Why Columbo Smoked Cigars

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sjfine

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 4, 2012
653
4
"I hope you don't mind if I light my cigar. Most women don't like cigars. My wife prefers a pipe, but I could never get used to those things. Too much to carry around with you."
- Columbo in Prescription Murder (1968)

 

robwoodall

Can't Leave
Apr 29, 2015
422
5
I once saw an episode of Mr. Bean (Yeah, I know. I was bored) in which he played a construction worker. When the lunch whistle blew, he began to assemble a sandwich from dozens of tiny boxes and bags secreted around his person.
He carefully sliced fresh bread, measured out mustard and mayo, meticulously mixed and measured each component, until he finally, finally had his sandwich ready, when the whistle blew again... and he dropped it!
OK. Silly exaggeration, but I often feel that way when I'm fiddling with my pipe.
I still love Columbo, by the way!

 
"I hope you don't mind if I light my cigar. Most women don't like cigars. My wife prefers a pipe, but I could never get used to those things. Too much to carry around with you."
- Columbo in Prescription Murder (1968)
^^^ I think that is why everyone who smokes cigars, smokes cigars. When I smoke at cigar shops, I always, always, always hear, "I love everything about pipes, I just couldn't get the hang of it" ...or some variation thereof.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I like a good cigar, and they're engineered to provide a good smoke mostly with one light, unless you want to smoke in increments. But the cigar is programed and you get what the cigar maker offers. Pipes are interactive, and you play a large role in what you smoke and how you smoke it, and mix blends if you choose, and pack it, tamp it, and light it the way you will. So yes, you have to get the hang of it. But if you can, you risk becoming a devotee. Colombo was a brilliant creation.

 
Jan 4, 2015
1,858
11
Massachusetts
There is something very ritualistic about pipe smoking that requires more preparation that other forms of smoking and the rewards often take more time before you really get to enjoy them. There is a learning curve. In spite of it all the old adage holds true, "Cigarettes are to be smoked, Cigars to be enjoyed but pipes are to be savored". Impatience is not the hallmark of a pipe smoker nor is "instant gratification". As a group, we seem quite willing to take whatever time might be required. A concept lost on many. As for Columbo, the writers probably didn't want him resembling Sherlock Holmes. His "dumb like a fox" persona seems right for a cigar. I can't imaging Columbo being fastidious about anything.

 

sjfine

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 4, 2012
653
4
Au contraire. Columbo was fastidious about everything. He was fastidious about clipping his cigar (he chewed off the end, rather than cutting it); he could not wear any raincoat other than his own, old one; he planned every single move he made; and he noticed all of the little things (clues and inconsistencies) that all others missed.
My take on cigars is somewhat different also. I loved the ones that I smoked. I gravitated to Cubans and Padrons. Most other cigars just didn't do it for me. I was meticulous in how I cut them (straight cut); I removed the band before lighting (the European "method"); I lit them slowly, using only a soft flame and never letting the flame touch the foot; and I smoked them quite slowly (often needing many relights).
I realize that this may not be the norm, but it is how I approached the ritual.

 

shutterbugg

Lifer
Nov 18, 2013
1,451
21
I originally started out with cigars in my early teens. In college people still smoked in classrooms (not large theater-seating lecture halls). I cought a lot of flack from the girls (most of them were cigarette smokers)about the so-called stench of cigars. Well I think cigarettes stink not to mention taste like shit and had no intention of switching to them. When I asked how about a pipe? the girls were all oooh yeah, my dad/uncle/grandpa smokes a pipe and it smells great!
So I was planning on hitting the nearest drugstore for a Dr. Grabow and a pouch of Borkum Riff, but there was a b&m tobacconist on the way into campus and I stopped in and the owner was very helpful and told me to skip the drugstore crap pipes and tobacco, and so I picked out a couple Savinelly Punto Oros and started smelling those big apothecary jars of house blends.
Planned on getting something sweet-smelling, but when I came to the English blend and the reek of Latakia nearly made me gag, I asked the owner if it smelled as bad lit as it did in the jar. He said, worse actually. So the devil-me on my shoulder said let's teach those little bitches a lesson. So I bought some English and when I fired it up in class they practically begged me to go back to cigars. But I said nope, too late, I love this stuff!
Anyway after college I went back to cigars because they were just less hassle and frankly I like cigars. But then in the 90s the young hipsters turned cigar smoking into their latest fad, and the price of a decent cigar went up about 30X. One good but not great cigar today costs as much as a full tin of Dunhill pipe tobacco that lasts me a couple weeks. So I said to hell with cigars.
Btw Columbo may have smoked cigars but in real life Peter Falk was a heavy cigarette smoker.

 

deathmetal

Lifer
Jul 21, 2015
7,714
32
But then in the 90s the young hipsters turned cigar smoking into their latest fad, and the price of a decent cigar went up about 30X. One good but not great cigar today costs as much as a full tin of Dunhill pipe tobacco that lasts me a couple weeks.
Interesting bit of history there. Hipsters are hard to light but it's worth it.

 

eddiegrob

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 15, 2009
122
28
There's something about the pipe that goes well when thinking and working have to go together at a certain rhythm and in certain pursuits. Otherwise creative writers, for example, wouldn't have been traditionally so partial to the pipe. Georges Simenon described the preparation of a pipe as "une ceremonie". He would always smoke while writing his prolific output and reckoned the time that it took him to write a book (a very fast writer!) by the number of bowls he smoked in the process of writing it.

 
Hemingway was fairly creative and he preferred the cigar. Every pipe guy I know in person is a crossover, cigars some days, pipes others. I don't think it matters much. It's fun to talk about, but we can't take it all very seriously. For every pipe guy who is a writer, there's another writer that is a cigar guy. Although, I am short of writers that preferred chewing tobacco. Ha, maybe there's a few out there.

 
Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
Cigars: Apple

Pipes: PC

Cigarettes: Xbox

(Please don't hurt me, it's just a joke, except it's mostly true.)
It might also be telling that the highest level of computer user is also brand/system agnostic. It's your love of what's underneath the wrapper that counts.

 
Do the guys that you know that smoke pipes, not smoke cigars also? I find this very interesting. Why would a pipe smoker not occasionally smoke a cigar? I would think hat if you wanted to know as much as you could about tobaccos that curiosity would lead you to fire up a stick now and again.
How about...
Cigars = Red Delicious Apples

Pipes = Granny Smith Apples

Cigarettes = artificial apple flavoring loaded with extra drugs to make you addicted faster and a slave to a brand

 
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