Cleopatra

Well this is another 2-fer day. The politically incorrect story of Cleopatra, as well as a rant and rave about the absolutely divine $1 Thompson (TCC) Cleopatra Needle Lancero.

6 1/2 x 34, Candela leaf wrapper, Short Filler.

I was actually introduced to this extraordinary smoke by sheer luck. There were some of these delightful strumpets in an otherwise ordinary sampler. But, I remember these and discovered that there a bit hard to find. You actually have to run a search on the Thompson website. Odd this is the one house brand the establishment doesn't promote. Of course, the lancero is currently 'hot' for some reason, the flavor of the season in cigar groupie land. But maybe they have plenty of dog rockets to get rid of instead.

It might be too presumptuous to expect you to run out and plunk down the $55 for a box based on my recommendation. But, I really get transported when I smoke one of these.

Okay, well it's non-descript short filler from who knows where in 'central america'. But, this is the first Thompson House brand cigar that I swear by. And as a real bonus these come a little green and sort of box pressed. Actually, I'm going to call these green instead of fresh, not because they are in a green wrapper, but rather because they seemed to have firmed up a touch aging in my humidor and aren't quite as soft now.

Now for the other half of the story. That is the Anthony and Cleopatra story. Actually, it's a real story of chemical warfare, revenge, and the real truth behind the fall of the Roman Empire. And, yes, it all revolves around a tragic love story.

We'll skip over 'The Cleo' as a sex act as you can't prove it by me, but it is suppose to be named after that Queen. Anyway, the Roman General Mark Anthony ended up in Egypt inspecting the empire, and it was a things like that happen but it's bit more than a fling.

Now here the reality starts to differ from the official history, and so I imagine it's more a matter of who's writing the history and what you choose to believe. But then here is where it gets interesting, the first recorded case of chemical warfare and the end of an empire. Eventually, Anthony get's recalled to Rome and unknowingly walks into a succession power play and gets assassinated after his Uncle Julius. Thereafter, Cleopatra disastrously ends up marrying her brother after the death of her husband in an attempt to keep her empire intact. It goes badly and she commits suicide.

Now you might think, that's the end of the story: another inbred ruling class twit meets a bad end. Although, Cleopatra may not have been much to look at, apparently, she was a rather intelligent and rather level headed ruler for the time. So after her death, her slaves looked into the matter and decided a little vengeance was in order. The peculiar thing was that they mixed up a lot of cosmetics and heavily laced them with arsenic. And they did know what they were doing since they turned around and offered it up as tribute to the Romans. The rest is history, albeit forgotten or unmentioned, first off, both men and women of the Roman ruling elite wore copious amounts of makeup including whatever passed for lipstick at the time.

Now the reason that you don't know the truth behind the fall of the Roman Empire is that slaves don't create history, that's for the elite, the leaders the ruling class... so it never happened, officially.