The Pipes Magazine Radio Show – Episode 211
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Kevin Godbee - Sep 27, 2016
- 1 min read
Kevin Godbee
Thank you for joining us for The Pipes Magazine Radio Show—the only radio talk show for pipe smokers and collectors. We broadcast weekly, every Tuesday at 8 pm eastern USA time and are available on nearly all podcast sites and apps. Listen on your computer, tablet, phone and even in the car! Our Featured Interview tonight is part 2 of our discussion with Rich Esserman. Rich has been in the pipe smoking and collecting hobby for over 40 years, has a wealth of knowledge and has lived through a lot of history of different brands and how they have evolved and devolved. He is also known for his love of very large “magnum” pipes. In “Pipe Parts” Brian will talk about Richard Dunhill, who recently passed. He was a relative of Alfred Dunhill, the founder of Dunhill Pipes and Tobaccos in the early 1900s. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
Tonight’s show is sponsored by Sutliff-Tobacco.com, SmokingPipes.com, Missouri Meerschaum, 4noggins.com, Cornell & Diehl, and Savinelli Pipes and 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. The following link will launch a pop-up player. Alternatively, you can download the show in iTunes and other podcast sites and apps after the initial broadcast is complete here.
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Rich Esserman
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Ok, so it’s that time of year, as we all know. Family feasts, houses, yards, and big trees festooned with lights and dangling ornaments, just high enough to keep the cats from reaching a paw into the greenery. It’s also the time of year when your pipe-smoking-significant other makes vast hints about a new pipe. That’s to be expected since he or she was a good boy or girl during the year. Yes, ladies smoke pipes, too. Oh, you want an example? Okay, try Actress Greta Garbo, Millicent Fenwick, Mary Frith, and my late grandmother (who died when she was 93) dipped snuff and smoked a cob occasionally. So now that we have settled that the gentler side of life will puff a pipe too, let’s move on to the upcoming biggest holiday of all. Of course, that huge event is brought to us by the hefty fellow in a red suit, puffing his pipe all the way in a sled filled with presents, being led by a reindeer with a red nose. Or some such. That’s Santa Claus, of course. Becoming a bit more serious, Christmas is such a wonderful time for families and friends. It’s also quite special for pipe puffers. For many of us, this brings up a nostalgic look back to our pipe-smoking or cigar-smoking friends who have died during the current year. A great journalist pal whom I often joined in a local brick-and-mortar pipe and cigar shop. I puffed my pipe, and occasional cigar, as he enjoyed a cigar. He died in October and will be missed. On the happier side of things, Christmas is also a time when mind workers of the world renew their collections with fresh additions. Pundit included. A French passion has overtaken Pundit, from reading more Albert Camus, a heavy cigarette smoker, as were many French intellectuals of a certain time. Instead of cigarettes many of us prefer the more relaxed enjoyment of pipes for that “calm and objective judgment” in the comings and goings of the world. This brings me to French pipes. While visiting France once in the long ago, I happened by a “Tabac” shop in Paris, Tabac Des Vosges. I purchased a beauty of a Chacom bent. I also later bought a Ropp made from ancient briar. To learn more about the dawn of briar pipes and beginnings, take a peek at a well-done piece by Davin Hylton in Pipe Line on April 12, 2023, on Saint-Claude, France, the birthplace of briar. Also in the long back when, on a cold Christmas afternoon, Pundit wandered into an Atlanta bricks and mortar pipe shop to look around. There, resting in an enclosed glass counter was an exquisite Comoy. An older gent, smoking a beautiful bent, asked me if I wanted to look at that pipe. It had a $100 price tag. A college student working for a grocery store chain to help with college tuition at the time, Pundit didn’t have one hundred cents, let alone a C note! I declined and found a $5 basket pipe. A Christmas tradition had just begun. Since that early time, Pundit has made it a holiday ritual to either reward himself, or a special friend, with pipe or tobacco. A Claudio Cavicchi would be nice. Just sayin.’ And now for a couple of December-born Pipe Smokers of the Past: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on Dec. 30, 1865, and died on Jan. 18, 1936. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble—Rudyard Kipling. Martin Van Buren, born Dec. 5, 1782, and died July 24, 1862, U.S. President, 1837-1841 As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it—Martin Van Buren. And one more note to recall a deceased World War II veteran who loved William Somerset Maugham, the author. Maugham, a pipe smoker, was born in Paris, France, on Jan. 25, 1874, and died on Dec. 16, 1965. One cool afternoon as the veteran and I talked while sitting in his backyard patio, he looked off into the distance as if studying something. Nothing in particular. Just looking. He turned to me and said if I wanted to learn about life, “read Somerset Maugham.” I did. It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know’ –W. Somerset Maugham And now a Parting Shot: Any day with an old friend with pipes and tobacco is a good day.
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Once again, a truly delightful conversation with Rich. It was like sitting at a table in the smoking tent, at the Chicago Show (or any show), where folk exchange reminiscences, opinions, ideas, information and lore.
Which brings me to your “rant.” If the forum folk would only take some time away from forum posts and spend some time with real people, by joining a pipe club, visiting a B&M shop, going to some pipe shows, and tuning-in to the fabulous “pipe show” of the mind that your program provides, the “real” community would grow and strengthen, and the newbies and old farts would be richer for it.
Thanks for a fun show; love the Gate.
Dino
A most enlightening and entertaining show!
I learned to use toothpaste on my stems!
It only took me just over 2 years to become aware of this obvious solution.
Thanks!
mike
I can’t get enough of Rich Esserman and really enjoy these interviews.
I try to always reference a radio show interview or segment when replying to a related thread on the forum. I’d love to see more tie-in’s on the radio podcast end back to it’s namesake forum. Perhaps a weekly “Hot Topic” section or similar? For example, this week, we have a great discussion on Russ O’s new Arcadia Gold blend.
Regarding the Peter Siegel and Ken Barnes interviews, those were attained solely thru the forum and their participation in various British threads (we have here one of the best British sections of any pipe forum). But I don’t think the forum and their activity was mentioned in either interview. As they used to say on ESPN, “come on man!”.
I have to add, that unfortunately, the forum search feature just does not work very well. The best way to search for a topic on the forum is via Google and add pipesmagazine.com to your topic, that typically yields solid answers.
Loved the second part of this interview. I could listen to guys like Rick talk about their pipe collecting all day.
On another note, this past Wed. night after teaching an evening class, I had a 4 hour drive to make up to my cabin for a long weekend of fly fishing. To help me stay awake, I downloaded several of the older episodes of the radio show, as there are only about 150 episode I haven’t heard! Episodes 100 through 104 got me up into the mountains and made the late night drive quite enjoyable!