Ruminations on the Candle or the Flame or old Mister Both

[Briar Lee]

When I was a lad five miles West of Humansville the old timers were always saying about matters that candle ain’t worth the flame, or maybe they’d say that there flame ain’t worth the candle, but sometimes they’d declare they was partial to old Mister Both.

And that always kinder sorta complexed me because I liked the candle and the flame all nearly the same which was old Mister Both.

My wife overheard me and Tommy a rambling on about candles and flames yesterday evening over the telephone and afterwards she inquired what in the world was that conversation about.

And I explained lookie at this here Marxman pipe, which is like a candle.



And that tobacco inside is like a flame.

So what me and Tommy was a debating was whether we treasured the candle or the flame the mostest, or maybe it might be old Mister Both.

I don’t think she understood us none, and went inside the house to finish typing up my papers.

So let me ask you’uns.

When it comes to pipes and tobacca, do you favor the candle or the flame, or old Mister Both?

My Marxman pipes ain’t worth much without tobacca, and the tobacca needs a worthy vessel, you know?

 

[Scottmi]

the flame, moren the candle, and no doubt about it

 

[Dave760]

I find both to be important, but if you put a gun to my head I'd choose great tobacco in a mediocre pipe over mediocre tobacco in a great pipe. So I'd come down on the side of the flame over the candle, but just barely.

But if either the flame or the candle is bad then I'm going to go grab a flashlight instead. Beats sitting in the dark.

And now that I've tortured this poor analogy I'm going to go enjoy the sunlight.

(Apparently I wasn't done thrashing the analogy. Please don't put a gun to my head.)

 

[Briar Lee]

I find both to be important, but if you put a gun to my head I'd choose great tobacco in a mediocre pipe over mediocre tobacco in a great pipe. So I'd come down on the side of the flame over the candle, but just barely.

But if either the flame or the candle is bad then I'm going to go grab a flashlight instead. Beats sitting in the dark.

And now that I've tortured this poor analogy I'm going to go enjoy the sunlight.

(Apparently I wasn't done thrashing the analogy. Please don't put a gun to my head.)

Even as a child I realized the analogy of the candle and the flame part, but where old Mister Both entered the Ozark dialect I never grasped.

There are some old idioms and phrases Google AI is still behind the 8 ball and running in the back of the pack.

The Origins of 21 Common Phrases

I don’t know about you, but I love history. It inspires, humbles, and fascinates me. Part of that is learning the etymology of some common words and idioms, many of which are Medieval or even older…

storyempire.com

 

[Eireprof]

For me it's both, but that response implies the singularity of each, when really I find it to be a symbiotic relationship. The pipe and the tobacco become a unit in the act of smoking (there is a metaphor buried clumsily beneath the surface here I need not even point out).

There is no flame without the candle, no candle without the flame (at least not one fulfilling it's purpose). The whole apparatus, pipe and tobacco, becomes more than the sum of its parts.

 

[Old_Newby]

I would rather lose my favorite pipe than my favorite tobacco be discontinued. I can use a $20 cob as long as I can enjoy the tobacco.

Isn't the candle analogy more about not wasting energy and resources if not necessary. The juice is not worth the squeeze.

 

[Sigmund]

Luckily (or maybe unluckily) no one ever gives us a choice of great tobacco or great pipe.

I say "Burn the candle at both ends with two matches"

 

[sablebrush52]

When I was a lad five miles West of Humansville the old timers were always saying about matters that candle ain’t worth the flame, or maybe they’d say that there flame ain’t worth the candle, but sometimes they’d declare they was partial to old Mister Both.

And that always kinder sorta complexed me because I liked the candle and the flame all nearly the same which was old Mister Both.

My wife overheard me and Tommy a rambling on about candles and flames yesterday evening over the telephone and afterwards she inquired what in the world was that conversation about.

And I explained lookie at this here Marxman pipe, which is like a candle.

View attachment 377009

And that tobacco inside is like a flame.

So what me and Tommy was a debating was whether we treasured the candle or the flame the mostest, or maybe it might be old Mister Both.

I don’t think she understood us none, and went inside the house to finish typing up my papers.

So let me ask you’uns.

When it comes to pipes and tobacca, do you favor the candle or the flame, or old Mister Both?

My Marxman pipes ain’t worth much without tobacca, and the tobacca needs a worthy vessel, you know?

So it the pipe is the candle and the tobacco is the flame, what's the BIC, Zippo, Dupont, or match?

 

[Sigmund]

So it the pipe is the candle and the tobacco is the flame, what's the BIC, Zippo, Dupont, or match?

A way to stay warm after an excessive PAD/TAD attack.

 

[telescopes]

Accessories, my dear friend.

 

[Briar Lee]

Accessories, my dear friend.View attachment 377030View attachment 377031

As for lighters, i prefer so many Zippo Armour candles I always have one handy to the flame.

But are there genuine $60 Dumonts on eBay from Canada?


Me thinks that there Canadian Dumont might be as geniune as a three dollar bill.

 

[Sigmund]

They are genuinely fake. That doesnt mean they dont work. If you can pick up a real one for a decent price it will last damn close to a lifetime if taken care of. They will need an occsaional overhaul but the parts are pretty damn durable.

 

[lraisch]

I've always heard the idiom as "the game is not worth the candle".

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I just think it's weird that you were talking on the phone, and then you wife went back to typing. You stuck in 1980?

 

[Briar Lee]

I just think it's weird that you were talking on the phone, and then you wife went back to typing. You stuck in 1980?

These here new pocket telephones have a speaker built in to um and her typewriter has a TV screen —-

And a miraculous new Hewlet Packard 90 series bubble jet printer that makes me grevious I had to spend a thousand clams for ink apiece on the three laser printers we sold to that young lawyer who bought our office.

Them there laser printers are sorta kinda like gas weed eaters.

When they runs outta coal oil give them puppies to somebody else who wants to feed um.

 

[Briar Lee]

I've always heard the idiom as "the game is not worth the candle".

Which just means you was taught the more obvious version.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

The tobacco is the most important thing... If all else fails you can pack it into your jaw and get to gnawin' on 'em.