Re-Charge with Your Pipe
-
Kevin Godbee - Jun 25, 2010
- 3 min read
by Chelsea Morning
You can tell a lot about a woman by what she carries in her purse: lipstick, cell phone, gum and hairbrush; everything but the kitchen sink (unless we can fit that too). I’m going to give you a rare peek inside mine. Move past all the typical items and you’ll find a smaller purse. You may be thinking that I’m a girl in need of a purse intervention, but this is where I keep the good stuff. Inside my mini-purse is my pipe, some tobacco, a tamper, and my matches. Now I don’t sound so ridiculous. Now I sound like a girl who doesn’t want to leave home without her pipe. If you’ll excuse me a moment, I’m going to get my Churchwarden. I always work better when I’m more relaxed. I hope you’ll join me.
Let your mind drift through the smoke. This can be done among friends or in solitude. There’s no wrong way to enjoy it and I guarantee you’ll start to wind down and the worries of the day will begin to fade. It’s hard to frown with a pipe in your mouth (unless that’s the look you’re going for, and we want pictures!). Life passes us so quickly and much of it is spent waiting for retirement. I’m offering you a piece of retirement right now.
Life won’t slow down for you, so take life by the stem, light it with a match, and enjoy it.
I have a list of things to do and I’m sure it’s similar to yours, leaving little to no time to relax. No matter how I struggle or how competently I pursue, it never grows smaller. I’m constantly feeding it and I rush around as though I’ve gone mad trying to get everything done as swiftly as possible. This is standard practice for our society. We are not about waiting, we are about doing. We have one-hour photo, fast food and instant messaging. We’ve become spoiled by instant gratification. Our contentment becomes an obstacle, cutting us off from new pursuits that demand exploration outside of our initial interest. I’m guilty of it too, and that’s one of the reasons I picked up a pipe. There’s a certain amount of experience needed to achieve the delicate balance of choosing the pipe that fits my mood, the tobacco that will most relax me and packing the bowl just right. This is a ritual I enjoy. Even as a beginner I never felt impatient when the first light didn’t give me that full white smoke, or I struggled to get the tobacco packed just right. It’s rare indeed that such trial and error can lead to a relaxing encounter.
We’re inclined to keep our worries tethered to our shoulders and we cleave to them as though they are all that’s keeping us afloat. We seek console in mind numbing activities which offer us short-lived fulfillment. I grew tired of my only downtime consisting of crashing in front of the TV or computer after a long workday. One hour became two, two became four and suddenly the whole evening has moved on without you. My friends became voice mails or email addresses, and when I did see them their faces were often ghost-lit by the intrusive screens of their cell phones. These days, people seem increasingly unable or unwilling to give you their full attention, allowing it to be constantly pulled away by an insistent phone, email or text message. I’m tired of looking at the tops of everyone’s heads as they gaze intently into their laps at the dinner table, as though the world is unfolding on their napkin.
Trade me your phone for a pipe and I’ll give you an hour of your life you didn’t know you were losing.
Nothing is more fulfilling than doing something you truly enjoy, whether with the enthusiasm of a novice or the deep appreciation of an old hand. There are times when the most rewarding things are the ones that draw you in, that you must work at, the things that beg for deeper investigation. I look at pipe smoking as a cause to slow down and take stock, to refocus my energies and ease the weight of the day off my shoulders, even if just for an hour. I hope you will join me on this worthy voyage.
Until next time, I wish you all a long and pleasant smoke.
 In addition to being a pipe smoker, and writer, Chelsea is also a professional model. You can see her photo shoots in the Pipe Babes section. When she is not burning up the camera lens and tobacco, she also works as a paralegal for a Midwestern law firm.
|
Written by Kevin Godbee
8 Responses
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, Ă la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of HerbstdĂĽfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Awesome work!
Nice insights; and you have a talent for turning a phrase. Thanks for taking the time to share with us.
Great article Chelsea!
So many people rush around these days without taking the time to “Stop and Smell the Roses”. Pipe smoking is a great way to slow down for awhile and “smell the roses”.
From picking out the pipe and tobacco, all the way through to the last puff, it gives the time to relax and let the world slow down a bit where we are not caught in the hustle and bustle of the hectic everyday life.
Even if it’s just for an hour or so.
Thanks everyone! You’re right Bob, even an hour can be very rejuvenating if you are doing something you enjoy.
there was something about you that drew me in. part of it is your writing but there was something else and it took my wife to point it out to me. she was looking over my shoulder and saw a picture of you and asked, “since when did your daughter smoke a pipe.”
so, in a way i am proud of your writing and talent in a fatherly sort of way. (i can not beleive i said that.) keep writing and i’ll keep reading, i really enjoy it.
Makes me want to light up…a cigar of course. 🙂 I’m very proud of you!
A worthy voyage indeed Chelsea! Bravo on your insight into the passion of the pipe. I agree that life must be enjoyed to the fullest, each moment never taken for granted rather respected as precious. In the smoking of a pipe many moments of magic come to life. As the gentle gray smoke rises into the air dreams are made and for a vapor of time cares and worries subside. A time to examine ones inner self and their part in this chaotic world in which we exist. Thank you dear lady for your thoughts and for sharing them with us. Amazing!!
Ray Keep The Faith
Amen to all that…right on !!