… From one of those college-age pipe smokers you’ve been hearing about …

Ethan Brandt

My music teacher always smelled of pipe smoke. I started taking piano lessons from Charlie Rose (no association to the Channel 9 talk-show host) when I was only five years old, so I did not really know what the smell constantly lingering on him was, but I knew that it was there. I knew that it smelled great. It was as much a part of him as his cracked leather jacket and perfectly maintained trumpet.

I never had the grandfather that smoked a pipe—at least, not while I was alive—nor did I have the uncle or father. I had Charlie.

Tommy Zman is a "real" guy - someone who considers himself a throwback to a time when men were kings of the castle, and smoking a cigar (or pipe) in public didn’t label you an outcast and a pariah. He’s totally old-school, a down to earth guy with traditional values.

Check out his excellent rant on how ludicrous outdoor smoking bans are in the March 2012 edition of Cigar Chronicles, "Do Cigar Smokers Even Stand an Outside Chance?"

We received a fun and interesting email from Rick Newcombe the other day. Rick, the author of "In Search of Pipe Dreams", just came back from a trip to China and found that a smoking pipe is certainly a symbol of masculinity in that country. They demonstrate it in a amusing way. A smoking pipe symbol is used to designate the Men’s Restroom, whereas a high heel shoe designates the Lady’s Restroom.

Rick said:

I was in China earlier this month and spotted this universal artwork to designate "men’s rooms" and "women’s rooms." The toilets were at one of the ferry piers in Shanghai. I’m not sure what your pipe babes would do, but I thought many of your readers might find this interesting.

Here are the photos -

By Steve Stein

(Originally Published October 2009 in The Pipe Collector (Newsletter of the NASPC)

[Here's some great instructions that will give the most enjoyment while smoking your favorite pipes and tobaccos. Learn how to properly pack, light, tamp, & puff for maximum smoking enjoyment.]

I’ve smoked a pipe for 41 years but have really learned how to smoke more enjoyably during the last eight years. I learned to smoke a pipe from my role models (Grandfather, Father, Uncles and a favorite cousin). I also learned their habits, many of which I had to unlearn. I started with drugstore pipes and tobaccos and consequently scorched my mouth and tongue that was explained as ‘breaking in my mouth’. During my first year of college, a friend of mine dragged me to a local pipe shop and a whole new world of pipes and tobaccos emerged. I tried some high quality tobaccos and bought my first decent pipe. From then on I was hooked and my love affair with pipes, tobaccos and the various accessories was well entrenched. I actually got a job at the Edwards shop in Milwaukee and eventually joined the staff at Uhle’s Pipe Shop until I graduated. I would also take trips with the guys to Chicago to visit the shops there every couple of months. My taste in tobaccos gravitated from the aromatics to English and burleys but I was not able to acquire a taste for Virginia blends. I did a stint in the Army Reserves in California, more school in New York State, a job assignment in Florida and eventually wound up in Kansas City, all the while still making the rounds of the local pipe shops and still unable to enjoy Virginia blends.

A number of years into my Kansas City gig, a group of guys at our favorite pipe shop (Cigar & Tabac) decided to start a pipe club. One of the guys (Quinton Wells) insisted that I try his favorite tobaccos Beacon and Escudo. He took the time to explain some of the techniques that were necessary to enjoy Virginia blends. I was still not completely converted but this began my metamorphosis. I began to take notice of the various smoking habits of the guys around me who seemed to really enjoy smoking as a hobby. My observations lead me to learn that I had some habits that were preventing me from fully enjoying my smoking. Among others, I packed my tobacco with a heavy hand, tamped too often and with too much pressure, I puffed too aggressively, and I scorched my tobacco when lighting my pipe. After adjusting my technique (really re-learning how to smoke) I am now able to more fully enjoy my pipe smoking. I’ve shared some of my thoughts with the guys in the pipe club and was encouraged to share this with others who might wish to try some of these tips, hence the submission of this writing to NASPC.

By Michael P. Foley

Raised in a proud Irish American family - the "P" in my byline is for Patrick - the annual watching of the 1952 classic film The Quiet Man was a cherished ritual. Even before acquiring that marvel of technology, the VCR, we could always count on a UHF channel (remember those?) televising the movie around St. Patrick’s Day. No matter how many times I saw it, it was always a treat. John Wayne, who later said that this was the favorite of his movies, is superb as Sean Thornton, the quiet American who returns home to his native Ireland. And Maureen O’Hara is at her very best as Mary Kate Danaher, Thornton’s fiery, redheaded love interest. The humor is what jaded audiences today would call camp, but under John Ford’s masterful directorship, it is wonderfully human and always arch.

The Quiet Man is also, as one perceptive observer put it, "sex ed without the word ’sex’ ever being used." Issues involving sexuality, community, and marriage are explored in a way that preserves the innocence of the youngest viewers while giving the grown-ups something serious to ponder. Only in hindsight do I realize the debt I owe to The Quiet Man in teaching me the higher meaning of, rather than the mere biological facts about, the love between a man and a woman.

By Michael P. Foley
The current brouhaha over smoking has made everyone painfully aware of tobacco’s effects on the body, but it has also obscured a more profound reason for smoking’s popularity: its relation to the soul. As the heyday of smoking passes into the ashheap of history, it is meet that we reflect on this connection.

The soul, of course, is a complex thing. Long ago Plato suggested that we consider it as divided into three parts-the appetitive, spirited, and rational-that correspond to the three basic kinds of human desires: the desire to satisfy physical appetites, the desire for recognition, and the desire for truth. Once this tripartite division is recalled, tobacco’s relation to the soul becomes clear: the three prevalent types of smoking tobacco-cigarettes, cigars, and pipes-correspond to the three parts of the soul.

By Michael P. Foley
Many of us may recall the somewhat arduous task of having to read Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in school, wading through chapter after chapter of detailed accounts of whales and whaling in the nineteenth century as we impatiently awaited the final showdown between Captain Ahab and his nemesis, the terrifying and menacing white whale. Perhaps afterwards we were inclined to agree with the English critic who called the novel "an ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact," one that is "disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English." But let us leave behind for a moment the bitter memories of homework and coerced appreciation of literature and view the novel with fresh eyes. For in addition to being the greatest fishing tale in world literature, Moby Dick offers a compelling reason for us all to enjoy a good pipe.

The anti-smoking crowd loves to say there is no safe alternative to cigarettes … but are there better choices? Yes, there are. One of the best alternatives to cigarettes is pipe smoking. Why do I say this? Well, first of all, as you’ve probably guessed, I am a pipe smoker. I get great enjoyment from smoking my pipe. At the same time, I have heard from many former cigarette smokers that have taken up pipe smoking. Everyone of them is glad they did, and for several reasons. It’s cheaper (on a per smoke basis), healthier, and more relaxing.

The 26th Annual CORPS Exposition & Celebration, or “The 2010 Richmond Pipe Show” as it’s commonly known, took place the first weekend of October; 1st, 2nd, &3rd 2010.

The Richmond show is one of the longest running pipe shows, and the second largest after the Chicago Pipe Show. The show attracts a semi-national crowd of pipe hobbyists, mostly from the along the entire east coast, the south and parts of the Midwest.

Pipe makers and sellers of new and collectible merchandise come from all over the US and internationally. One notable visitor that came all the way from Denmark was well-known pipe artisan Peter Heeschen.

We receive numerous submissions here at PipesMagazine.com, but we don’t often publish them.

This is from The official blog of: Romeo’s Downtown Pipe & Tobacco Co. (Rogers, AR)

An interesting side note is that Frank Romeo, the owner of Romeo’s Downtown Pipe & Tobacco, was the very first member to ever sign up to PipesMagazine.com. He actually signed up while the site was still in development.

You can see an article we published about his shop here:
Romeo’s Downtown Pipe & Tobacco Co.

We think this is a great list of pipe & tobacco etiquette, and it is also a little comical.

They decided to title it "Official SMOKER LAW, 1st Ed.", which had us thinking it was about anti-tobacco legislation, but it is not.

This list should be the only real laws about tobacco.