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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Author: Chris ODonnell From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Dec 24th, 2025
Category: Blog Entries.Local

I finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil last night. It ends up being a good book, but it takes a while to get there. It's a narrative non-fiction story covering an alleged murder in Savannah, GA. The book is highly atmospheric in a Southern Gothic way, representing Savannah as a quirky town full of genteel Southerners, but also a place where anything goes.

I really don't understand how it's one of the longest-running NYT bestsellers of all time. The murder that drives the story doesn't happen until about 40% into the book. Before that, it's a meandering story of a NY writer moving to Savannah and the hijinks he gets into with a too-crazy-to-believe but 100% real cast of characters. Once the (alleged) murder happens, the story picks up through the trials of the alleged murder.

All I can think is that in 1990, before travel videos on YouTube and Vloggers, 98% of America knew absolutely nothing about Savannah and thus were just totally captivated by the atmospheric storytelling in this book. When I visited Savannah a couple of years ago, the local tour guide referred to Savannah as Slowvannah, and I have to admit, I was a little underwhelmed by the city. Also, I lived in Atlanta from 1989 to 1998 and never once visited Savannah. I thought about Saint Patrick's Day in the city a couple of times, but it never worked out.

So I'm glad to have knocked off a "classic." If you have not read it, I would not necessarily jump it to the top of your TBR list. The exception is if you are planning to visit Savannah. I would definitely read it first in that case. I read South of Broad before visiting Charleston, and it added to the experience.

Best Books of 2025

Author: Chris ODonnell From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Dec 24th, 2025
Category: Blog Entries.Local

I have 46 books on the books page for 2025. Several are DNFs, and there are probably 5 more in-progress books that never made it to the page. These were my favorites. Reviews are all on the 2025 books page, so I'm not repeating them here.

Fiction

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
Everything Burns by S.A. Cosby
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
The Life Impossible - Matt Haig
The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings

Non-Fiction

Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen
Touching My Father's Soul by Jamling Tenzy Norgay
Stolen by Richard Bell
The Girl From the Tar Paper School by Teri Kanefield

Smoke and Stillness at Advent’s End

Author: David From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Dec 22nd, 2025
Category: Blog Entries.Local

Advent unfolds with a familiar rhythm — candles lit, days counted down, anticipation slowly building. And yet, when Christmas week arrives, it always seems to come sooner than expected.

Here we are, just a few days out from the big day. Despite the usual last-minute to-do lists, there’s still time to pause and enjoy a good smoke and sip. Even the weather is cooperating — at least by December standards — with comparatively warmer temperatures.

From the humidor, I selected a Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend in the Corona Largo vitola. The Bishops Blend line is one of my all-time favorites, and my humidor typically holds a selection of sizes. This 6 1/4? × 46 cigar offers an enjoyable 90 minutes or more of flavorful smoking.

Released annually in limited numbers, the Bishops Blend consistently hits my preferred flavor profile and often finds its way into these Musings. The blend features an Ecuadorian Habano Maduro wrapper, an Ecuadorian Habano binder, and a filler combination of Nicaraguan tobacco along with Connecticut and Pennsylvania Broadleaf. Medium-full bodied, the cigar delivers rich, complex notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, pepper, and espresso, balanced by a touch of sweet earthiness.

The accompanying pour for the evening was a Virginia ABC single-barrel selection of Sazerac Rye. This is a rye I frequently use in Old Fashioneds and other rye-forward cocktails. It’s budget-friendly, moderately spicy, and also quite enjoyable neat. This particular single barrel carried the familiar Sazerac profile, though I noticed a distinct spearmint-like note on the finish.

With Advent nearly complete and Christmas close at hand, the brief stillness lingered as the evening came to a close — offering a moment of reflection and relaxation before the season turns fully toward celebration.

Cheers!

Smoke and Stillness at Advent’s End

Author: David From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Dec 22nd, 2025
Category: Blog Entries.Local

Advent unfolds with a familiar rhythm — candles lit, days counted down, anticipation slowly building. And yet, when Christmas week arrives, it always seems to come sooner than expected.

Here we are, just a few days out from the big day. Despite the usual last-minute to-do lists, there’s still time to pause and enjoy a good smoke and sip. Even the weather is cooperating — at least by December standards — with comparatively warmer temperatures.

From the humidor, I selected a Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend in the Corona Largo vitola. The Bishops Blend line is one of my all-time favorites, and my humidor typically holds a selection of sizes. This 6 1/4? × 46 cigar offers an enjoyable 90 minutes or more of flavorful smoking.

Released annually in limited numbers, the Bishops Blend consistently hits my preferred flavor profile and often finds its way into these Musings. The blend features an Ecuadorian Habano Maduro wrapper, an Ecuadorian Habano binder, and a filler combination of Nicaraguan tobacco along with Connecticut and Pennsylvania Broadleaf. Medium-full bodied, the cigar delivers rich, complex notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, pepper, and espresso, balanced by a touch of sweet earthiness.

The accompanying pour for the evening was a Virginia ABC single-barrel selection of Sazerac Rye. This is a rye I frequently use in Old Fashioneds and other rye-forward cocktails. It’s budget-friendly, moderately spicy, and also quite enjoyable neat. This particular single barrel carried the familiar Sazerac profile, though I noticed a distinct spearmint-like note on the finish.

With Advent nearly complete and Christmas close at hand, the brief stillness lingered as the evening came to a close — offering a moment of reflection and relaxation before the season turns fully toward celebration.

Cheers!

Crossing the Rubicon: A New Direction for Cohiba

Author: David From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Dec 20th, 2025
Category: Blog Entries.Local

I was excited to see the Cohiba Rubicon included in the October Cigar & Pipes Cigar of the Month shipment. The Rubicon is a new line from Cohiba, which General Cigar Company began shipping in August of this year. After a 10 week rest in the humidor, I lit up the 5 1/2? x 55 box-pressed Robusto on a warm evening earlier this week.

The Rubicon is a budget-friendly, regular-production offering from a brand better known for premium — and typically pricey — cigars. The Robusto retails for around $8.00, which, if the quality is there, makes it quite a bargain — especially in today’s market, where many mid-range cigars start in the $12–$15 range.

The Cohiba Rubicon is a good-looking stick, even if the orange-and-black band borders on a bit gaudy. The box-pressed cigar feels substantial in the hand, likely due to the wide 55 ring gauge along its flat edge. The blend is composed of six tobaccos from five countries, featuring a Connecticut Broadleaf binder and fillers of Dominican Piloto Cubano, Honduran tobaccos from La Entrada and Jamastran, and Estelí, Nicaragua. In addition to the Robusto, the line includes Toro and Gigante vitolas, all priced under $10.

The cigar opens at medium body with notes of sweet nuts and coffee, accented by a light touch of cedar — a profile that feels almost like a morning smoke. As it progresses, both body and complexity build steadily. By the midpoint, the Rubicon ramps up into the medium-full range, bringing darker flavors of molasses, dark chocolate, and espresso. The spice evolves as well, settling into a well-integrated black pepper. The transitions over the roughly 85-minute smoke were both noticeable and enjoyable.

Overall, I found the Cohiba Rubicon to be a flavorful and fairly complex cigar with excellent construction and burn. While it may not go head-to-head with Cohiba’s higher-end offerings — or other premium-priced cigars — it delivers a satisfying experience at a very approachable price point.

When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River in northern Italy, he reportedly declared alea iacta est — “the die is cast.” Perhaps this welcome entry from Cohiba signals a similar commitment, setting a new standard for premium cigar makers by offering genuinely enjoyable smokes at everyday prices.

Cheers!

Crossing the Rubicon: A New Direction for Cohiba

Author: David From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Dec 20th, 2025
Category: Blog Entries.Local

I was excited to see the Cohiba Rubicon included in the October Cigar & Pipes Cigar of the Month shipment. The Rubicon is a new line from Cohiba, which General Cigar Company began shipping in August of this year. After a 10 week rest in the humidor, I lit up the 5 1/2? x 55 box-pressed Robusto on a warm evening earlier this week.

The Rubicon is a budget-friendly, regular-production offering from a brand better known for premium — and typically pricey — cigars. The Robusto retails for around $8.00, which, if the quality is there, makes it quite a bargain — especially in today’s market, where many mid-range cigars start in the $12–$15 range.

The Cohiba Rubicon is a good-looking stick, even if the orange-and-black band borders on a bit gaudy. The box-pressed cigar feels substantial in the hand, likely due to the wide 55 ring gauge along its flat edge. The blend is composed of six tobaccos from five countries, featuring a Connecticut Broadleaf binder and fillers of Dominican Piloto Cubano, Honduran tobaccos from La Entrada and Jamastran, and Estelí, Nicaragua. In addition to the Robusto, the line includes Toro and Gigante vitolas, all priced under $10.

The cigar opens at medium body with notes of sweet nuts and coffee, accented by a light touch of cedar — a profile that feels almost like a morning smoke. As it progresses, both body and complexity build steadily. By the midpoint, the Rubicon ramps up into the medium-full range, bringing darker flavors of molasses, dark chocolate, and espresso. The spice evolves as well, settling into a well-integrated black pepper. The transitions over the roughly 85-minute smoke were both noticeable and enjoyable.

Overall, I found the Cohiba Rubicon to be a flavorful and fairly complex cigar with excellent construction and burn. While it may not go head-to-head with Cohiba’s higher-end offerings — or other premium-priced cigars — it delivers a satisfying experience at a very approachable price point.

When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River in northern Italy, he reportedly declared alea iacta est — “the die is cast.” Perhaps this welcome entry from Cohiba signals a similar commitment, setting a new standard for premium cigar makers by offering genuinely enjoyable smokes at everyday prices.

Cheers!

Weekend Update 35

Author: Chris ODonnell From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Dec 20th, 2025
Category: Blog Entries.Local

So, I've apparently gone from not writing weekly updates to only writing weekly updates. Is that an improvement?

My big achievement this week was to redesign my consulting website. The previous one was a placeholder. It held the place for about 6 months. Otherwise it was another week of not even putting on shoes M-F since all I did was work. It was sunny and comfortable today so we spent the afternoon in Carytown, where I had a truly fabulous cup of tea (a hot buttered rum flavored herbal tea) as we wandered in and out of the shops. The shops were very busy on this last weekend before Christmas, so I guess that is a good sign for the local economy.

I'm looking forward to taking it easier the next couple of weeks. I'm working Monday and Tuesday this week, although probably not the full day, and 1 or 2 days the following week.

Today was my book club's annual celebration of Jolabokaflod, the Icelandic tradition of giving gifts of books and chocolate on Christmas Eve. We do it as a white elephant gift exchange, at a brewery. It's always a lot of fun. I came home with The Worst of All Possible Worlds by Alex White. I acquired it via steal because the back cover blurb starts with, "If you miss Firefly..."

Also, I've been using Waterfox as my primary browser, and so far I'm impressed. It seems nice and speedy and the default settings just seem to work.

Watching

We watched another heartwarming and romantic Christmas movie - Gremlins. We also watched Stand By Me, as a tribute to Rob Reiner. I had forgotten that Wil Wheaton was the star of that movie. I remembered that he was in it, obviously, but I remembered it more as 4 co-stars. But nope, the story really revolves around Wheaton's character.

Reading

Reading has been slow. I'm reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was kind of a slog for the first half of the book, but now that the murder has occurred the pace of the story has picked up and I'm enjoying it much more. I'm probably going to have several new additions to the TBR pile after Thursday morning, so I need to break this reading slump that I am in.

Links

One of my favorite bloggers with some thoughts on the true meaning of Christmas.

Thin desires are eating your life.

The writers at Pencilstorm have some thoughts on Kiss kissing up to Trump.

Is Christmas Vacation actually an anti-capitalism movie?

And with that, this is likely my last weekly-ish updae for 2025. However, I still need to write my favorite books of the year post, and my annual year-end posts on 12/31, which is this website's birthday. The site will be 30 years old. I will have much more to say on that later.

I wish you a joyful and peaceful holiday season, whatever you may be celebrating. Or if you are not celebrating anything at this time of year, I hope the last days of 2025 are good for you, for whatever definition of good you choose.

And that is it for this week. Remember, in a world where you can choose to be anything, you can choose to be kind.

Weekend Update 35

Author: Chris ODonnell From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Dec 20th, 2025
Category: Blog Entries.Local

So, I've apparently gone from not writing weekly updates to only writing weekly updates. Is that an improvement?

My big achievement this week was to redesign my consulting website. The previous one was a placeholder. It held the place for about 6 months. Otherwise it was another week of not even putting on shoes M-F since all I did was work. It was sunny and comfortable today so we spent the afternoon in Carytown, where I had a truly fabulous cup of tea (a hot buttered rum flavored herbal tea) as we wandered in and out of the shops. The shops were very busy on this last weekend before Christmas, so I guess that is a good sign for the local economy.

I'm looking forward to taking it easier the next couple of weeks. I'm working Monday and Tuesday this week, although probably not the full day, and 1 or 2 days the following week.

Today was my book club's annual celebration of Jolabokaflod, the Icelandic tradition of giving gifts of books and chocolate on Christmas Eve. We do it as a white elephant gift exchange, at a brewery. It's always a lot of fun. I came home with The Worst of All Possible Worlds by Alex White. I acquired it via steal because the back cover blurb starts with, "If you miss Firefly..."

Also, I've been using Waterfox as my primary browser, and so far I'm impressed. It seems nice and speedy and the default settings just seem to work.

Watching

We watched another heartwarming and romantic Christmas movie - Gremlins. We also watched Stand By Me, as a tribute to Rob Reiner. I had forgotten that Wil Wheaton was the star of that movie. I remembered that he was in it, obviously, but I remembered it more as 4 co-stars. But nope, the story really revolves around Wheaton's character.

Reading

Reading has been slow. I'm reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was kind of a slog for the first half of the book, but now that the murder has occurred the pace of the story has picked up and I'm enjoying it much more. I'm probably going to have several new additions to the TBR pile after Thursday morning, so I need to break this reading slump that I am in.

Links

One of my favorite bloggers with some thoughts on the true meaning of Christmas.

Thin desires are eating your life.

The writers at Pencilstorm have some thoughts on Kiss kissing up to Trump.

Is Christmas Vacation actually an anti-capitalism movie?

And with that, this is likely my last weekly-ish updae for 2025. However, I still need to write my favorite books of the year post, and my annual year-end posts on 12/31, which is this website's birthday. The site will be 30 years old. I will have much more to say on that later.

I wish you a joyful and peaceful holiday season, whatever you may be celebrating. Or if you are not celebrating anything at this time of year, I hope the last days of 2025 are good for you, for whatever definition of good you choose.

And that is it for this week. Remember, in a world where you can choose to be anything, you can choose to be kind.

From Screen to Smoke: Martin Kove’s The Prodigal Son Cigar

Author: David From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Dec 17th, 2025
Category: Blog Entries.Local

Actor Martin Kove, best known for The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai, is an avid cigar smoker. In collaboration with Paul DiSilvio, founder of La Casa Grande Cigars, and Sanj Patel, owner of Sanj’s Smoke Shop, Kove has developed a cigar line called The Prodigal Son. Named after an upcoming television series and a four-part comic book in which Kove is involved, the cigar was announced earlier this year but has seen only limited availability so far.

As I learned earlier this year, my brother-in-law happens to know Martin Kove and, through his acquaintance with both Kove and Paul DiSilvio, managed to obtain some of the new cigars. He generously sent a few my way, and I’ve had them resting in the humidor for about a month to recover from their travels.

The cigar’s blend remains undisclosed. Beyond the collaborators, the only concrete details are that the cigars are produced at Tabacalera Jurarip in Tamboril, Dominican Republic. The initial release consists of a single 6 × 52 Toro, with distribution limited to just three retailers: La Casa Grande Cigars (Bronx, NY), Sanj’s Smoke Shop (Bloomfield, NJ), and Smoke Inn locations in South Florida. Wider availability is reportedly planned for 2026.

Given that Martin Kove is himself a cigar aficionado and had a hand in approving the final product, it wasn’t a huge leap of faith to have high expectations. I’ve smoked a couple over the past week and have not been disappointed.

The cigars are well made, featuring an even pack and a smooth, oily maduro wrapper. The draw on both samples was spot-on, the burn consistently even, and the smoke output plentiful. Immediately upon lighting up, I detected a distinctly Dominican tobacco character, marked by medium-bodied woodiness and an underlying chocolate-like sweetness. As the cigar settled in, notes of cedar and mild pepper began to coat the tongue and mouth — perhaps hinting at some San Andrés influence. The profile is complex without overwhelming the palate.

Approaching the final third, I noticed a marked increase in strength along with the faintest hint of a nicotine rush. This was unexpected, given the cigar’s medium-bodied profile and the fact that I rarely feel nicotine effects, even from cigars rumored to be exceptionally strong. The spice character evolved as well, picking up touches of cinnamon and added sweetness, evoking thoughts of Christmas cookies — that impression perhaps influenced by the season.

The first time I smoked The Prodigal Son, I sipped only water. With the blend undisclosed, I wanted a clear sense of the cigar’s flavors before choosing a pairing. For the second cigar, enjoyed a few days later, I poured a glass of J.H. Bards Skipper’s Select Toasted Barrel Bourbon. It had been about a year since my last pour from this limited-release bottle, but memory suggested it would be a good match.

Skipper’s Select is one of several whiskies produced by the Blacksburg, VA distillery to benefit the Triumph NIL fund for Virginia Tech athletes. This expression honors Skipper, the iconic cannon fired by the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets whenever the Hokies score a touchdown at Lane Stadium.

The toasted barrel bourbon offers classic aromas of caramel and vanilla, enhanced by a mild char. On the palate, it delivers smooth fruit and sweet caramel notes with a pleasant wood-char finish. While the finish is relatively short-lived, it’s an enjoyable sipper at a mild 93 proof and paired nicely with the cigar.

Both The Prodigal Son cigars I’ve smoked thus far have been 2+ hour smokes — two very enjoyable hours indeed. I’ll admit to being somewhat cynical about celebrity-branded products, and I’d read plenty of pre-release hype surrounding this cigar. Once I was fortunate enough to have them resting in my humidor, I even hesitated before lighting one up. After all, I “know a guy who knows a guy,” and I hoped I’d be able to offer a genuinely positive review. After smoking a couple, I believe the line will be a hit with smokers, assuming it eventually becomes more widely available.

The Prodigal Son is a well-balanced, thoughtfully made cigar with a complex flavor profile. I’ll be watching with interest to see how the line develops. In the meantime, I’ll be happily enjoying the stock I have.