I think people suppose there is a "pipe smoking type" because it is a somewhat dramatic, and now somewhat
rare, form of body language. People hang the professor/intellectual tag on it sometimes, or if the pipe is a
cob, a somewhat rough and ready tag. But it is profoundly misguided. What does it mean if someone
collects electric trains, does snow skiing, is active in local politics, or takes tango classes. Trying to decide
what someone is like for these, or other, activities is just goofy. The tango guy or gal could be a professional
cage figher, and the electric train guy could be a brain surgeon, though neither of those careers would occur
to me learning about the avocation. Had a prof in grad school who sounded like the mountain boy he was,
and was greatly amused when academic types would condescend to him (he looked even younger than he was).
He would slowly lower the boom on them with this traumatic astonishing vast memory for literature, jazz and
other music, and a dozen other disciplines. He could remember all of the plots of all of the works of authors
I'd never heard of. It was fun to see pompous people walk into that trap.