Guinevere Pettigrew.  Miss Pettigrew has never really taken any risks or had any fun.  After getting fired from the last in a string of governess assignments, she, through a misunderstanding, ends up as the social secretary for rising starlet Delysia Lafosse.  Her new employer turns out to be a hot mess, juggling relationships with three different men simultaneously.

Nick, one of the boyfriends, shows up at the penthouse just as Phil, the second boyfriend, is leaving. Nick accuses Delysia of unfaithfulness when he sees an ashtray with a recently smoked cigar in it.  The cigar clearly belonged to Phil, and Delysia’s cover was about to be blown.

“Since when do girls together smoke cigars?  Hmm?  Answer me that,”  accuses Nick.

Miss Pettigrew, a clergyman’s daughter, who has never done anything wild, seemingly unChristian, or impulsive in her life, walks over to the ashtray, puts the cigar to her lips, lights up, takes a few puffs, and says defiantly to Nick, “If I want to smoke cigars, I’ll damned well smoke cigars, thank you very much, and to hell with your opinion!”

“What, they’re yours?” Nick asks, dumbstruck, yet thoroughly convinced.

“You betcha, Baby!”  Miss Pettigrew declares triumphantly.

A large chunk of the movie deals with what kinds of people we are under pressure, in new surroundings, or when the heat is on.  Miss Pettigrew started out unsure, but as time went on, she found strength, adaptability, and daring she didn’t know she had.  She began pretending to be someone she wasn’t, but as the day passed, she was, in fact, becoming the best and truest version of herself.

I think about Miss Pettigrew and that cigar I smoked.  They started out off-putting and out of place, but the longer they went, the better they became.  That’s how I want to be, too.