Getting ready to watch the broadcast of UFC 322, Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev (for the Welterweight title), taking place at Madison Square Garden, in New York City; the co-main event between Valentina Shevchenko and Zhang Weili for the Women’s Flyweight championship should be a real banger—I have no idea how either of these fights will play out. Having Cornell & Diehl Small Batch Folklore (2022, 805/1000) in an unbranded, unmarked, Magnum-sized Swan Neck LC (Large Curve) with a horn stem with an orific bit; this pipe is most likely French in origin, and may be from the late 19th or early 20th Century—it is curve/step drilled, has a bone tenon, and a cork mortise. Our friend, John is visiting to watch the fights with us and brought his Missouri Meerschaum Wizard Cobbit pipe, and will also be smoking Folklore. John and I have been watching UFC fights together regularly for close to fifteen years.
Yesterday, UPS delivered a box containing
Weird Tales Presents novels that John and I recently worked on (that I designed and illustrated).
Our friends, Anthony and Nicole at Moonlight Pizza (Dave Portnoy of One Bite Pizza Reviews gave them a well deserved 8.3 rating in 2023) gifted Susan and me a bottle of champagne for our wedding last month. We’ll pop this open to celebrate the changing/not changing of two belts tonight.
My Yenidje tobacco plants have gotten taller.
I’m still catching up with old WAYS posts and am up to September 2025. I see I’ve missed a birthday or two and at least one retirement—apologies and congratulations to all those I’ve missed.