On Technique and Taste (and a Bit of Tolkien)

[alexander87]

Overthinking can also wreck a good smoke.

I’ve been smoking for 5-6 years and I didn’t really start LOVE pipe smoking until I stopped thinking about smoking while I was smoking. I think about the taste and how well the pipe is burning and all that but I don’t care about relights or obsess about packing like I used to.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I’ve been smoking for 5-6 years and I didn’t really start LOVE pipe smoking until I stopped thinking about smoking while I was smoking. I think about the taste and how well the pipe is burning and all that but I don’t care about relights or obsess about packing like I used to.

My experience has been very similar.

 

[verporchting]

So what should we call a Hobbit that smokes a pipe (and occasional cigar) with a keen interest in single malt whisky and vintage cars, lol?

Ooh, and gardening!

Broke, my precious, flat broke.

???

 

[Chasing Embers]

So what should we call a Hobbit that smokes a pipe (and occasional cigar) with a keen interest in single malt whisky and vintage cars, lol?

Ooh, and gardening!

Broke, my precious, flat broke.

???

Those are all very Hobbity pursuits.? Excluding the cars of course.?

 

[olkofri]

Hobbits were more into ale than liquour.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Hobbits were more into ale than liquour.

They have a low tolerance, due to their size.

 

[BROBS]

They have a low tolerance, due to their size.

View attachment 40101

You’re obviously joking. That’s mini-me

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

You’re obviously joking. That’s mini-me

I thought he was a hobbit.

 

[BROBS]

I thought he was a hobbit.

Closer to Gollum. ?

 

[Gecko]

Who's Kipling?

He was a tobacco enthusiast who seems to have had his priorities straight. ?

"And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke."

 

[Chasing Embers]

He was a tobacco enthusiast who seems to have had his priorities straight. ?

"And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke."

View attachment 40107

I've always preferred tobacco myself.

 

[olkofri]

"And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke."

Poor guy.

 

[brian64]

They have a low tolerance, due to their size.

View attachment 40101

There's nothing more disturbing than a hairless Hobbit.

 

[Gecko]

Poor guy.

I'm quite certain he meant it in jest, much as I did.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I'm quite certain he meant it in jest, much as I did.

Doesn't make it untrue.

 

[hawky454]

Captain Black Grape



If you are a member of an online forum where you discuss a particular activity over a period of years, and you personally collect thousands upon thousands of dollars in accoutrements for said activity, then it's safe to say you're a hobbyist.

Now the old farmers who buy tubs of codger burley along with cobs and Grabows at the local discount baccy store here in town, those guys are just smokers.

Yes I understand that the "pipesmoking as hobby" thing is a bit irksome, but the truth is, yes we are ALL hobbyists, or at the very least, tobacco aficianados, and I'm not sure there's any real distinction to be made between the two.

???

 

[hawky454]

This is the only place I know of where the term “hobbiest” is a bad word... I don’t get it but this isn’t the only thread where this debate has come up. Why does it have such a negative connotation with a lot of you? I personally think it’s quite fitting, especially for us forum folk and I think it’s especially fitting for anyone of us who have a thousand or more posts next to your name. I’m only saddened that I can’t pick up my hobbiest tobacco goods at Hobby Lobby! Wouldn’t that be cool if about half of that store was a big ol’ SPC for the public to just go walk in and browse! I know where I’d be spending most of my free time.

 

[pappymac]

Pipe Smoking....

It's not a hobby, it's a lifestyle.

 

[lawdawg]

I think people hate on the term “hobbyist” because it makes pipe smoking seem like a try-hard affectation rather than just an enjoyable minor indulgence.

I’m sure our great grandfathers would scoff at the idea that pipe smoking is a hobby (if they even had the term “hobby” at the time), but they would say the same about beer and whiskey. Sure, you can smoke and drink without those activities being hobbies, but if you like to search out microbrews from all over the country, know about the various mash bills and aging times used by various distilleries, and you collect far more pipes than you need and constantly experiment with various tobacco blends, then you’re in hobby territory.

Alternately, we could just say that we are connoisseurs because that is true as well. However if there is much of a distinction between a tobacco connoisseur and a tobacco hobbyist, it’s lost on me.

 

[workman]

A connoisseur is kind of sensual and sexy, whereas the hobbyist is an unsexy bespectacled nerd with a butterflynet or a looking glass for his stamps.
You guys are pushing your luck with the Tolkien references and lame Dunhill shrubbery jokes. Let's face it nerds, you need all the sex-appeal you can get.