The Pipes Magazine Radio Show – Episode 3
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Kevin Godbee - Oct 4, 2012
- 1 min read
Welcome to the third Pipes Magazine Radio Show. After the first two shows our listeners were debating which episode they liked better. We think everyone will agree that Episode Number 3 sets the bar to a new level. We worked very hard to make this show exemplary. Mary McNiel from McClelland Tobacco Co. will be tonight’s interview. If you’ve had the chance to meet Mary at a pipe show, then you already know that she is a sweetheart. She is immensely knowledgeable about tobacco, and a pleasure to talk to. McClelland makes many popular pipe tobaccos including the Frog Morton series. We will talk about the origins of Frog Morton and unveil some other interesting background information on McClelland tobaccos. Brian will also be talking about estate pipes, he will give you the answer to last week’s trivia question and you get a new tobacco trivia to think about.
We 100% guarantee that no matter what your taste in music is that you will love the featured song we have for this show.
We’d like to welcome 4noggins.com as our first direct radio show sponsor. Please listen for their ad at the beginning of the show. Finally, Brian exposes another anti-tobacco effort gone amuck in this week’s rant.
We hope you enjoy our 45-minute 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 after the initial broadcast is complete here.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. When it arrived, those uncounted years ago, it wanted a little restoration. Nothing dramatic needed to be done to it, but the stem was oxidized, the finish a little dingy. The cake was even and fairly thin, and the airway was relatively clean, both signs that its previous owner cared for it, but the bowl’s surface was a little drab and dull. It took little effort to reveal its beauty, to show the lovely contrasted stain and interesting grain beneath the old wax. I often think I should do before and after photos of pipes that I work on, but those thoughts always come after the work’s been done. This one would have been a great illustration of how years of handling that can sometimes make a pipe more beautiful, can other times make it just look grungy. Once I’d cleaned up the externals, it was time to address the inside bits. I approach this a little bassackwards, I realize. It would be more sensible to take care of the inside before addressing the outside, but it’s how I roll. If an old pipe isn’t pretty to look at, it’s unlikely that I’ll care much about it, and cleaning is usually the hardest part, or at least the most boring part of any restoration for me. Alcohol and pipe cleaners. Lots of pipe cleaners. That’s why I leave it for last. Sometimes, I’ll even give a pipe a test smoke before a deep cleaning, just for a point of reference. I gave it a sniff to get an idea of what I was up against, and it stopped me cold. There in that bowl was an aroma that I had not smelled in decades. My head was instantly filled with memories of being in the back room of a fabled Berkeley tobacconist’s shop where I stumbled upon a few jars of long discontinued blends. One of them, a blend called Forty and Eight, had the most engaging and unusual scent of any tobacco I’d stuck my schnoz into. It was sweet, but not in a candy store way. There were none of the usual vanilla, cherry, berry or anise notes of typical aromatics, nothing that could be compared to aftershave or deodorant soap, but something almost musky, a little earthy, something exotic. The shop’s owner couldn’t tell me what was in it, how, or where it had been produced. The old blend had been retired before he’d bought the place. The printed catalogue gave no clues, either, other than being overprinted with the word “DISCONTINUED” in bold, rubber-stamp type. (And, I don’t recall it as being “highly aromatic” as the description indicates.) There was still quite a bit in the jar. Being, at that point, an intrepid explorer of all kinds of tobaccos, whether I thought I’d like them or not, I had to give it a try. It was burly based, but also comprised a good measure of virginia leaf, and maybe some other varieties; I didn’t have enough experience at the time to really pick it apart. But, that aroma was unlike anything I’d experienced before or since. It was something now completely lost to time. Until it wasn’t. Memories are powerful things, and there is no sense more tightly bound to memory than our sense of smell. One whiff was all it took to carry me back in time, conjuring a vivid recollection of something long submerged in the inky depths of a subconscious mind. Look, I know as well as anyone that pipes are meant to be smoked, and that many feel it almost sacrilegious to have a pipe and not set it to its intended task. In this case, I simply can’t. I won’t. Ever. Rationally, I am fairly certain this pipe would probably be a great smoke. It was too well loved by its previous caretaker to be anything less than that. My choice not to smoke it is an emotional one, not something rational. Of the thousands of pipes that have passed through my hands over the years, this is the only one to create such a singular and vivid, almost Proustian recollection of temps perdu, of lost time. It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Good show. I thought you might want to know that Marshalls and Tjmax are owned by the same company.
Brian,
I and your friend Bill Kotyk listened to the show tonight. He said the show must be easy for you to do because it is just an extension of your personality. Bill is smoking an estate Roush with some 55 year old Friebourg & Treyer while listening to you. Damn, guess Bill will now be over every week to hear your show since he is computer illiterate.
Best wishes
John
Glad you liked the show Photoman. I thought it was great myself. Brian is really in the groove now. Marshalls and Tjmax – ok they are on the list too.
LOL John!
I think the show will only get better with time. He will become more comfortable than he already is and I’m sure there will be more great interviews. It is strange that he talked about algerian briar as I just received my first one yesterday. I got it really cheap and turned out to be an Edwards. Very exciting!
I have an Edward’s Algerian briar pipe too!
That was the best show yet!
The interview was great
The Pipe song was awesome. Cool.
that was great interview.. Each interview is cooler than the previous one..
all were great but that was the best among them..
Brian: Mary told me that your radio show would be on tonight. I then proceeded to stand in front of the radio, and I asked, “AM or FM?” She then informed me that the show was on a computer. I said, “they have radios in computers?” Brian, you know I am behind in all this techno stuff. I’m still getting over the fax machine. God, how does that thing work? Do you really want to know what I think of your show? I loved it, and you know I’m a critical person. I yell at myself at least 10 times a day. The sound effects are great and well placed. I think you’re a great interviewer. In all these years, I never realized you had a wonderful talent. The show was so good, I almost thought, “Mike, you need to learn about computers.” I am really looking forward to the next show. Well, I have to go now. I’m about to try something called “popped corn”.
Fun show, Brian. Enjoyed hearing Mary McNeill. Loved the pipe song!
Great show! Your rant was right on target, unless of course, the Target was at a mall in upstate NY. 🙂
What a great show this week! The interview with my “cousin” Mary was outstanding. (Her dad’s village and my mom’s were less than ten miles apart, in the Peloponnesian mountains around Tripoli. I’ve joked with her that we could be distantly related.) She is such a terrific example of why ours is such a warm and friendly community. Her contributions to the hobby are legion and legendary. I found the “Frog Morton Story” fascinating. I also enjoyed the “drop-ins” and the pipe song. Again, congratulations Brian!
Another fine show. Mary McNiel is just as nice a person as you can ever meet and is super knowledgeable. Mike and her are just a wonderful team.
China is the #1 producer of tobacco.
I just listened to the 3rd show in my office this Friday. Great show; loved the mood of the show today! The interview was fantastic. I’m looking forward to future interviews.
Brian: Wow! After our interview, I thought: “Oh, good grief, I don’t know. Brian’s put his whole show in jeopardy because of this….but then you added special effects, songs, rants. Heck, that’s entertainment! If our political candidates had you, their appearances would be smokin’ instead of smellin’! Thanks for my introduction to social media. That’s what it is. Right? I know you’ll have great success in the future with your show. You’ve got the touch!
I just listened to the first and second show. The second was better than first and I suspect they will continue to get better with time.
Being fairly new to pipe smoking I really like any type of educational and historical information.
I would like to say Thank You to Kevin for taking the time which must be considerable to put together the show.
Kevin maybe a sponsor would offer a special of some sort only to listeners (use a “code” you broadcast). Great way to increase sales and listeners.
Another suggestion is have question and answer section, you maybe working on this already.
Ps I agree with you about the cigarette only section on the cruise…..stupid rule!
Another great show, Brian, including your terrific discussion with Mary. You can’t believe how much faster you make my commute go on the 405 Freeway on Friday afternoon in traffic-clogged Los Angeles. I agreed with almost everything you said about estate pipes being a great value and of the difference between restoration and re-engineering. However, don’t forget the levels of alteration that daily use over a period of decades does to a pipe.
You cited used Sixten Ivarsson pipes as possible bargains if you can find them. Let’s say someone bought a new Sixten pipe when it was first made in 1962, and you buy it in 2012, after the original owner has smoked it thousands of times for half a century. It would not be surprising to find a serious cake in the bowl. You said you would want that reamed down to a thin layer of existing coating, with no artificial coating added over it. I agree. But just like the diameter of the tobacco chamber, which closed as the cake built, there is a similar cake inside the shank. Sixten drilled his air holes at 4 mm, but the used Sixten pipe might be 3 mm because of the cake inside the shank. The only way to bring the pipe back to its original dimensions that I know of would be to re-drill it at 4 mm. I would call that restoration and not re-engineering.
In a sense, you could say that the pipe was “re-engineered” by the daily smoking over a period of decades. I love it that you got me to think about these things!
I forgot to thank Kevin as well for this fantastic new contribution to the hobby!
The opening about estate pipes was so right on. I buy a lot of estates and mostly from either artisans or higher line factories. The deals out there are incredible if you take the time to research and to learn the market both on Ebay and from the online estate dealers. For example, on Ebay Upshall prices are in the toilet, you can buy any P grade for less than 125.00 where as the online dealers are still trying to get 180-350.00 for the same pipes.
I liked the interview with Mary, she sounds like a real sweet lady and someone with tons of knowledge. The rant is a great one, I wouldn’t give my money to a mall like that either, screw em. All in all it was a great show, thanks Brian and Kevin for providing some great entertainment.
@Rick – That’s ok. When you said Brian, I thought you were talking to me. 😉
When I wrote the note thanking you, Kevin, I actually had the same thought. For those of you who don’t know what we’re talking about, in the latest edition of “In Search of Pipe Dreams,” there is a photo of Kevin and Brian, and I mistakenly called both of them Brian in the caption. Maybe in the next edition, I’ll call both of you Kevin. That might even things out.
Ha ha ha Rick!
Thanks for a great show. They have all been great and they keep getting better.
The interview with Mary was great. I only had wished it were longer!
Hi Brian… Your show has great potential, keep up the great interviews and product reviews! As a copywriter if I could make one observation, I would urge you to consider renaming the show. The current name (I feel) is a little antiseptic, boring if you will. By doing so you will establish the show as an independent “brand”, which would (with a snappy name) attract more attention and of course more listeners.You may even want to announce a contest, for your listeners to enter potential names.
columbialion – Thanks for your input.
It was a well thought-out decision to name the show The Pipes Magazine Radio Show. Pipes Magazine IS the brand which the radio show falls under. It is part of the same business with the same audience and same advertiser base.
I am thoroughly enjoying the show, thank you. Here in Australia where anything to do with smoking is treated as devil spawn (note our well over 300% taxes and plain packaging laws) it’s so refreshing to be able to listen to free thinking rational people who understand that our hobby is, above all, good fun. The more positive views on Pipes and Cigars being presented the better. Keep up the excellent work. As an aside, on the anti-smoking Australia lobby, Tasmania, one of our states is looking to bring in a law that would effectively ban all smoking for anyone who turns 18 after 2014… barbarians! Oh and one other thing, if I may be so bold, as a non user of iTunes a link to a downloadable mp3 would be great. Thanks!!!