In general, Elliot actually prefers cigars. His favorite is the Cordoba Fuerte, a taste he acquired from a kind Romani woman he met in Andalusia. Fascinated by his mechanics, she invited him to her home to read his fortune. Elliot was impressed and hoped to get to know her better, but suddenly the couple were interrupted by Don Jose Lizarrabengoa, a Basque guard who had taken sympathy on her when she harmed a coworker in a fight. Though Don Jose was arrested and imprisoned for a month for letting her go, he was rewarded when she met him after his release and the two began a steamy affair.
Love however, proved a rebellious bird and flew from both Don Jose and Elliot when the woman fell for a Bullfighter, as was apparently the tradition in that place and time. This accounts not only for Elliot's taste in tobacco, but for his extreme hatred of Bullfighting. The tragedy was horribly compounded when she tried to give Elliot one last hug and kiss, and was impaled fatally on his head.
Thus it can be assumed in the preceding comic that Elliot is only kidding, a joke lost on Dr. Breign who knows nothing of the stress he causes Elliot with his own incompetence, nor of Elliot's tragic, romantic past.
