G. L. Pease From the "That Never Happens" department: I just realized that I missed last month’s column. Completely. Really. Fact of it is that I very nearly missed January every other way, too. I remember that it arrived, something about New Year’s Day, and then a flurry of stuff from every corner occupied my …

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G. L. Pease This time of year, I find myself feeling a little sorry for those who live in other parts of the country. It has nothing to do with the weather, though I suppose that might be reason enough, but everything to do with the opening of the season for that magnificent regional delicacy, …

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G. L. Pease Tobacco and terroir. I seem to talk about it a lot, but the myriad manifestations of this "sense of place" continue to fascinate me. The other day, a friend asked me if, given the knowledge of their process and the necessary machinery, I would be able to reproduce the tobaccos created by …

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G.L. Pease It’s Saturday, 4 October as I sit down to scribble out this rather late edition of this column, and as I do so, I’m caught up in a mistral of thought blowing loudly through my head, matching its speed with the activities of the previous month. In the small winery at which I …

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G. L. Pease Early this morning, a dear friend packed a hired truck with boxes of pipes, tobacco, books, and all his other important belongings, preparing to set off eastward to make a new home on the other edge of the continent. I know we’ll see each other again, but I’m very much going to …

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G. L. Pease I’ve been trying to put the finishing touches on a blend I’ve been working on since January. No kidding. Seven months, and it’s still not quite there. Sometimes, things just fall into place, and it all seems effortless. Other times, every step of the way is like a ball being shot into …

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G. L. Pease I’m back from Kansas, and trying to recover from the fun. Pipe shows are great things, but they can be exhausting. Thursday night, after the pipe club meeting, I returned with a friend to his place to learn how to roll cigars. Scratch that. I rolled a few things that to the …

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G. L. Pease I hate the flu. Because of this, I’ve done everything humanly possible to avoid it whilst almost everyone I know are beaten down by it. I’ve been successful this year, until last night. It started out as what I thought was just a really bad attack of hayfever. Then, it hit. The …

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G. L. Pease Another month, another Ask G.L. Pease column, and it seems like I just finished the last one. For that matter, it seems like I just wrote the first one, but it’s been three years. Three years! Where does the time go? I love writing this column. Every time I think the questions …

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G. L. Pease Spring is here, it seems. My chiles are sprouting in my makeshift hot house, though it’s not been warm enough for them, and their growth is slow. I’m particularly excited about a Guyanese variety called Wiri Wiri. I’ve grown these successfully in the past, but it’s been a couple of years. They’re …

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