While I was in Zagreb, Boris Guina gave me two marvelous Cohibas. The largest of the set made by the finest Cuban cigar brand, they are a joy to behold. Boris got them from a friend who regularly goes to Cuba, but he prefers cigarettes by far. The cigars thus sat for several weeks in the icebox Boris keeps in his studio. They got pretty dry in the meanwhile. My first job was to restore them. I quartered an apple and put it together with the cigars into a sealed plastic container. The cigars got pretty moist in a day, and I took two apple quarters out. A day later I took another quarter out, split the remaining one in half, and wrapped each eighth in a kitchen towel. Wedged between the two, the cigars reached Motovun in perfect shape. After three days of my anxious treatment, the first cigar was a delight. And so is the anticipation of the second. On top of the pleasure, I now feel like a master of cigar restoration. A fine art in its own right, no doubt.