With Whom Would You Smoke?

[huntertrw]

Assuming that you could use Mr. Peabody's Way Back (or WABAC) Machine to travel backward in time, with what pipe-smoker would you meet for a chat and a shared smoke?



Personally, I would meet with my late high school band director. He was a United States Navy veteran, my favorite teacher, and one of my heroes.

 

[crashthegrey]

Meh, I just like meeting randos at pipe shows. No need to go back in time.

 

[Bbailey324]

Mark Twain might be interesting to talk with and smoke a pipe.

 

[crashthegrey]

Mark Twain might be interesting to talk with and smoke a pipe.

I am not so sure. Some of his comments about making poor people break in his pipes for him, amongst others, make me think it would be a painful, one-sided conversation.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Not a soul.

 

[Kobold]

My dad. I used to love talking and smoking with him.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I am not so sure. Some of his comments about making poor people break in his pipes for him, amongst others, make me think it would be a painful, one-sided conversation.

Would probably hear a lot about his plans for a global cocaine empire as well.

 

[jpberg]

Hey if I was gonna start a Mark Twain Sucks thread, this is right where I would do it.

 

[PaulRVA]

Jimmy Stewart would’ve been cool!

 

[huntertrw]

C.S. Lewis would be another choice. By the way, the C.S. stood for Clive Staples.

 

[crashthegrey]

Hey if I was gonna start a Mark Twain Sucks thread, this is right where I would do it.

His writing is great. Questionable character as a human, though.

 

[jpberg]

His writing is great. Questionable character as a human, though.

How so?

 

[warren99]

I recall an article in Pipes & Tobaccos magazine about 20 years ago. The author reflected upon the time when he was a college freshman at Ole Miss and stopped into a local tobacconist in Oxford, MS, to purchase his first pipe. He bought a pipe and asked the proprietor what tobacco he would recommend. The proprietor pointed to another customer in the store and said, “why not ask Mr. Faulkner?”

I’ll bet William Faulkner would have been a good pipe smoker to converse with!

 

[huntertrw]

Thanks to woodsroad for reminding me of this...

 

[autumnfog]

August Strindberg, swedish author.

 

[crashthegrey]

How so?

"Oh, no," he answered, "I never smoke a new corn-cob pipe. A new pipe irritates the throat. No corn-cob pipe is fit for anything until it has been used at least a fortnight."

"How do you manage then?" I asked. "Do you follow the example of the man with the tight boots;--wear them a couple of weeks before they can be put on?"

"No," said Mark Twain, "I always hire a cheap man--a man who doesn't amount to much, anyhow--who would be as well--or better--dead, and let him break in the pipe for me. I get him to smoke the pipe for a couple of weeks, then put in a new stem, and continue operations as long as the pipe holds together."

 

[huntertrw]

I’ll bet William Faulkner would have been a good pipe smoker to converse with!

"My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky."

 

[K.E. Powell]

The historian in me is of the "kill your idols" variety, meaning that I'd rather not meet anyone that has since deceased and was not already known to me personally because to do so would likely be a disappointment for both parties involved. There is a tendency to overly venerate those historical figures we like, and to overly demonize those we do not. To be sure, some people absolutely deserve such judgment, and to evince a pose of impartiality would be disingenuous and immoral. But most people are a complex mixture of contradictions, good deeds, and bad vices. I guess what I am saying in my characteristically pretentious and long-winded way is that I do not want to go back into time to meet anyone.

But if I were forced to choose? Maybe Christopher Hitchens or James Baldwin. Neither smoked pipe to my knowledge, but they did smoke, and are to my mind the best essayists of the 20th century and brilliant orators; so, if nothing else, the conversation would be good even if it would end up one-sided.

 

[didimauw]

I would choose my great grandfather on my dad's side. I have a picture of him in the field with his pipe, and I have the pipe. Needs serious repair though.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

My grandfather, the only pipe smoker in my family (who passed away when I was about 2).

As for those more famous, I'd imagine being vastly disappointed.