Pipeology - The Fine Art of Pipe Smoking and Thought

 This will be my final post of the old year.  So, let me wish each of you a good year for 2023.  Unless one can travel early before Christmas, my thinking is that it might be best for most to stay at home for the holidays.  It seems that not even the CEO of Southwest Airlines can figure out why some 2500 flights were canceled during the Christmas rush.  And if they are going to reimburse those travelers inconvenienced by flight cancelations, no one seems to know where that money will come from.   Then it seems everyone wants to take a cruise for Christmas and since most cruise ships leave on Sunday, many people reported waiting in long lines and didn't have dinner until after 11:00PM on most ships.  Christmas just happened to be on a Sunday this year when most traveling is lighter on that day of the week.  But travelers from all aspects of traveling had a hard time getting to places they wanted to go by Christmas.  But Southwest said the...

 I just read an article about a woman who said she would never date a man with the same name as her ex.  The article didn't say what relationship her ex was, but it could be a boyfriend or an ex-husband.  But some names she said were a real turn-off for her.  Until she met a man who changed her mind.  Actually I never gave it much thought myself.    But some names at their very mention have a real negative feeling for most people if a name has a negative connotation.   I feel the same way about certain pipes.  Dr. Grabow pipes, for example, is a name I always associated with cheap pipes thinking most who smoke Dr. Grabow pipes probably liked a cheap drug store tobacco to go with it.  But it wasn't too long ago that I suggested to Patty that I should own at least one Dr. Grabow pipe or a Yellow Bowl, or even a Kaywoodie or a Medico pipe.  She cringed at the thought of my buying a ten buck corn cob pipe just to say I own one....

 A reputable spotting of UFO's flying in formation was reported by an air traffic controller who is a retired Air Force officer who was out walking his dog on October 18, 2022.  The five black objects he reported seeing were flying in a V formation and made no sound.  The report went public on December 22 and is now a matter of public record.  The event occurred over Jacksonville, Florida.  There have been only two other states with more reported UFO activity with California being number one.  The witness did not post his name, so all we know is what has been reported by the National UFO Center.   The National UFO Center is taking seriously any credible reports of UFO's and the more people who report on a single incidence the more seriously the UFO Center takes such reports.  But given the fact this witness is a retired Air Force officer who is an Air Traffic Controller, this report is taken seriously as he knows the difference between such d...

  The photo above is of a new estate pipe Patty gave me for Christmas, along with a new tamper as a gift as well.  The pipe is a Willard estate pioe, which is a pipe manufacturer I have never heard of before.  So, I did some research and found out that Willard pipes were made between 1963 and 1975 in Sparta, North Carolina.  I tried to find a more specific date for this pipe, but that was about all I could find.  So, this pipe is between 50 and 60 years old.  As far as I could tell, it may have been smoked, but only once or twice.  One reviewer of a Willard pipe he owns and smokes said in a review that it is his best pipe.  The pipe has a metal connection that screws into the stummel of the pipe.  The metal connection has a hole from which the smoke is drawn.  I am on my second bowl of Sunset Rum by Sutliff that Patty and my sons bought me for Christmas.  I really enjoy Rum flavored tobacco with the others being Rum and Maple, and J...

  I read a blog post yesterday about a Canaduan woman who in 2012 re-wrote The Night Before Christmas and removed the reference to Santa's pipe which originally said the smoke from his pipe circled his head like a wreath.  She spent $50,000 of her own money to purchase 50,000 copies of her re-write to distribute to children out of her own fear that the reference to Santa's pipe smokingcwas a bad influence on his children.   In my thinking that is like removing all religious symbolism from the Christmas story.  Aa I related the article to my family, Jordan said this woman has too much time on her hands and too much money to spend on such a frivolous idea.  I agreed.  Some people just want to remove the symbolism of Christmas because they find some ideas aboit Christmas to be offensive.  The Night Before Christmas was written in 1823 and Santa has smoked a pipe ever since.   I will bet you most kids never gave it a thought that Santa smoke...

 No matter what you see, hear, or read these days, there is always something about some kind of cataclysmic event.  We hear of some kind of snowpocalypse, for example.  Patty says I am obsessed about the drying up of the Colorado River and how that affects both Lake Mead and Lake Powell, two of our nation's largest reservoirs.  Some have suggested pumping water from the Mississippi, but that too is drying up, or at least news reports have us thinking it is. It would take years to build any kind of system to pump water over the Rockies to help fill the Clorado River.  Same is true of pumping water from the Great Lakes irrespective of the ecological studies and dangers of doing so.   But then there is trafficopolypse or any kind of Apocalypse you can imagine including financial ruin of the world ecomy that awaits right around the corner.  Scientists tell us we are doomed to be hit by an asteroid most anytime.  Nevermind what awaits under the ca...

 I have been ordering from Smoking Pipes for nearly two years now and according to my orders from Smoking Pipes I received a badge saying I am a "Tobacco Meister" now after ordering 20 different tobaccos.  I have my favorites, but according to Smoking Pipes I have achieved a kind of milestone.  I am supposed to know enough about tobaccos now to have a very discerning taste for tobacco.  I have ordered from Pipes and Cigars as well, but since they don't award badges, I can safely say that at least ten mote types of tobacco can be added to the 20 I already have recorded with Smoking Pipes. But I am not as fond of Pipes and Cigars as I am Smoking Pipes.  Pipes and Cigars has made a few ordering errors and I find they are harder to deal with than Smoking Pipes.  I have made Smoking Pipes my number one choice for both pipes and tobacco.  I made an attempt to count the number of blends available from both Pipes and Cigars and Smoking Pipes and have come up t...

 Today is the shortest day of the year in terms of silight.  Of all the various news feeds this morning was a news story about a 28 year old who works remotely for Meta found that it is was cheaper for him to rent an apartment on a cruise ship for $2100 a month than it was to pay rent for an apartment on the beach in San Diego.  For an additional $2100 a month, he could have access to all the ship's amenities including gyms, spas, all meals, and all his beverages, including shows, entertainment and a lifestyle that would have been better than his lifestyle on the beach could offer.  In addition he gets to travel to Rome, Dubrovnik, and other exotic ports all over the world for his $4200.  He signed a 12 year lease that allows him him the luxuries and maid service a cruise ship has to offer. Is there a downside to his lifestyle on a cruise ship?  My thinking is that he has only one place to call home for 12 years.  Then a 59 year old couple decided that...

 I finally ran out of ideas for my Pipe A Day Blog.  And too, I was under the weather for a few days and didn't write or post anything new.  So a couple of days of bedrerst without smoking a pipe gave me some time to think.  I thought of a name of a new blog called Pipeosophy, which I described as thoughts while smoking a pipe, but Patty liked the name Pipeology better, although this is a term used by plumbers in reference to their work.  But it seems to both Patty and myself that Pipeology was a better word to describe a new blog. Yes, it sounds similar to theology or psychology or biology, but it just seemed to her that Pioeology was a better term.  I'll still write about pipes and tobacco, but one, this is NOT a daily blog like my Pipe A Day seemed to be.  She said it could be anything related to pipes, but she suggested I could share my thoughts and observations while smoking a pipe.  I will still avoid the subjects of religion and politics, b...