Yep, I had it, until about a week ago... going in the the local b&m, peeping at those meers from the corner of my eye, trying to avoid all those questions in my head, "drop it once and...?", "do real men smoke white pipes?", etc. But I overcame the phobia and shelled out a brown ($100 Canadian) for an unfiltered IMP bent billiard. I have since realized that I was destined to be a meerschaum man. It suites my smoking needs 100%. Smoking is a set apart thing for me, early a.m. is my favorite (dawnpiper), rarely more than once a day and not while trundling around anywhere. Is is comfortable? Well when the bit weighs less then the bowl... need I say more? I like to experiment with tobacco, but when you only smoke a bowl a day, it doesn't make much sense to have an a pipe for each variety of tobacco. I like the idea that I could have my one pipe with me wherever, have someone offer me a sample of their baccy, and I don't have to be concerned as to what type it is and whether or not it is appropriate to smoke in the pipe at hand. The meerschaum is a free pass to smoke whatever, whenever in your "old faithful". I like that idea very much. But I have a new problem now, I have been sucking up ash on a regular basis, this very rarely ever happened with the briars because of the wetness of the dottle usually made smoking to the end a steamy and somewhat acrid chore, that I rarely forced myself to do. Call me crazy, but I get some kind of pleasure from that little blast of ash. Now I can truly enjoy the bowl all the way to the bottom, and when you live in Canada, and pay $30 a pouch, you can feel the value of that in your pocket. So if your smoking habits are similar, and you too suffer from meerschauphobia, get help from the "white goddess" today. Let her into your heart and she can start to make it better.