U N I V E R S I T Y   C L U B   O F   C H I C A G O

CIGAR NEWS

THE NEXT University Club informal smoker will take place in the Tower
Club bar on Tuesday, January 10th, 5-7pm. Uttering "iacta alea est"
("the die is cast"), Julius Caesar crossed the little Rubicon river on
this date in 49 BC, making Roman civil war inevitable. Classicists
Gregory O'Leary (Northwestern '84) and Alexander Sherman (Princeton '97)
will read, with translation, from Suetonius's "Lives of the Caesars"
('Divus Julius,' sec 32). BYO cigars, chit bar.

COMING UP...

Wednesday, January 11th, 5pm, Tower Club: Guitarist Christopher
Laughlin will perform Spanish and Latin guitar favorites. Laughlin,
a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, has played to critical acclaim
for audiences around the world. He has also released two CDs and is
the director of the Laughlin School of Music in Northbrook. Wine and
cheese reception at 5 pm, program at 5:15 pm. Discrete smoking in
the bar following the performance.

Tuesday, January 24th, 5-7pm, informal smoker in the Tower Club bar.
In this meeting we will celebrate the life of Sir Winston Churchill,
the British leader who guided Great Britain and the Allies through
World War II, and whose name is synonymous with a certain extra-large
cigar. He died on January 24th, 1965, in London, at the age of 90.
For the last 65 years of his life he started each day with a scotch
and soda, in bed, smoked 8-10 Cuban cigars a day, and, according to
his biographer William Manchester, drank continuously. "There is
always some alcohol in his bloodstream, and it reaches its peak late
in the evening after he has had two or three Scotches, several glasses
of Champagne, at least two brandies, and a highball." We will observe
the date with a sumptuous assortment of handmade churchills. David
O'Connor, who is fond of repeating Churchill's oft-quoted remark that
"All I can say is that I have taken more out of alcohol than it has
taken out of me," will lead the numerous rounds of cocktails and
toasts.

January 19-24: the 2006 Windy City Open, the largest professional
squash tournament in North America, will be held at the University
Club and participating local squash clubs. Meet-the-Players party
Saturday night, 5:30-9:30, Michigan Room; post party at Syn, 1009
North Rush. Pro quarterfinals January 22, semifinals January 23, and
finals January 24th, in Cathedral Hall, University Club. Our own
John Flanigan, a USSRA-certified Level One Coach who has in addition
ranked as as high as 3rd in the U.S. Amateur 35 Division and was
Minnesota State Champion in 1996, 1997 and 1998, hosts the event.

Thursday and Friday, January 26th and 27th: Fight Night in Cathedral
Hall. The University Club's premier cigar and boxing event. Cocktails
and hors d’oeuvres at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m. and boxing at 8:30 p.m.
Black tie.

Thursday, February 2: Winter Cigar Dinner at the University Club.
Cocktails and cigars in Room D at 5:30, followed by dinner and cigars
in the adjoining Room C (the Board Room) at 6:30, followed by cigars.
The four-course dinner will emphasize traditional fare manly enough for
the three robust cigars provided. Special guest will be award-winning
Chicago author Billy Lombardo, also recently on the stage at the Step-
penwolf Theater ("Chicago Stories," Dec. 15), who will talk about com-
ing of age in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood and sign first-edition
copies of his collection, "The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories," win-
ner of the 2005 Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction (University of
Missouri Press).

Wednesday, February 8, 5pm, Tower Club: Mae Cohn is an operatic
composer who has developed an art form known as Chamber Opera, a
variation on a popular form in the 18th through the early 19th
centuries known as Singspiel. Chamber operas are short, sparsely
staged works in which a small number of singers, in costume, sing a
dramatic cycle of songs. Miss Cohn will be joined by Lyric and Met
star Buffy Baggett, and Frank Milioto, a well-known figure on the
Chicago musical scene. Wine and cheese reception at 5 pm, program at
5:15 pm. Discrete smoking in the bar following the performance.