Good show. George is obviously an expert at pipe repair and hi interview was educational but please for the love of god stop this devisiveness. Asking him which tobacco made the worst cake really made me livid. Of course he's going to answer aromatics. It's like you "elite" pipesmokers take any chance you get to put down aromatics and take pot shots at aromatic smokers.
"Aros are for beginners," "aros destroy your pipes," "aros are goopey/cotton candy/for sissies." Really? When I was a kid I used to love going into the tobacco shops at the mall. They smelled great, filled with a bunch of old guys and grandpa types smoking what? Aromatics, that's what. Older experienced pipe smokers smoking aros, not englishes, not VAPers. They were not beginners, they were not babies and they were not sissies. They were man's men, navy vets, cab drivers, plumbers, etc.
Now I am the middle-aged guy at the pipe shop, been pipe smoking for a quarter century, and what do I smoke? I appreciate all tobaccos and I like aromatics. Seven times out of ten I am enjoying an aro. I like women, I have a wife, I have kids, I am a man.
I am sick of hearing you interview pipe smokers and discuss "The Progression." Drug store, Grabow, aromatic, legit pipe shop, artisan pipe, Virginia Perique or Balkan. With everyone snickering and apologizing for smoking aromatics.
You know the internet has created cyberbullying, we have fat-shaming, slut-shaming.... We don't not need the PipesMagazine Radio Show and other pipe forums to encourage aro-shaming.
It was a breath of fresh air to hear Rachel on the show talking up aromatics and Michael Sull the Master Penman discussing his love of aros. We need more of that. 155 shows and only 2 aromatic lovers. The online retailers state that 80% of pipe tobacco sold is aromatic. Let's have a more balanced representation on the show. Your Hanna's and your Newcombe's can take their balkans elsewhere.
I WILL be in New Orleans, and I WILL be enjoying an aro on the floor at this year's show.
Aro-Proud,
AnchovyD