Which Historical Character Would You Choose To Share A Bowl With?
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I have really enjoyed this question and reading the responses in this thread! I would agree with some of the other posts that Samuel Clemens, Hemingway, or J.R.R. Tolkien would all be excellent choices. I'll throw in another author who has been documented as enjoying pipe tobacco from time to time - Hunter S. Thompson.
Spending an hour enjoying a pipe with HST in comparison with the other three great authors I mentioned would undoubtedly lean less toward a distinguished evening and more toward anarchy but I doubt it would be any less academically enlightening or entertaining. In fact, I think an afternoon with some fine tobacco, a number of high powered guns, and Hemingway and HST in attendance would prove to be quite memorable.
Spending an hour enjoying a pipe with HST in comparison with the other three great authors I mentioned would undoubtedly lean less toward a distinguished evening and more toward anarchy but I doubt it would be any less academically enlightening or entertaining. In fact, I think an afternoon with some fine tobacco, a number of high powered guns, and Hemingway and HST in attendance would prove to be quite memorable.
Terrific topic !
This is tough since there are so many historical figures I would enjoy talking with. I’m currently reading a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte - a complex, multi-faceted individual. He would be on my list. Others include George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. I would be fascinated to hear their account of the founding of the American republic & what they would think of our job keeping it. - - Samuel Clemens would definitely be on my list, as would H.L. Mencken. The latter two gentlemen might be the most entertaining of these men to spend a relaxing evening with.
And, of course, I’d like to talk with the man pictured in my avatar- Gen Douglas MacArthur. I would like to hear his take on the conduct of the final year of WW2 and of the Korean War. Would he be astounded that the Koreas are still a major issue today - 60 years after the war he fought ? What would he think of the N. Koreans being able to build nuclear armed ballistic missile capability?
Thanks for this topic !
This is tough since there are so many historical figures I would enjoy talking with. I’m currently reading a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte - a complex, multi-faceted individual. He would be on my list. Others include George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. I would be fascinated to hear their account of the founding of the American republic & what they would think of our job keeping it. - - Samuel Clemens would definitely be on my list, as would H.L. Mencken. The latter two gentlemen might be the most entertaining of these men to spend a relaxing evening with.
And, of course, I’d like to talk with the man pictured in my avatar- Gen Douglas MacArthur. I would like to hear his take on the conduct of the final year of WW2 and of the Korean War. Would he be astounded that the Koreas are still a major issue today - 60 years after the war he fought ? What would he think of the N. Koreans being able to build nuclear armed ballistic missile capability?
Thanks for this topic !
Wouldn't mind sharing a bowl with Shelby Foote,the Civil War historian. Though he would immediately know from my speech that I was not born in the South -- I'm never mistaken despite having picked up some Southern pronunciation to make myself understood, and also a slower cadence -- I think he would be amused by my memories of marrying into an extended very Southern family. Not in Kansas anymore.
And, just to cross the gender line at least once on this thread, I wouldn't mind sitting down with my wife's late father's first cousin, Esta Carter, who smoked a corncob pipe and did incredible fancy work, needle work and such. She lived in Northeast Missouri. This is a relative of my living wife, who I married ten years after losing my first wife who was born in the South.
I'm afraid I'd find Tolkein boring, as I'm not really a fan of his work. Not sure we'd have much to talk about - linguistics?
Sam Clemens and there's not even a close second.
I got married in the building in Virginia City, NV where he wrote for the Territorial Enterprise and first used the pen name "Mark Twain." I don't think Missouri Meerschaum cobs were quite a thing yet in the years he was a Nevada resident, but I smoked one on the porch where he would have stood 150 years ago all the same.
Fascinating character.
Sam Clemens and there's not even a close second.
I got married in the building in Virginia City, NV where he wrote for the Territorial Enterprise and first used the pen name "Mark Twain." I don't think Missouri Meerschaum cobs were quite a thing yet in the years he was a Nevada resident, but I smoked one on the porch where he would have stood 150 years ago all the same.
Fascinating character.
My grandfather died in 1979. I can do the next best thing to smoking with him as I was given two of his briar pipes and acquired a 14 oz. tin of his favorite tobacco, George Washington, last August. In fact, I smoked a bowl of George Washington in his Yello Bole Spartan Briar yesterday.
An obscure historical figure I would like to sit down and smoke a bowl with is Captain Mike Healy, USRCS (United States Revenue Cutter Service, the predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard.) Even though he was black - his mother was a slave - he rose through the ranks to Captain. He was the first black Commanding Officer on a U.S. military vessel. From 1868 until the early 1900s, the Revenue Cutter Service was the law in the Alaskan Territory. He had a very storied and sometimes controversial history as his nickname was "Hell Roaring" Mike Healy. I have seen pictures of him with a pipe.
An obscure historical figure I would like to sit down and smoke a bowl with is Captain Mike Healy, USRCS (United States Revenue Cutter Service, the predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard.) Even though he was black - his mother was a slave - he rose through the ranks to Captain. He was the first black Commanding Officer on a U.S. military vessel. From 1868 until the early 1900s, the Revenue Cutter Service was the law in the Alaskan Territory. He had a very storied and sometimes controversial history as his nickname was "Hell Roaring" Mike Healy. I have seen pictures of him with a pipe.
Stalin? Easy duty I think. The lust for power and then, logically, the desire to retain it once gained. Seemed to have worked for him. Some believe the pipe has mystical powers which can impact a smoker's personality, skill level, and mental abilities. So perhaps it was the pipe.
I have to add Jack Keruoac. I just found a picture of him smoking a pipe. Now that would be an interesting time. I suppose if it was during the time that he was writing "On the Raod" I probably wouldn't get a word in though lol.
I second the grandfather theme. Mom told me Grampa smoked Five Brothers from a paper sack in apple and cherrywood pipes he handcarved from his orchard branches.
Then there's Mammy Yokum, from Al Capp's cartoon strip Lil' Abner. She was only a funnies paper character, but she was a lively old gal and always had something to say, though she was succinct in conversation, as I recall. Since I am as likely to socialize with her as I am with General Douglas MacArthur, I thought I'd recognize her.
Funny you ask about this.
Some years ago I invented a time machine for the exact purpose you describe. Think Star Trek transporter tech blended with H. G. Wells. It plucked anyone I wanted from any time in the past and sat them into a nice leather club chair across from me. I'd even had the room made up in the style of an Edwardian gentlemen's club to add a bit of flash (not cheap, that... do you know how much real mahogany costs these days? 8O )
Anyway, it didn't work for shit. Most of the people I dialed in instantly freaked and ran away; the ones who stayed didn't speak modern English or anything like it so we got exactly nothing discussed; and a few looked around slowly as they materialized, then stood, gave a battle-cry-yell and attacked me with whatever weapon they had at hand. (Alexander was the worst. I almost didn't get the return button pushed before he chopped me in half with a battle axe.)
In short, don't bother. Leave the conversations with historical figures idea in the realm of philosophy and conjecture. There's absolutely nothing to recommend the real thing.
Some years ago I invented a time machine for the exact purpose you describe. Think Star Trek transporter tech blended with H. G. Wells. It plucked anyone I wanted from any time in the past and sat them into a nice leather club chair across from me. I'd even had the room made up in the style of an Edwardian gentlemen's club to add a bit of flash (not cheap, that... do you know how much real mahogany costs these days? 8O )
Anyway, it didn't work for shit. Most of the people I dialed in instantly freaked and ran away; the ones who stayed didn't speak modern English or anything like it so we got exactly nothing discussed; and a few looked around slowly as they materialized, then stood, gave a battle-cry-yell and attacked me with whatever weapon they had at hand. (Alexander was the worst. I almost didn't get the return button pushed before he chopped me in half with a battle axe.)
In short, don't bother. Leave the conversations with historical figures idea in the realm of philosophy and conjecture. There's absolutely nothing to recommend the real thing.
I like the idea of Aleister Crowley a lot... Oppenheimer would be high up on my list.... and I'd have to have a bowl with Richard Burton.
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