The Week That Never Ends (Programming Notes)
This annual New Year’s tradition at halfwheel contains a few elements. There’s the programming notes portion, a reminder, a reflection and a small peak into what…
Ten Questions for 2021
There are less than a dozen hours of the year—the year—remaining. As I’ve done at this point of each year for over a decade, it’s…
Graded: Ten Questions for 2020
The idea of the words graded and 2020 bring a bit of a smirk and sigh to my face. Certainly conventional wisdom—and an endless stream of social…
What the Election Results Mean for Cigar Smokers: 2020 Edition
Barring some very on-brand 2020 curveballs, Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. As I did the last time I published…
10 Thoughts: FDA’s Substantial Equivalence Requirements Delayed for Premium Cigars
Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s premarket approval deadline of Sept. 9, 2020…
12 Thoughts: FDA Wants to Reevaluate How to Regulate Premium Cigars
By Sept. 8, 2020 cigar manufacturers and others will have to submit documentation to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for premarket approval to…
Six Thoughts: Goodbye to Nat Sherman
When I was growing up, my father’s humidor was a Nat Sherman humidor. The small thing that he bought in the 1980s probably was capable…
Six Thoughts: Appeals Court Strikes Down All FDA Cigar & Pipe Warning Labels
Earlier today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) could not require…
12 Thoughts: PCA 2020 Is Canceled, Now Onto Bigger Problems
A few weeks ago, I raised a question to some people in the cigar industry: What would the conditions need to be for the Premium…
PCA 2020: The Reckoning is Here
The moment of reckoning has arrived. On Friday, Altadis U.S.A., Davidoff of Geneva USA, Drew Estate and General Cigar Co.—likely the four largest companies in…
Eight Things: FDA’s Planned Ban on Flavored Vaping Pods & Premium Cigars Being the “Lowest Priority”
Earlier today, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration unveiled draft guidance that would effectively lead to a ban on flavored vaping and e-cigarette pods/cartridges. In…
