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Kevin Godbee - Feb 11, 2020
- 1 min read
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 387! Our featured interview on The Pipes Magazine Radio Show tonight is with Len Fogel. You may remember Len from Episode 375 when we discussed the reintroduction of the Merchant Service brand of pipes. Now, we’ll be talking about what it was like hanging out in the pipe shops of New York City 50-years ago. It’s a lot of fun reminiscing about that time. In Pipe Parts, Brian will have a tobacco review John Cotton’s Double Pressed Kentucky. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
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The Pipes Magazine Radio Show features interviews with pipe makers, tobacco blenders, pipe and tobacco aficionados, collectors, and more. Episodes air every Tuesday.
Our show is sponsored by SmokingPipes.com, Cornell & Diehl, Missouri Meerschaum, Savinelli Pipes and Tobaccos, and GQ Tobaccos. Please give them some consideration when making your next pipe or tobacco purchase.
We hope you enjoy our 1-hour show produced just for you—the pipe smoker and collector.
Len Fogel Interview
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Just to cop a great line for the return of Pundit, here is one of my favorites from “The Shining,” when actor Jack Nicholson scares the life out of everyone with the spooky, “Here’s Johnny.” So, Here’s Pundit! It is so good to return to PipesMagazine. In the interim, I have moved to a smaller apartment. I found out the long-cared-for pipe herd and tobacco cellar were a monumental chore to move. Boxes upon boxes, tobacco jars by the ton. Seriously. The late Bill Unger of The North American Society of Pipe Collectors (NASPC) said if you have one pipe you are a pipe smoker. If you have two pipes, you are a pipe collector. I followed that path like a yellow brick road. Pundit advice No. 1: Trim the pipe herd often without replacing too many. Pundit advice No. 2: Smoke the tins, except for vintage blends, and store as few jars of bulk tobacco as possible. I know, this is easier said than done. It is difficult to part with pipes and a precious and babied tobacco cellar. In the interim, I have been cataloging pipes and tobacco to come to a better understanding of this collection. Yes, Unger’s theory swamped me like a tsunami. What we have here is a perfect storm, a boutique of pipes and tobacco. And my old friends, and many vintage tobacco blends no longer available, make life quite a bit more enjoyable and relaxing. Along with perplexing decisions: What to smoke up and what to continue the aging process. Like adolescents. They will mature at some age. Right. But one never knows. Here is to the future and to your collecting and cellaring. It is a wonderful hobby and enterprise. Before I launch into Pipe Smokers of the Past or in Quotable Pipe Quotes (a new Pundit feature), there is a solid ground rule that you, dear readers, can count on from Pundit. As long as I am writing Pundit for your entertainment and hopefully a bit of education on the art and love of pipe smoking, you will never have to be concerned that Pundit has resorted to letting AI handle the writing. Pundit does not believe in allowing some sort of artificial intelligence to write copy for me. In fact, Pundit is concerned that writing, creative non-fiction, and narratives of other genre in general, will succumb to this rage for AI in our lives. Can you imagine legendary pipe-smoking novelist William Faulkner’s prose style being AI’d? Or are Shelby Foote, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, and any of the past great writers and pipe-smokers to be ripped off by AI? This is not for pipe smokers. Our writers were the contemplative authors, who penned magical works while puffing their pipes and special blends. AI is not a pipe smoker. It is a thief of words and styles that were honed by years of toil over pen and paper, typewriters, and eventually the computer. Sure, writing is easy. Just listen to the legendary New York Times sports columnist on how effortless writing can be: “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and open a vein.” This is not a rant. Pundit is worried that our wonderful pipe-smoking authors, and those of us who write about it today, will be haunted by the shadowy AI, ready to strike at the heart of what is so important to the pipe smoker: authenticity. Good writing doesn’t come at the push of a button in a remote office somewhere. It takes dedication and years of learning to devote time to detail and intense observation. That’s not exactly a talent everyone has, let alone a machine. Becoming immersed in writing about pipes and tobacco takes time, learning and listening to and reading the masters of pipe making and tobacco blending. And pipe writers and storytellers. It takes years to craft a readable style about the briar and leaf. The sermon is over, but this is just to let you know Pundit will never, ever resort to using AI to write this column monthly. It is a privilege and an honor and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the community of pipe smokers. A favorite pipe-smoking quote: One of the best pieces of advice comes from Albert Einstein, Mr. Relativity himself, who is reported to have said: “Before answering a question you should always light your pipe first.” And that first spark of fire, curling leaf in the bowl; that first sip and taste leads to a more contemplative endeavor as Mr. E=MC2 once explained. Now for a July birthday of note is Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and the father of analytical psychology. Jung was born July 26, 1875, and died June 6, 1961. For an in-depth read, check out Chuck Stanion’s Carl Gustav Jung: Pipe-Smoking Founder of Analytical Psychology in SmokingPipes.com, Feb. 11, 2022, Pipe Line. A Parting thought: Pipes new and old brim with mystery and art, heart and soul. It’s a natural wonder, from earth to hearth.
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This was an incredibly fascinating walk down the “mean streets” of New York City.
I was thoroughly entertained by Len’s reminiscences. And, it brought me back to that same timeframe in Downtown Chicago, where there were many pipe shops in the relatively small area of the “Loop.”
To paraphrase the Doobies, Elvis is just alright with me.
Thanks for another fine show,
Dino
The pipes tobacco review was well done on another tobacco I don’t care for.
I enjoyed Len Fogel’s talk about all the tobacco stores in New York. I got to New York in the late 40’s and left before 1950 rolled around. Damn, I loved the Brooklyn Dodgers. They were only there for another two years after I even knew that Major League Baseball was a thing.
Really enjoyed the Elvis selection, though I suspect the recording you used wasn’t the one he usedon the record release. He could really sing.