The authors provide a detailed study of the linear and nonlinear problems in Hölder spaces on the cigar, including a sharp boundedness estimate for the semigroup, and use this as a tool to obtain sharp convergence results toward the Barenblatt solution, and higher order asymptotics. In finer convergence results (after modding out symmetries of the problem), a subtle interplay between convergence rates and tail behavior is revealed. The difficulties involved in choosing the right functional spaces in which to carry out the analysis can be interpreted as genuine features of the equation rather than mere annoying technicalities.