Say, what is that aroma wafting about? Latakia? Yenidje? Izmir? Maybe. But could it be college football season is in the air and tailgate cookouts are smoking up the place? Or, yes, the World Series is just around the corner, and it’s time for brewskis, bratwurst, and bragging rights? Perhaps it is all of the …

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Let’s take a break from all the doom and gloom, shall we? It’s summertime and the sunny side of life calls. I always loved the song, “Keep on The Sunny Side of Life.” Just call me old-fashioned. I like pipes and tobacco, front porches, wooden rocking chairs, and grandpas smoking Prince Albert and smiling while …

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July is a month of milestones for pipe smokers. You read that right. As the nation celebrates 245 years of independence, escaping from the clutches of rascally British King George III’s erratic rule, pipe smokers commemorate the history of pipes and tobacco that played a role in that history. Another huge milepost is this month’s …

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This is a love story that dates to the 1950s and continues into the present. It has to do with A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, to call upon the great Proustian muse. Whether or not you translate the above to “Remembrance of Things Past,” or “In Search of Lost Time,” is, of course, a …

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Let’s return now to a more romantic and simpler time when pace and society were slower. It’s the 1940s just after the end of World War II. Soldiers are returning home to pick up their lives and loves. The nation was doing its best to reboot to whatever normal was, to get back to life …

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This thing of ours, this pipe passion, and tobacco zeal are quite extraordinary. And why is our pleasure so special? Oh, let me count the ways. Pipes and tobacco connect us not only to history but also to the very Earth we inhabit. Briar and tobacco leaf originate and grow from the soil, of course, …

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Literature and history have always been a part of my life. I enjoy reading and have always been fascinated by American and world events and history. And this rich vein of discovery has led me to the great literary and historical figures who were pipe smokers. As you in Pipe World know, there are just …

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The older one grows, the more one likes indecency—Virginia Woolf Lately, I’ve been on a Virginia Woolf reading binge. It’s been an assignment my daughters have given me, to, uhm, broaden my literary horizons. And I’ve been surprised a bit. I must have missed Woolf in my college English Lit days. I was too caught …

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A new year and a brand new canvas! Thank goodness. It is time to move on and look toward a brighter time. And with that, how about some New Pipe Year Resolutions straight from the Pundit Resolute Desk! Although these are Pundit Resolutions for the New Pipe Year, feel free to claim as your own …

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Yes, dear reader, the Pundit has lost it! Blame it on lingering aftershocks of Thanksgiving stupor. Too much turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, cornbread, green beans, and the whole Thanksgiving-Christmas continuum overload. And, yes, the Pundit has purchased, yet another, Peterson Christmas pipe, or two, to prove the Pundit always practices what …

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