This Sure Makes Me Feel Good About Being a Pipe Smoker

[admin]

If this article by Fred Brown doesn't make you feel good about being a pipe smoker, nothing will!
Check the links on some of the names as they lead to profile articles on some of the famous pipe smokers of the past that Fred wrote about as well.
Check it out -

In the Company of Greatness

 

[mothernaturewilleatusallforbreakfast]

Great article. Thanks!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It made me kind of sad.

 

[markus]

Very good article, I loved it! It's comforting to know that we are in such great company.

 

[stvalentine]

Great company indeed and a fantastic article!

 

[mso489]

Good tribute to celebrated men of the past who happened to smoke pipes. William Faulkner's dates, by the way, were 1897-1962. Some reading this might deduce that there is a thread of cardiovascular fatalities with pipe smokers, but that is a dominant cause of death in non-smokers and smokers alike especially as they age, so I don't think this leads to any sort of conclusion. The go-go optimism of Western culture tends to see death as a sort of failure of the individual, like a mistake or shortcoming, rather than an inevitable part of life that is built-in, so we have to lean against that habit of thought. To have lived to adulthood and especially through adulthood is a life accomplishment in itself.

 

[dsollars]

What a great read on a Friday night, breaking in a new MM Mark Twain cob with a bowl of Carter Hall.

 

[palictyton]

I agree, what a great way to start the weekend.

 

[vink]

Thanks for the nice article link!

 

[deathmetal]

Amazing how our present time presents fewer heroes. Maybe it's how we choose them?
Faulkner is great, for both technical reasons and considerations of content. Certain over-praised substitutes are mediocre in both categories.
Either way, I'm reading Tolkien these days and have to laugh with enjoyment each time he praises the pipe. I imagine him typing away, loading bowls of Capstan Flake and letting his imagination run wild.
Many of these people were possessed by genius. Interesting how they were drawn to the pipe.