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EXTRA!
Infamous "U-Club Four" SUSPENDED for Sixty
Days
by Sebastian Melmoth,
special to Cigar News (melmoth@logicophilosophicus.org) |
 David "King"
O'Connor, Mark "The Shark" Warden, "Doctor" Tuckey, and "Baby
Face" Nelson were reported to have been smoking in the Presidents
Bar around midnight on October 9 after a lengthy "Bring Your Own
Wine" dinner, in Cathedral Hall, to which much wine had been
brought. The House Committee sequestered and interrogated the
subjects, then deliberated the fate of the infamous four for two
months before handing down its sentence. In a certified letter
sent to each miscreant, the Secretary of the Board wrote, "Based
upon its investigation, the House Committee reported to the Board that
the group in question was smoking on Club premises without regard to the
Club's House Rules." And that "The Board has determined that
a sixty-day suspension is appropriate."
Asked his opinion of the terms of the sentence, Mark "the Shark"
(PhD '66 U of C and past president
of Daley College) said, "Given that no one in the history of
the University Club of Chicago had ever before been punished for smoking, and given that there was
no published recommendation for punishment, and given that
we were all first-time offenders on good terms with the club, yes, I
think sixty-days' suspension is entirely appropriate."
Asked about whether the events of
October 9 were meant as a protest, or to make some kind of point to
the Board of Directors,
"Doctor" Tuckey (PhD '91 UW) replied that "Although it might be
amusing to imagine that Mark 'The Shark' intended to draw
attention to the current plight of cigar smokers by (in the words of
a former board member) 'lobbing a few Cohiba bombs into the President's Bar', in
reality it was merely an impulsive midnight act in a moment of bad
judgment. We're all very sorry that it happened."
"Doctor" Tuckey was quoted one year ago by Rick
Kogan in the
Sunday Tribune Magazine (December
31, 2007)—
“Although the law is going to
drive us a bit underground, we will continue to meet twice a month (I
cannot say where),” declares the Society’s secretary, Curtis Tuckey.
He adds, echoing the days of speakeasies, “I will provide you with the
knock and the password later.” If you have never smoked you
cannot imagine the anxiety and nostalgia that have clouded the final
days of smoke-filled rooms.
—Rick Kogan
—and the Cigar Society has
in fact been meeting
privately in the lounge in the Iwan Ries Building and in other private
places since January. [See the report below.]
"King"
O'Connor (Holy Cross '68), when asked whether the Cigar Society would
continue to meet at the Lounge at Iwan Ries during the interdict,
replied, "We've had many meetings in private homes and in outdoor
restaurants independently of the University Club of Chicago, and our
meetings at Iwan Ries are already off-site. Furthermore, about a
third of our regulars are not members of the University Club of Chicago.
—Woops!
Now that I think of it, I guess more than a third! But we shall
certainly miss the careful attention of the delightful Ms. Lewis."
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"King" O'Connor |
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Mark "The Shark" |
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"Doctor" Tuckey |
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"Baby Face" Nelson |
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A report from the Secretary on the History of the University Club Cigar Society
in Exile
by Curtis
Tuckey
After the state-wide ban on smoking in almost all indoor
spaces, including private clubs, went into effect in Illinois on January
1, 2008, the University Club Cigar Society was forced
to find an alternative venue for its meetings. For the previous
few years the Society had met regularly at the Tower Club, with the support
of Tower Club managers Sarah Lewis and later Laura Herold, and before that the Society's
quarterly Cigar Dinners were very ably organized by Mary Holloway in the
main clubhouse.
Over the course of
this past year in exile, the Cigar Society was very hospitably welcomed into
several private residences, and we were
also very fortunate that
Chuck and Kevin Levi, of Iwan
Ries and Company, were just completing a new cigar lounge on the second
floor of their Adler and Sullivan building at 19 South Wabash, just around
the corner from the clubhouse. (Tobacco shops are exempt from the
ban.) Late in 2007, John Spidalette, the General Manager of the
University Club of Chicago, along with the secretary of the Cigar Society, met
with Mr. Levi about the possibility of the Cigar Society's convening
meetings there, privately. Mr. Levi was agreeable.
Mr. Spidalette and the University Club
of Chicago generously agreed to cover the rental expense for the lounge
at Iwan Ries for the times that the Cigar Society would meet there in its
first year outside of the clubhouse. This amounted to a total of
nine meetings in that location in 2008, at a cost to the UCC of a total
of $2700, which, for comparison, is less than the amount that one regular
resident UCC member pays in dues each year. (Also note that, in
general, affiliated societies are not assessed room
charges for meetings within the main clubhouse.) Club catering provided the
snacks and soft drinks, at regular prices, and, it must be said, at some
inconvenience to themselves, we being outside of the clubhouse and
across a block of heavy construction. Ms.
Lewis, and over the summer, Ms. Lazaro, managed the billing and made
sure that everything ran delightfully smoothly. This last fall, the leadership of the
University Club of Chicago decided
(independently of the antics of the "U-Club 4") that in 2009
it would discontinue its underwriting of the cost of the space any further, and that the Cigar Society
members would be
directly responsible henceforth.
While the support of the University
Club of Chicago did indeed make
for an orderly transition of the Cigar Society out of the clubhouse (for which we imagine the entire membership must be grateful) there
remain some inadequacies today with respect to the privileges that used
to be
enjoyed by the Cigar Society before the state-wide ban. Before
January 1, 2008, all club members were allowed to smoke in the Presidents Bar at
most times of the day, and the Cigar Society was able to meet as a group
every Tuesday (three of them informally, one with a speaker) at the
Tower Club or the main clubhouse. In 2008, Cigar
Society members lamented that they missed the old days of casual
meetings in the Presidents Bar, and the "Informal Smokers" on
Tuesdays at the Tower
Club. I am happy to report that the leadership of
the Cigar Society has negotiated a broad agreement with Iwan Ries and
Company that will greatly expand the number of nights that Cigar Society
members will be able to use the Lounge at Iwan Ries for its private
meetings, as well as have privileges at any time during
regular business hours. Separate dues will be required. Look for more information on this in the coming issues of Cigar News.
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About
the Cigar Society
ONE OF THE OLDEST
AND greatest traditions of the University Club of
Chicago was the discussion of intellectual, social, legal, artistic,
historical, scientific, musical, theatrical, and philosophical
issues in the company of educated, bright, and appropriately
provocative individuals, all under the beneficent influence of
substantial amounts of tobacco and spirits. The
University Club Cigar Society in Exile embraces this tradition
and extends it with its fortnightly Informal Smokers,
monthly
University Series lectures, and quarterly Cigar Society
Dinners, in which cigars, and from time to time pipes and
cigarettes, appear as an important component of our version of
the classical
symposium. To be included in the Cigar Society's
mailing list, write to the
Secretary
at
CigarSociety@logicophilosophicus.org.
Visit the Cigar
Society archive at
logicophilosophicus.org.
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Coming
up...
Don Hermann, Professor of
Law and Philosophy at DePaul University, will talk about the
ethics of torture, in late January.
Samuel C. Dudley, Jr., MD,
PhD, Professor and Chief of Cardiology, UIC, will talk about the history of the heart, near
Valentine's Day.
Bill Daley, Wine and
Food Critic for the Chicago Tribune, will lead a wine tasting,
and talk about wine and smoke.
Sam Sisodia,
Director of the Center for Molecular Neurobiology at the
University of Chicago, will talk about the brain. |
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