It's in Wayne, Pennsylvania so of course I want to refer to it as stately Wayne Manor but this home is a bit of new mixed with a bit of old. The listing calls it an "artisan revival-style" home, a nod to the fact that it mixes modern home design with a few classic touches like stained glass windows and decorative moldings and wainscotting. There's a lot of stone in this house, Pennsylvania granite, a slate roof, limestone balustrades, bluestone-brick terraces, statuary and monumental steps. This seems like a wealthy executive's home, it has a music room, paneled library, a dining room that seats 36 and a family room that has a more casual decor. There's a refreshing lack of television in the home, another detail that gives it a bit of an older feel. There are two large offices and four bedrooms. A guest suite has a separate kitchen. The downstairs is given over to an entertainment area and exercise rooms. An elevator reaches all four levels. The home is on three acres and there is a pool and a pool house. This home is listed at $14.7 million.

The Wall Street Journal's Private Properties column reported earlier this week that Jeffrey M. Lipton, the former chief executive of Nova Chemicals, has listed his Pittsburgh-area house for $7.75 million. Lipton's home is in the pricey suburb of Sewickley Heights. He tells the Journal that he spent around $6 million to build the home and buy the land in 2002. He is moving his family to Scottsdale, Arizona.

The six-bedroom home is roughly 13,000 square feet and is on 11 wooded acres. The home has a terrace, pool, five-car garage and vegetable gardens. It's a beautiful, modern family home with plenty of light and room and a far more gracious interior than the blocky exterior might suggest. The open floor plan and high wood ceiling make the home seem both spacious and warm. A large stone fireplace serves as a divider between living and dining areas and the kitchen is open to the rest of the space. The sunroom has another stone fireplace and does the media room which also includes a wet bar.

A cigar deal gone wrong will end in the ring on June 26, 2009. Tim Carr, Famous Smoke Shop retail store manager, and Pete Johnson of Tatuaje Cigars (which I do enjoy) will pull on the gloves and swing like hell to settle a dispute.

It's all pretty simple. Carr says that Johnson committed to be one of the featured vendors at Famous Cigar Expo in June. According to Carr, the Tatuaje pseudo-celebrity "readily accepted." Later, Johnson called a different manager at Famous Smoke Shop to back out. Carr considered this an insult, particularly when Johnson wouldn't accept his phone calls.

To drive the message home, Carr told Johnson that he wasn't acting like a man.

Eventually, the two agreed to settle their differences, in fact, like men. Both will swing furiously at each other in a boxing match to be held at Famous Smoke Shop headquarters in Easton, PA.

While only one man's hand will be held aloft in victory, both will emerge winners. Though Tatuaje won't be at Famous Cigar Expo in June, he'll instead participate in a major publicity stunt occurring at the same time.

Brilliant, gentlemen. Brilliant.

What are you doing on April 24? If you're a golfer, you're about to get a new answer to that question. That's the first day of the Famous 2009 Golf Tour, sponsored by Famous Smoke Shop and ESPN Radio of the Lehigh Valley. So, clean your clubs and get ready to head out to the Riverview Golf & Country Club in Easton, PA in a few weeks.

The golf tour itself stretches all the way to the Championship Round on October 9, so if you have a decent swing, you could spend close to six months chasing a little white ball around a carefully manicured lawn.

"Each match will be a two-man 'Best Ball Scramble,'" according to Famous Smoke Shop store manager, Tim Carr. "If a player doesn't have a partner, we will assign them one. Players' handicaps will also be used as a guide for creating the foursomes and pairing-up singles, but not for scoring of the rounds, which will be based on a points system," he added.

If, like me, you don't play golf, Famous Smoke Shop has a few other events planned for the summer, so you'll have no shortage of reasons to light up a cigar (as if you need one).

• Golf Round 1, April 25: Classic Car Show
• Golf Round 2, May 29: Motorcycle Show
• Golf Round 3, June 27: Cigar Expo 2009
• Golf Round 4, July 25: Classic Car Show
• Golf Round 5, August 29: Motorcycle Show
• Golf Round 6, September 19: TBD
  

The events will be held at the Famous Smoke Shop store in Easton, PA.

If you're planning to enter the tournament, the cost is $89.99 per round, and there are pro-rated discounts available for volume. A Happy Hour follows each event, where food and drinks will be served ... with featured cigars from event sponsors Drew Estate (ACID), CAO, Camacho, Cusano, Rocky Patel and Los Blancos.

Tickets for Cigar Expo 2009 are now on sale. The event takes place on Saturday, June 27 – starting at 2 PM. If you pony up for a VIP ticket, you'll also get to attend a dinner with the cigar manufacturers the night before. So, if you're in Easton, PA and have $150 to burn ($225 for the VIP level), this is an event to check out.

Famous Smoke Shop, the operation behind the festivities, will celebrate its 70th anniversary this year – as guests are likely to notice. "We're going to give this year's attendees the royal treatment," said Famous Smoke Shop Retail Store manager, Tim Carr ... and he gives some pretty compelling examples. "Not only will every guest receive at least 50 cigars, but we'll have plenty of entertainment, waitress service, a cigar menu, fantastic food, and some amazing raffle prizes."

The list of vendors participating this year is long and distinguished, including Altadis, Avo, CAO, Camacho, Davidoff, Joya De Nicaragua, Rocky Patel and General Cigar – along with many others. There's a good chance you'll find something you'll like.

Let the madness begin! Following grumblings across the country, more municipalities are starting to jump on the sin tax bandwagon ... and they're targeting us. Maryland, for example, is looking to use tax increases on tobacco (as well as alcohol and payroll) to fund health insurance via the state.

In a bout of much-welcomed civil disobedience, Davidus Cigars in Frederick and Urbana, Maryland, offers a message to his customers on its website: "CAUTION, you are about to enter the government shakedown zone."

The Maryland bill would kick the tax on cigars from 15 percent of the manufacturer's price to 90 percent. Of course, these are not the percentages that consumers would see (as a result of retailer markups), but the impact would be noticeable. Meanwhile, the cigarette tax would increase by 37.5 percent to $2.75. The State of Maryland expects these measures to generate $28 million in tax revenue.

Retailers, of course, are bleak. Davidus owner David Castro believes that the 90 percent tax rate would put him out of business. Proponents of the new expense for cigar smokers are dreaming more optimistic, claiming that cigar industry folks are "Chicken Little crying wolf."

Across the border in Pennsylvania, Governor Ed Rendell's 2009 budget would add another 36 cents per ounce to the tax on loose tobacco and the same amount for every 10 cigars. The tax on cigarettes would move from $1.35 to $1.45.

Real estate commenter extraordinaire, Spectacular Bid, led me to the website for Doe Run, a horse farm in Unionville, Pennsylvania. This classic estate has 220 green acres which have been the home to many race horses. The property also includes the gorgeous gardens of Sir John and Lady Thouron. The gardens include alpine, river, shade, wild flower and formal gardens and the listing pictures showcase some of this floral beauty. The gardens are supported by two large greenhouses. There are also expansive equestrian with two separate main stables, turnout stables and a bank barn. Spectacular Bid points out that Lady Thouron, a member of the du Pont family, was a steeplechasing and racing enthusiast who won races with the horses based at Doe Run and that she was also the original donor behind the University of Penn's veterinary New Bolton Center, which is where racehorse Barbaro went after his accident in the Preakness Stakes. The property includes six other residences including an 18th century farm house, guest house and gardener's cottage.

The main house has a front-to-back center hall, formal dining room, living room, and both a small and a large panelled study. There are nine bedrooms including a master suite with 18-foot ceilings and his and her baths, dressing rooms, and sitting rooms, one of which has private stairs to the lower-level study. It's no surprise that Architectural Digest has done a feature on this home. The press release aptly calls Sir John and Lady Thouron's home "a testament to their legacy of horses, horticulture, and refined living." Doe Run is listed at $15 million.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

Today's estate is another reader submission. Luxist reader Michael brought my attention to this huge home, 22,000 square feet of interior space in the posh town of Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. This six-bedroom home is grandly extravagant. It has a sunken living room, formal dining room, large kitchen, billiards room, family room, gym, , a Jacuzzi set in its own gazebo, and an office with a private bath and sauna. There are both indoor and outdoor pools, a huge master suite with an elaborate bathroom, and an entire level given over to recreation with the indoor pool, in-home media room that seats 20, massage room, and additional live-in apartment. The listing says the home cost $22 million to build but it is listed through Maxwell Realty for $19.5 million.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

When you think of bourbon you naturally think of Kentucky, but in fact they were making sour mash whiskey in Pennsylvania long before Kentucky was even settled. Michter's in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, originally known as Bomberger's, was the oldest licensed distillery in America when it closed down for good in 1988. A prescient fellow named Adolph Hirsch bought up Michter's' cask aged reserves of its precious 16-year-old pot-stilled sour mash bourbon years ago and stored them in steel vats for preservation. Distilled in 1974 and labeled as A.H. Hirsch Reserve, what's left of the stock is now owned by importer Henry Preiss, who plans to sell it off in a final edition of 1,000 bottles. Each one will come numbered in a special mahogany humidor with a booklet on Michter's' history, two hand-blown glasses and a custom heavy metal tasting cork from France, and is expected to sell for $1,000 - $1,500 when it becomes available in the fall.

[via Men.Style]

Today's grand estate is located in Malvern, a small town that was once the end of the Mail Line railroad in Pennsylvania. Today's home is located on a quiet country road and expands over 19 acres. The six-bedroom home has an original part that dates back to 1755 but had a major addition six years ago. There are 40 rooms total including a home theater, a large kitchen, hand-carved Parisian paneled living room and a billiards room in over 18,500 square feet. The grounds include a pool, tennis court, pond and there is a beautiful terrace that looks out over rolling green lawns. This home is listed at $10.5 million.

For more prime properties and lush locations, see Luxury Homes and Mansions.

Big construction is going on in downtown Pittsburgh. The downtown area which has long been in a state of slow decline is looking to be revitalized thanks to a couple of major projects especially the Piatt Place project. Piatt Place will be a redesign of the Lazarus department store building. Two upscale chain restaurants, McCormick and Schmick's and the Capital Grille will anchor the building and the rest of the building will be turned into offices and condos. The residential units are new construction, built on a new slab on top of the roof. The condos start $330,000 to $1.5 million each and in an article on KDKA it has been reported that 40% of the units are under contract.

But in a nationwide market that is not, for the most part, favoring condos, there may be trouble ahead. For example at another high-end project in Pittsburgh, 151 First Side, owners have closed on more than half of the 83 units but a handful are already up for resale. At the Carlyle, a project that has currently a 6,000-square-foot penthouse listed at $2.195 million, half of the 60 units are under contract but many of those buyers are investors and the second phase of the project is on hold. It seems that the problem in Pittsburgh isn't so much a condo glut of the type that has affected so many other cities, but instead is a question of changing people's perceptions of life downtown and whether or not people are willing to pay these types of prices when for the same amount of money they could get a fairly large home in the suburbs.

Today's estate is a slice of American history. Pheasant Hill Farm is located in Carversville, Pennsylvania. The 47-acre property is actually two separate parcels. The main home is on 10 acres and the other 37 are given over to farmland and wooded areas. The main residence is a cluster of frame and stone buildings. It is one of the earliest settlements in the area wit h public record showing a dwelling as early as 1704. The stone home is a country house with four bedrooms and it takes Americana collections to its cluttered extreme. The house and other outbuildings are surrounded by gardens and lawns and there is a large party room on the second level of the stone barn. It is listed at $6 million which is a really high price for the area.

Wow, this home on 90 acres is tucked into a small town located about an hour from Pittsburgh. It's really more of a compound than a home. The main house is over 10,000 square feet and has six bedrooms. It is dominated by a huge circular entry that includes a glass elevator which connects o a tower of rooms in the round including a home theater, wine tasting cellar and the showcase, a 360 degree rotating observation view study with a box beam ceiling and an outdoor deck. Other features include a huge three-story pool room with a cascading fountain and both a lap pool and a wading pool which are ringed by redwood balconies. The lodge has a stone fireplace so large it needs two animal heads mounted on it and its own indoor barbecue. This massive home is listed at $5 million.

Today's estate listing has 70 pictures, but that's because there is a lot to check out. The 12,000-square-foot mansion is Michael Andretti's home in Bushkill Township, Pennsylvania. Andretti the son of racing legend Mario Andretti and the father of current Indy Racing League star Marco Andretti. He is also a former racer and is now the owner of Andretti Green Racing as well as other businesses. Andretti built the home in 1986. The ten acres include a six-hole golf course, six-car garage, pool, tennis court and a pond. The home is lavish and developed to the owner's specifications with hand-painted murals that reference the family's Italian heritage. There are six-bedrooms total as well as a gym, game room and wine cellar and massive two-story dome. The home is listed at $3.4 million.

[via Penn Live]

This country home in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania is both elegant and farmhouse casual. The home is a barn conversion with plenty of expansive high-ceilinged rooms as well as cozier spaces like the downstairs family area with stone walls. The home is on 2.4 acres that include a pool/spa and a separate stone farmhouse which functions as a pool house/guest house and has a fireplace and a full kitchen. The home also features a country cute mural in the dining room. Can't you just imagine stringing that big tree in the front with lights for the holidays? The home is over 7,400 square feet and is listed at $2.35 million.