Pipeology - The Fine Art of Pipe Smoking and Thought

  I own many pipes similar to the example above.  Brebbia is a Canadian company that uses the finest Briar to make inexpensive pipes.  The above pipe has a list price of $79.33 on Smoking Pipes website.  It's proof a good pipe doesn't have to be expensive.  There are collectors that pay thousands for the rarest pipes.  But I'm not a collector, as such.  I own many pipes and have smoked them all.  Some I smoke more than others.  I have my favorites.  But I would have no fear of owning this pipe.   Eighty bucks is a good price point for both the one starting out or one like myself that might like to just have a new pipe without spending a lot.  This pipe is from the Algonquin series named for a state park in Canada.  It speaks of the natural qualities of a pipe.  I like the grain on this pipe in particular.  And the stain is a natural walnut which brings out the quality of the grain. There's nothing special ab...

 My Spirituality can't be transferred to orders.  I had a post written about my Spirituality and thought it was pretty good when I wrote it.  But then I decided to delete it after i read it later and just start over.  My brand of Spirituality is my own.  I can't sell it or transfer it to others.  Why?  It's simply my own.  My Spirituality includes my smoking a pipe.  Why?  I smoked a pipe before and have smoked a pipe since.   I imbibe in a little wine, but I'm careful with any alcohol.  I've never taken any illegal substances in my body including Marijuana or anything like it.  I rely solely on my Spirit Guides and I've had to learn to trust them.  I dont have anyone to share them with.  I will say however, my wife understands as may a few others.  But if I didn't have my Spirit Guides I wouldn't be here writing this or my life would have been a total loss.   Very few know how thankful I am f...

 Okay, I'm stuck in the sixties.  I have bittersweet memories of the sixties, but not the music.  Our kids grew up with sixties music.  I was listening to a playlist the other night that included so much from that period of time.  I could start listing the groups or the songs, but there were just so many.  But what got me was reading the comments.  The comments were from all ages from 17-91.  What amazed me the most were the comments made by young people who asked why music today isn't like it was back then.   The older commenters wrote about how special that time was.  One said he could remember the first time he heard the Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel and hoped kids today appreciate that song as much as he did then.  I wasn't a big Seekers fan back then, but as I listen to their music now, they were indeed a very special group of young people.  My list of great sixties music is practically endless as is the li...

 I love a cup of coffee with my first pipe bowl of the day.  And if it's an English tobacco so much the better.  I thought about writing coffee reviews here since I drink coffee that originates from so many places the world over.  But if you want to know the truth I can make generalizations about coffee, but the fact is a review would be a couple of sentences.  I know what I like, and I've had enough coffee to know what I don't like.   If coffee comes in a can pre-ground I won't like it.  If it's ground in a bag I might consider it.  But I prefer to grind my own beans.  And they pretty much have to be medium roasted.  My son once went to Hawaii where he had some Hawaiian grown Kona coffee.  He said that was the best coffee he's ever had.  Hawaiian coffee here in the States isn't bad, but it's usually too expensive and I don't think it's worth the cost.   The most expensive coffee I've ever had is Blue Mountain Ja...

  I have no unwritten rule that says I have to write about expensive pipes costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.  My Dunhill brand new would have cost $1200, but used and reconditioned it was less than a few hundred.  It is the most expensive pipe I will ever own.  I found the above pipe on Smoking Pipes website, which is where I do almost all my shopping for pipes and mostly tobacco.  It is an AKB Meerschaum pipe. The above pipe has a list price of $57.  Because they are often handcrafted, Meerschaum pipes can be quite expensive, but often are sold as estate pipes and can be had rather inexpensively.  Meerschaum pipes are easy to care for, but will break if they are dropped or abused.  But they clean easily and the smoke is cool.  They don't burn out like Briar can and their appearance and carvings make them very interesting.   I chose the above pipe rather than dragons, skulls, bearded men, or pirates, because this pipe is rat...

 I had a conversation the other day about regrets.  The older one gets, the more regrets a person has.  There are two regrets that hospice workers have revealed about those at the end of life.  It is said that the most common regrets are that they wish they loved more and traveled more.  Love is a motivating factor for many things in life.  Many hospice workers say the dying wished they had more friends.  Many facing death don't like the prospect of facing death alone.   First of all, I try hard to live in the now.  Secondly, at my old age I CAN have regrets, but I'd rather say I have none and often believe I don't.  But perhaps most importantly, I don't find the prospect of dying something I worry about.  I'm thinking I won't face death, but that requires me to explain too many things I'd rather not explain.  It is part of my Spirituality to have no regrets and I live in the now.  I am very much alive. My brain is ge...

 A pipe is a tool for philosophers, theologians, poets, and most often for writers.  Except for those who make YouTube vids about pipe smoking.  Pipe smoking vids can be made by most anyone, but are created most notably by pipe shop owners.  They are for conversationalists or just for those who want to relax.  Pipes these days are rarely seen in public.  I used to think of the spirits rising from a bowl of a pipe. But maybe what rises from a pipe are thoughts from long ago as a pipe connects us to centuries of tradition.  A pipe unites the common man or woman to great men and women who also smoke pipes.  It is a bonding that unites rather than divides.  Even if the pipe smoker is in the company of non pipe smokers.  Others smell the aroma of a pipe and all those around a pipe share a commonality. My wife commented on my comment the other day when I said I am calmest with a pipe.  My pipe doesn't care, but she does.  Of course, ...

  My wife says she likes when I write about a particular pipe.  I'm fascinated with Brulor pipes, because they are very good pipes at very good prices and are reminiscent of pipes from the first half of the 20th century.  This is a new company whose pipes Smoking Pipes have listed on their website.   The above pipe is a straight stem Churchwarden pipe with a smooth finish that is listed at $65.  I've written about very expensive pipes in this blog, but decided the best pipes are often in the $100-$150 price range.  I've decided I no longer want a pipe that is more than this price range with about $125 being the sweetspot for most any pipe. The above pipe, in my thinking, is a steal at $65.  It would be a better purchase than the most expensive Dr. Grabow pipe.  For one thing the Briar is old aged Briar.  I own three Chrchwarden pipes, but they all have a bent stem.  It's the straight stem that makes this pipe unique.  Almost al...

 As a Spiritual person I don't ponder this question, but there are those who at least wonder what is at the end of life?  As a person grows older they begin to become at least a bit religious.  Why?  Just in case.  I'm sure I've had Angels watching over me more than twice in my life.  But my two most recent brushes with death, didn't frighten me about it.  First, in both instances I knew it wasn't my time.  But it's the pain I feared the most.  Second, and most importantly, I claim to know what's at the end of life. I kind of have an arrangement with God.  He doesn't care what I do or don't do as long as I do no harm to myself or others, and I don't care what He thinks of me.  But people, on the other hand, have driven me nuts.  Ministry is as much about politics as it is about theology.  The politicking is what drove me crazy about it.  But it seems I never had to play politics with God.  And I still don't....

I want to think that all men who smoke a pipe are gentlemen.  Any woman knows the difference between a jerk and a gentleman.  There just seems to be so few gentlemen in today's world.  But a gentleman has to continuously work at being one.  A gentleman isn't born one.  A lot of "old" gentlemen have been jerks.  And there are those who have never changed. I have always been comfortable with women.  I've had more women doctors than men doctors.  I credit my mom for the way I am with women.  I'm more comfortable in a room full of women than I am in a room full of men.  I am not sure I smoke a pipe because I've been more of a gentleman, or if the pipe has made me work harder at being one.  I can be sexist about women, but I've worked very hard at not being a jerk.  A gentleman loves women without being a jerk.  Sometimes that can be difficult to learn.  But a gentleman has mastered his base feelings.  Women are to be...

  Old School pipes are hard to come by.  The above pipe would be from the 1940's.  Brulor pipes is an old pipe company that went out of business, but was resurrected in the 2010's.  The above pipe is made of old Briar with a real horn stem.  The cost might surprise you for it sells for $65.  Collectors of old school pioes will begin to snatch up these pipes as they sell for between $45 and $65.  This is identical to the old school pipe grandfatthers smoked back in the day. In that period the horn stem set it apart from other pipes and it would have been a fashion statement for a man whose pipes were anything but ordinary.  It would have been on parr with a Dr. Graybow.  But at $65, I believe this pipe would be a steal.  Obviously it is machine made, but that would not diminish its quality or its value. I enjoy watching old movies and TV shows where pipes are smoked.  I don't watch the old Match Game for most any reason but to see wh...

 I've been watching YouTube videos with famous quotes, mostly by men about life and living.  Even at 72, I still find philosophical quotes fascinating and I'll read a quote and simply say it's better said than I can say it because I know this.  Mark Twain sill might be most quotable because as a writer he just had a way with words.  But some quotes aren't applicable to tofay, but a good quote holds the test of time. Some writers don't make their observations known in books.  Some things are said like a comedian's one-liners, like Rodney Dabgerfield saying, "Take my wife--please!"  George Carlin is still incredibly quotable.  I'm not sure it was Mark Twain who said, "Any woman can make a fool out of a man in twenty minutes."  But the most foolish man, in my thinking, is the man who has never loved.  It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.  A stupid man has loved too many.  A lot of quotes deal with man/wo...

  Okay, my son brought a cat home last week.  He was a barn cat for four years and didn't respond much to people while at the Cat Cafe.  My son went there possibly looking for a cat, but when he sat down this cat jumped into his lap.  So, of course he brought him home.  His name is Sir William Wallace, which I am sure is the only cat in the world with that name.  My son calls him Willy, but I simply call him "Sir."  My thinking is that if we brought him home to fifteen dogs, in a fay he'd own all of them.   My thinking is this male cat deserves to be called, "Sir."  In a week he owns this house and everything in it includeding four people and a dog.  But that's another story.  Last night my son took Sir outside for the first time carrying him in his arms.  The cat got startled and my son put him down on the ground and in a flash he took off.  We searched for about an hour finally thinking he'd come back.   S...

 I've had to learn this.  A baby is born with it.  But it's life that teaches this.  Once acquired it is not forgotten.  It's a matter of choosing to keep it.  Love casts out fear.  The problem as I see it is that there isn't enough of it.  Maybe I could do more if I were more out and and about, but I'm not seeking to change the world.  I can't.  By quiet meditation I seek to change lives and they will in turn change others.  I don't care how.  There are so many ways. But I never see time wasted on Peace and Love.  It never is if that is a goal, because no Peace is perfect and no Love is totally pure.  Yet a goal like this is never perfectly achieved, but I do my part.  Why?  Because I can.  I never see time wasted.  If I felt I was wasting time, happiness is elusive at best.  But I get a sense of satisfaction by not wasting time.  I see at as an obligation to my Spirit Guides. ...

 Paul Simon was the songwriter for Simon and Garfunkel.  So many of his lyrics have to do with loneliness and isolation.  But it seems his Bridge Over Troubled Water was his come to Jesus moment.  He had been listening to gospel music by a Black group that he says motivated him to write the song.   I wondered where I was going to go with this blog after last week and decided that I know a lot about music from the mid-60's to the early 70's.  In my thinking the music before disco was the very best.  I might be prejudiced having grown up in that era, but I love to watch reaction videos of the younger generation listening to music from that era for the first time.  I love to see whether their reactions were like mine when I heard so many great songs for the first time. I can hear a song now and have memories of what I was doing the first time I heard it.  My memories are fading now because I've heard so many favorite songs since then. ...

 You can't keep a good man down.  He always emerges, perhaps even better than he was.  Every man can reinvent himself.  Age is no deterent.  A good man gets better with age.  He's learned from his past mistakes.  I can include anyone here, but the saying is about a good man.  And since I'm a man, I'll go with this.  I believe this to be 100% true.  It's just that there seems to be too few these days.  I could be wrong, but in some ways age is best.   My body can feel as old as I am, but I believe the best emerges with age.  But age is NOT a determing factor.  There are men who just never grow up.  They are often boys with toys.  And they treat the opposite sex as toys.  How one defines a good man is at best subjective.  It is said a good man is hard to find.  Women will often settle.   I leave judgment to others, but I COULD say this about myself.  I can be a grumpy old man...

At first when I stopped going to church on Sunday's I missed it.  But those days of missing church are long gone.  My wife and I have one Playlist on Spotify we listen to every Sunday morning.  It is called Sunday Morning Coffee put together by Chip Davis and Manheim Steamroller.  It's a Playlist suitable for anytime that is relaxing, but for some reason we just got into the habit of listening to it on Sunday mornings.   I think Sunday mornings are the best.  Long ago, I felt I had to perform on Sunday mornings and before then it was church every Sunday.  But those days are long gone.  I can wake up on Sunday mornings, make my coffee, and simply relax.  I often wonder if retired pastors still go to church if they don't have to any longer.  My father was still pastoring almost until his passing.   But I simply don't miss going to church.  Once I learned what salvation was, I just felt it was redundant.  I tried on...

 I can now write about other things beginning this morning.  IIn all things I HAVE to let my Spirit Guides work.  I wish I could say life is always Smooth Sailing.  I chose a tin of Ashon's Smooth Sailing because it was on a list of tobacco choices for Spring.  Ashton is known for its quality tobaccos.  Smooth Sailing is an Aromatic with notes of Maple, coconut, and dark chocolate.  Even the name depicts smoothness.  I liked the name.  The art work on the tin is done in bright blue with a picture of a yacht with sails sailing on blue Smooth waters and a bright blue sky.   When I opened the tin the tobacco smelled as described.  It is a very light Aromatic.  The hint of coconut gives it a kind of tropical flavor.  We might think of Maple as a kind of flavor maybe for a New England Fall, but the blend lends itself to mote of a tropical experience.   I don't always choose tobacco blends by their names and it us...

 I decided to wait until this morning to write today.  I've been writing a few days in advance and then making my changes and additions the morning before posting.  The week began with the solar eclipse and now it's here.  Unless Spirit Guides have told others, which they may have as they told me, I could boast I'm the only one to know what today really is.  But in a way, it makes me seem crazy to talk about it as I have, which is why I've been so quiet about for thirty years. But why this year to make my craziness known?  I guess I got tired of not having shared this before.  I've just reached the point where I felt comfortable about knowing and letting others in on the secret.  Has my sharing this made this week any different from other weeks?  In a way, it has.  At least others know what I claim to know.  It was a risk I took.  BUT writing about this day being the date of Jesus' birth made me more aware.   Easter w...

I don't want to forget this week.  I want to draw upon it when I remember Peace and Love.  That has been the focus of this week.  Peace and Love are both positive.  When I need to remember I can draw from my memories of this week.  I can remember how positive it has been.  My mind isn't as sharp as I get older and I need more recent memories.  I need to remember how I felt this week.  I can then work on getting it back when it's needed.   Meditatiion helps us remember the positive and how good the positive feels.  Not everything has been positive, but I've worked hard on the positive this week.  And I mustn't ever forget why.  This has simply been a Spiritual reminder.  It might seem that I sit around and smoke a pipe a lot, but I have worked hard channeling Peace and Love.  I must never forget why. There are so many things I could be writing about, but I've purposely stayed away from events of the day.  I a...

 I just read an article about a paper published by two communication researchers at Ohio State University that said that dealing with anger by a monotonous activity increases arousal of anger, and not decrease it.  Instead their study showed that anger is best dealt with by meditation.  I don't need a study to tell me this.  But I'm happy that research has born this out.  Their study has shown that meditatiion decreases heart rate and lowers a state of arousal caused by anger. I know for a fact what any kind of stress does both to me mentally and physically.  I can't equate stress with anger but the physiological affects on the body are the same for both.  People have dealt with their anger by a physical exercise like punching or running.  But quiet meditation has been found to be the best way to deal with both anger and stress.  Physiologically they both have the same affect.  There is an increase of heart rate and all related physiolog...

 First of all, I like Christmas.  I am not about to be a Grinch when it comes to Christmas.  December 25 is a very special time of year.  I have no problems saying, "Merry Christmas."  I love the Peace and love the season brings.  Everyone loves love, or maybe most do.  Some maybe too much.  Christmas is romantic.  In fact, there is nothing inherently evil about Christmas.  I love Santa.  In fact I STILL want to believe in Santa.   I can take or leave the Easter Bunny.  We liked Easter at our house with colored eggs and Easter decorations.  But as a Holy Day, it can't compete with Christmas.  At least not in MY thinking.  And Easter is not the same day like Christmas.  Easter is just different.  It is a more Holy Day than Christmas.  I get it.  I get both days, really.  Easter IS religious, whereas Christmas is for everyone.  It can be whatever one wishes it to be.  Ap...

 My Spirit Guides told me that Christmas is April 12.  Okay, they were Angels.  But talking about Angels raises more questions than I can deal with here.  So, I now call them Spirit Guides but they are the same thing.  Does today's solar eclipse at about 3:00 PM today have anything to do with April 12?  I haven't made that connection.  I simply don't know.  But I've been wondering about it.  Does ANYTHING have to do with April 12?  Up until now, not many have known about my knowledge. Anything I say about April 12 is purely speculative and you might not believe me.  That is a risk I take in most anything I do.  I have kept this pretty much to myself except at least a few of you know.  This is MY Spiritual week, as I said in yesterday's post.  Do I believe the Messiah will come on April 12?  In a nutshell- no.  Do I believe some earthshattering event will happen on April 12?  No.   I believe th...

 I will always have my Spirituality to get me through life.  Nothing on earth is permanent, but the Spirituality is.  It has been a part of me for three decades.  It is the reason for my mental well-being.  It's why I seek balance in life in all things.  I have to accept the choices of my Spirit Guides.  I am very Buddhist in my thinking about life, believing my Spirit Guides always make the best choices even if I don't understand.  I'm limited by my humanity. But it always comes down to Human Life including my own life.  St. Francis saw himself as a vessel, which is how I see myself.  I am just a vessel channeling my Spirit Guides to others.  This is what I do when meditating.  But others can choose their own paths.  I make no choices for anyone, including family.  I want everyone to always choose a path of life and living.  This is my only desire.  How they choose to live is up to them, but I do the channe...

 I've questioned the meaning of life and God's existence.  But I haven't done either for thirty years.  I would not have found God through people and I would certainly be eternally lost.  I've asked the "why me" question afterwards.  Because I am THAT important to God as every person is, regardless of belief.  Because we are each important to each other. My wife is in Columbus today and for at least a few more days.  I asked my wife out of 49 years of marriage how many nights have we slept apart.  We both figure from various reasons like travel or hospital stays it's probably been less than six months in total. We've had a pretty simple philosophy about sleeping together and that is to not go to bed angry with each other.  So apart from reasons of inconvenience, we've never slept apart.   There were nights and still are nights I don't go sleep right away.  I use my computer a lot at night.  And I'll fall asleep with my lap...

 Warm thoughts and love go out to my son this morning who spent the night in the hospital last night.  Looks like everything is improving.  I decided to save Easter for later, which is why I wrote about the Easter Bunny instead this past Easter.  I have more to say about it, but I want to comment on something else this morning and I'll get back to my thinking this morning.  I read an article about Jack Nicholson yesterday morning.  He lives in a five million dollar 3300 square foot home.  He's 86 now and has many friends and fans worried about him.  He's become a recluse, or so it seems, leaving many worried he now has dementia. Marlon Brando was a beloved actor whose last days were much like Nicholson's now.  This is the comparison many are making between the two.  Brando loved being seen.  But in his last days he was very much alone.  And Nicholson seems to be repeating Brando's steps.  Why does this seem to be important...

 At least a few scientists believe noises coming from the sky ate caused by movements of the earth's crust.  I don't have to write another word.  That says it all.  But there are those who insist that noises from the sky are a Supernatural announcement that the end in near.  Have sky quakes been recorded throughout history?  Sky quakes have been recorded as far back as 1824.  But were they heard before then?  It might be that there are more people in the world living in places where humanity didn't exist.   They have however been recorded all over the world.  Could these quakes be caused by aliens?  Could they be caused by the military, like sonic booms?  There have been educated guesses like the one above, but that does not explain many phenomena around the world like the now famous Toas Hum.  No theory is going to be satisfactory to everyone's liking because we just don't know. The New Madrid earthquake was in 1811-...

 I'm starting out giving my son some warm thoughts hoping he feels better this morning after a visit to the doctor yesterday.  The other day I was scrolling through YouTube and for some reason church hymns came up with scenes of Spring.  I guess it's because Easter brings back images of going to church in the minds of us who are older.  My wife and I were discussing this at breakfast the other day.  She said she could open up any hymnal and know rhree-quarters of the songs.  I said that I agreed.  There was a time when I just got tired of the old hymns.  Bit I said the theology in those old hymns was simple. I like theology that is simple because God is not that complex.  So, in the past few days I've been listening to those old hymns and it brought back so many childhood memories of singing those hymns in church every Sunday.  Why YoiTube put these videos for me in their algorithm, I'm not so sure, but probably because the vids I've bee...

 Sometimes I'll rise in the morning before day break.  I placed an order for tobacco last week.  Usually I enjoy writing about my tobacco choices.  I didn't even mention this order until now.  My first bowl of tobacco in the morning is usually an English blend of something I have to go with my first cup of hot black coffee.  The last few mornings I have smoked a blend by Sutliff called Match Sunrise.  It is supposed to be similar to Peterson's Early Morning Pipe, which is a very light English blend.   Sunrise isn't an exact match, but it's close.  It's mostly an aged Virginia, with Latakia, and some Orientals.  Now I'm sure these tobaccos won't mean much to you.  But as a Virginia ages it naturally becomes more naturally smooth and sweet.  Latakia is for spicing and the Orientals add flavoring.  The Latakia is so light, it's hardly noticeable.  One reviewer said it's the best English he's ever had.  I wouldn...

 Today is April Fool's Day and I thought about writing about the meaning of this day.  But I wrote the following a few days ago and had it mind for today.  I'm sticking with my original plan, so thie following is what I wrote for this morning.  I don't mind writing about my Spirituality here, because it's no secret.  I can't really hide it.  It's partly why I smoke a pipe.  I AM one of those.  But I don't mind writung about it, because that is who I am.  There is no leader or organization.  No money is involved unless one believes time is money, then I guess the investment is in oneself.  But it's not something I can promote for my own gain, because I get nothing back except your time for allowing me to share this with you. My pipes are a part of my Spirituality because I have made them so.  I know God doesn't care whether I smoke a pipe or not, but that is of my own making.  Some might make Vaping a part of their Spiritua...