The art of the PR stunt is alive and well and living in Puerto Rico in the form of a 62-foot-long cigar. The stogie, which took four days to make, was the brainchild (is that even the right way to describe such a thought?) of Patricio Pena of San Juan, who said he wanted to do it to "displace Cuba" as the home of the largest cigar (although, strangely, some of the 20 pounds of tobacco used to make it came from Pennsylvania). A 45-footer was created in Havana in 2003—good enough, at the time, for a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

This was not a solitary venture. Pena had funding from Bacardi, Telemundo and the city of San Juan. There are no known plans for anyone to actually smoke the cigar, but if that changes, may we suggest they do so in a remote place, like the Nevada desert?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor