It surprises a few people when they learn I write my reviews in a small, outdoor space barely big enough to fit two folding chairs, attached to an expensive apartment not much bigger. My pipe tobacco “cellar” is a well-protected, medium-sized chicken yakitori box from my sous days. Maybe some believe a “pipe guy” is […]
Read moreNot too long ago, Brian Levine and I chatted on his radio show about brick-and-mortar tobacco stores, tobacconists and how special (and arguably essential) they are. As is known, I worked for a few years behind the counter of a local Tinder Box, which is now closed. There is a silver lining, and that is […]
Read moreIf current events have shown anything about humanity, it’s about our attitude. Sometimes it’s admirable and resilient other times it’s cringey and embarrassing. My attitude has struggled through simple activities like mustering the motivation to take out the trash, and so choosing a tobacco that I’ve had problems within the past would either prove a […]
Read moreI feel like a cliché and cartoonish version of Paul Revere going into the end part of this year, “The Holidays are coming! The Holidays are coming!” as if there is some impending doom about to arrive. This is normal for me: I’m not a “holidays” guy. I never have been and I never will […]
Read moreI probably relate food to tobacco (and vice versa) more than most do. It’s a disconnect for some people, but for me, I’m a hedonist for my own palate. I learned cooking very young as a necessity and flavor has become an obsession ever since. Any time, any income level, or instance can be made better […]
Read moreRamen is a bowl of happiness for me, perhaps just as much as a bowl of tobacco. This Japanese comfort soup becomes more and more popular in the United States, but it can be hard to find in remote places like my state of Northern Nevada. We are lucky enough to have one place I […]
Read more“Spare me the unsolicited lecture about addiction, I don’t believe a man’s contentment comes from purity—it comes from innocent vices and the reasonable cognitive dissonance about them.” I’m sharing that line because I spewed it in some haste to someone commenting about my pipe smoking. The summer around my neck of the sagebrush has been […]
Read moreNothing is normal in the year of 2020. With that, it’s time for a re-revival of a once-popular Dunhill-branded pipe tobacco, one I am fairly fond of, Nightcap. The sad part is, Nightcap under Dunhill doesn’t exist anymore. After decades of being handled by Murray’s after some back-and-forth by Dunhill itself, Scandinavian Tobacco Group (or […]
Read morePerhaps the most difficult thing to do as a writer, specifically one who is supposed to concentrate on pipe tobacco, is to focus on what I’m supposed to write about when it seems everything else happening around me is much larger. On one hand, if you’re reading this, you’re here to get away from everything […]
Read moreI’ve had this tin of tobacco staring at me, shoved aside and reappearing for some months now. The label is a simple white background featuring an inked character, who is in the act of painting on a very large easel while smoking a pipe. I wasn’t sure what these graphics were suggesting toward the tobacco, […]
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