Pipeology - The Fine Art of Pipe Smoking and Thought

  My first pipe is now a 50 year old Jobey pipe I bought in the Spring of 1974.  I believe it was in the Spring of that year.  My wife who was then my fiancé knew I wanted to smoke a pipe.  It was kind of thing about college men smoking pipes although smoking was prohibited on campus.  I figured as vp of the student body no one would say anything to me about it as there was smoking anyway.   We got in my little red sports car, an MGB-GT and drove over to a place called The Rod and Pipe Shop.   No kidding, they actually sold all related tobacco products, including briar tobacco pipes along with assorted fishing rods, reels, and bait and tackle.  We walked into the shop together and were met by an elderly gentleman.  I told him I was new to pipe smoking and wanted to shop for a pipe.  He said for a first pipe not to spend too much but make sure it was a good quality pipe.   We made our way over to a display case holding many pipes in ...

 My wife suggested I write about each ofe of my pipes beginning with my first to my most recent pipe.  I did that early in my blog writing calling it A PIPE A Day.  But after writing about each one I ran out of ideas until I decided on this blog which is more about my theology and philosophy and about pipe smoking.  I decided to start this tomorrow and introduce it today.   I’ll photograph each pipe and post it here and then I’ll say something special about each one.   I could have started today, but decided today would be my introduction to what I am doing.  Today I am smoking my Peterson Irish Harp pipe with some appropriate Irish Blessing.  My coffee this morning is from the Blue Bottle Coffee Company.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you. Dave

 Cornell and Diehl is a pipe tobacco company that has been around for 30 years..  I had Revelation in my shopping cart and decided on Constellation instead.  It is one of Cornell and Diehl’s oldest blends and is a top 100 best seller ion Smoking Pipes and might be close to a substitute for Old Professor.  According to reviews and a high rating it’s the first time since my first order of Old Professor that I’m excited about receiving.  It just might be what I am looking for in an English tobacco.   Lane 1-q is an all round Aromatic similar to Captain Black Original with no chemicals for flavoring.  It’s similar but better.  But for an English I did some studying and when I came to Constellation, I thought maybe that will be the one English I am looking for.  An old blend that has been around for a long time.  The description is very short.  The tobaccos are similar.  But what impresses me most is that it is a very old blend. ...

 I’ve lost track of how many pipes I own.  I think it’s around 40, but a few I no longer smoke mostly because those few are close to burning out or there are other problems.  But I have two favorite smoking pipes with my Dunhill I’m smoking this morning as my very favorite pipe.  I was smoking my very first pipe the other day and my wife remembered it as a very early pipe.  I told her that pipe I was now fifty years old.  Smoking it brought back so many memories.   I’ll smoke that pipe every once in a while, although it’s not a favorite smoking pipe, but still I enjoy it.  My other favorite pipe is my “haunted” Gettysburg pipe I bought at an antique store in Gettysburg.  My very first pipe will hold special memories for me.  But every pipe tells a story.  I have one pipe that might be the most traveled of my pipes and that is my Boswell.  It has been on two European trips and I take it with me everywhere I go.  It has been...

 The image of Sir William yesterday was perfect as he inspired to write as I did.  Life can be stressful for all is us.  I am no exception.  But I strive in my Spirituality to be just like Sir William was yesterday.  And when I achieve this that state for me is my nirvana.  But it’s about how I get there.  Actually, it can be a lot of work.   I’m closer to my Angels sometimes than I am at other times.  I need to clear my head.  That is the work.  Nirvana is the state I wish to achieve.  I work hard getting there sometimes because life can get in the way.  I need time.  Actually, we all need time to ourselves.  Whether it is to read a book or just sit quietly. This one is short this afternoon and a little later than usual.  But I just wanted to add to what I said yesterday.  Yeah, I smoke a pipe, but it a tool not just a hobby.  My tobacco choice is important, but not as important as my pipe choice....

What is my Spirituality?  Perhaps a photo of our cat Sir William Wallace describes it best.  I am at my best when I am connected to my Angels.  I am perfectly relaxed and at peace.  But how do I do this?  Is it the pipe?  The pipe helps me relax.  My thoughts are actually more like prayers, but they are more than prayers.  It’s not so much about asking as it is about trusting.   Sometimes I need to go back to the experience with the Divine and reflect on all the Angels told me.  This takes time.  I need to clear my mind and focus.  It all depends on how stressed I feel at any given time.  And sometimes I need diversions from my experience and think about something else.   But for me to say what Spirituality is might be hard for me to do.  It’s a reconnection with the Divine involving all my senses with a kind of sixth sense added.  I can in a sense feel.  I’ve had a sixth sense all my life.  In Bud...

 I spend a lot of time smoking my pipe.  My wife read that die to an eye problem she can’t be around pipe very much.  So I might be smoking my pipe a little less, but that might be good.  I don’t have to be so selective in the pipe tobacco I use since she won’t be smelling much of it.  So might gravitate to more English and less aromatics but I still enjoy both.   I decided to purchase two eight ounce blends of both Revelation and Yale Mixture, which I am thinking either one might be a substitute for Old Professor if it’s being discontinued.  I need to find another English I like just as much.  I had some Lasvish English, which is an aromatic English that I liked but is not a favorite.  I have some 957 matcha that I like but not as much.  It is not a favorite either.   I had Revelation before and don’t really remember it.  It was Einsteins tobacco of choice.  But the Yale Mixture I had not had before.  I’m thinking I ...

 For the past several months I have been trying to order Old Professor pipe tobacco but every time I’m ready to place an order it’s gone.  Once I had it in my cart and when I got around to ordering it was gone.  This time around I’ve got an order of Revelation which was Einstein’s tobacco of choice.  I had a couple of ounces once before and decided to place an order for a half pound of it.  I’m thinking Ild Professor might just be discontinued. I placed an order last time for some Lavish English, which is an Aromatic English that I like pretty well.  I’ve never had Yale Mixture before and I’m thinking it might be close to Old Professor, but I’m not sure.  I might not be smoking much around my wife any more since she has a vision problem that is affected by smoke of any kind.  So, now I am thinking it might not matter much to her which tobacco I’m smoking since I shouldn’t be smoking around her anyway. Finding a substitute for Old Professor might b...

 One of the interesting things about most any estate pipe is that a previous owner is more than likely deceased.  Thursdays I save for my Gettysburg pipe that I affectionately say is haunted.  Not that I believe this, but that in a way it’s kind of fun to believe it is.  The bowl has a hand carved into it and whenever I smoke this pipe, I create stories about it in my head. I often wonder about the person who carved a four finger hand into it and often why four fingers instead of five.  I believe the carving was made by a Civil War soldier who lost a finger in the war.  But that is my story about it.  The history of the pipe is long gone.  So, I create my own stories about it.   I could take it to a psychic that might tell me her own story about it and could give me a name.  But I don’t believe in that stuff.  I can do just as well on my own.  I have decided it was carved and owned by a civil war soldier who lost his pinky fing...

 My wife knows when I am lost in thought.  I’m not thinking about what I’m doing.  I get that way sometimes.  It seems I have a single obsession that takes me down my own path.  Sometimes I don’t feel as though I do enough, but at least my wife knows where I am at times even though my head isn’t there.   I can get lost in my spirituality.  I need distractions and since college football is over I’ve been trying to follow college basketball some but it’s not the same.  Usually I don’t care who wins.  It’s not the same.  I know I need to get out more, but since our gym membership is no longer being paid by insurance I’ve walked a mile and a third almost every day this year.   My wife likes to get out and go grocery shopping.  The stores are big enough that if we go up and down every aisle we can do quite a bit of walking.  It’s not the same as being out in the fresh air and sunshine but it is some exercise.  Fortunately ...

I wish sometimes I had a crystal ball just to see the alternative universe had I not had the experience with the Divine.  I often mention to my wife over and over that I just don’t know.  But in some ways I wish I knew.  But there is no way of knowing.  I kept guessing and with every guess came the response I gave her.  I just don’t know.  Maybe I am to understand now and that is all that matters. Everything in my life since has been if not for the experience….   My thinking is that it was all meant to be.  The alternative was not meant to be.  That universe doesn’t exist.  I can speculate all I want but speculation is all it is.  I simply wouldn’t exist.  This is my belief.  In an alternate universe I wouldn’t exist.  Then what?  What is that universe like without me?  I have no idea.   Sure I can guess but the alternative universe simply does not exist except for what I imagine.  What we know is ...

 I’ll just lay it out here just this one time.  I had a life-changing experience that totally changed my theology.  I really believed in a kind of personal salvation, but now I don’t.  My life is devoted to Peace and love and I’ll avoid condemnation except as I said in yesterday’s post.  In a way we are all born saved.  I know this clashes with the teachings of most any religion.  Everyone needs salvation. Hear me out.  Religion gives us a social structure based on forgiveness and God’s grace.  This is good.  And most religions will admit that murder and the taking of one’s own life might be ultimate sins.  The straight and narrow, as the Apostle Paul called it, is to never do harm.   I won’t go into my experience with the Divine here except to say it changed my theology.  Knowing what I know is a reflection of my belief.  A path is Peace and love is the only path and most religions teach this.  But too often gra...

I was reading this morning about Susan Smith and the tragic death of her two children.  She was sentenced to life in prison instead of given the death penalty.  Her ex-husband has moved on and now has a daughter who is 24 by another marriage.  But he says he wishes she were dead.  At the time of the deaths of her two children she was having an affair with the son of the business owner where she worked.   I won’t go into all the details because it is such a sad story.  Love always wins.  That is how I see it.  Her hatred lost but his love won.   I’d rather focus on him than her.  His love won.  He still harbors hatred of her and who can blame him?  But through it all it made him a better person.  Life experiences do that for us.  For him it took a tragedy of gigantic proportions and her hatred destroyed her life.   Hate never wins.  He may never stop hating her for what she did.  But her hatred taught hi...

About the sappiest movie about love ever made has to be Love Story.  In fact it was so sappy you might have a hard time finding it.  There was a time when theaters used to let you pay one price to sit in the theater all day if you wished.  But when this movie came out no one was supposedly allowed in within fifteen minutes of the end.  Everyone back then wanted to know what the fuss about.  And without going into the sappy details about it, I’m not sure it matters. The movie opens with a young college grad sitting on a bench and slowly the story unfolds.  The young man reveals his story.  Ryan O’Neal plays the young man and Ali McGraw is the love interest.  And the movie is about their love story.  The last fifteen minutes shows him still sitting on the bench with everyone in the theater knowing she just died.  That is the clincher.  She dies. Not that I’m thinking death is somehow not emotional but it’s just a movie.  But she ...

 One of the things my Spirituality has taught me is simply not be angry.  It takes a long time to learn this.  Before I was a very angty person, but I heaped that anger on myself.  Inward anger is depression.  Outward manifestation of it is simply being manic.  I had to learn to control my anger, but after the experience all that anger was gone.  I can get frustrated and to some degree annoyed, but for me anger is useless. It serves no purpose.  I’m an old hippie who learned about Peace and Love during the Vietnam era.  But as my life progressed I simply became a very angry person in comparison to now.  It was just under control.  But it reached a point where it all surfaced.  Had it not been for my experience I can’t guess at what would have been.   I can tell others about what happened to me, but much of what I now know almost can’t be taught.  I only live as a representation of the experience.  It changed me f...

 There is a lot I could write about this morning.  But another tobacco blend I wanted to review this morning is Lavish English by Sutliff.  It has some Cavendish that is naturally sweeter due to it being toasted.  But a Vanilla flavoring is added to the blend.  But it’s more than all that.  It contains Virginias that is naturally sweeter.  There is also Burley, Perique, Latakia, and Orientals.  All of that together makes for a fine blend of English tobacco. So, what do I think of it?  It may not matter much what I think as there aren’t many Aromatic English tobaccos out there.  I asked my wife what she thought of the room note and her response was that it wasn’t too bad.  She said as an English it was a lot better than others I’ve had, especially Old Professor.   But now we get down to brass tacks.  What do I think of it?  Actually, if I wanted to smoke an English all the time and not be offensive to my wife, this wou...

 I figured it was about time for one of my tobacco reviews.  Irish Blessing is a dark cavendish from Cornell and Diehl.  It is described as honey and spice.  There might be just a slight hint of Whiskey that gives it a kind of spiciness.  It might be a bit too tame for my tastes, but it is an aromatic that lives up to its description.  The room note is not at all offensive.   There are no surprises with it.  Just a smooth mellow flavor that might be more suited to a new pipe smoker.  To an old codger like myself it is too tame.  It might not become a favorite, but might be suited as an after dinner treat with maybe some Irish Cream coffee.  But as an all day smoke no one would complain about it.  The tobacco stays lit in the bowl and might be a tad moist at first.   But it is totally behaved.  There is no tongue bite and smokes cool.  It is a sipping tobacco blend that puffing too hard might make it hot.  Th...

 I love to sit in the morning stillness with a cup of coffee on the lanai with a pipe.  It is my favorite time of day.  I came out here this early morning before sunrise and had a cup of coffee along with a Balkan blend in my pipe.  I didn’t listen to music or watch a YouRube video but listened to the birds singing their morning songs.  I usually am not awake that early, but this morning I was.   The hours between three and five in the morning are called the spiritual hours.  I usually wake up about three and then go back to sleep.  It seems sometimes God wants to talk to me.  I can’t explain my conversations with God.  I try not to disturb my wife who sleeps next to me, but sometimes something’s on my mind.   I had been asked to do a Bible study and it took me a week to decide.  I woke her at three one morning telling her I’d do it.  Sometimes I wake up and just can’t get to sleep.  I woke at six this morning and thi...

 The post office is a funny place.  Letters have been found that were lost for years and eventually got delivered.  But all we get is junk mail with the occasional bill or important documents, but so much of our mail is conducted by texts or email.  I mention all this because I ordered some tobacco that got as far as Tampa. Then for some reason was re-routed to Trenton, NJ.   It’s now been re-routed back here to Florida.  The tracking says I’ll get it today, but as of yet it hasn’t arrived to our distribution center.  I might not get it until Monday or Tuesday.  I guess my package got left in a truck.  So, what do I do in the meantime?  I went down to the local smoke shop and picked a package of Good Stuff Gold.  It should last until my package arrives if it’s not re-routed to Idaho or something. No one said the post office is perfect.  I know when I order by mail, unless I pay extra for special handling it takes about a week. ...

 The other day I wrote about being on expert on tobacco.  At my age I should be an expert on many things.  I should be an expert on life and living.  But regardless of what Smoking Pipes thinks I’m hardly an expert on anything knowable.  I have a long way to go at being an expert.  I know less about romance, for example, than most men.  One never becomes an expert at love and those who think they are are just fooling themselves.   I’m kinda an expert at loving my wife, for example.  But that took years and not months.  She had to teach me and I can be a slow learner.  Sometimes I forget what I’ve learned.  Yes, when it comes to tobacco I have tried many.  And regardless of what smoking pipes thinks I am not an expert on tobaccos.  I am not an expert on life.  I am not an expert on love.   Everyone is supposed to be good at something.  I’m good at just being myself.  But I work on it daily.  Ma...

 Actually, at one time smoking was considered romantic.  And pipe smoking was the cusp of romance.  But those days are long gone.  Once in a great while I’ll see an ad on TV for smokeless tobacco.  But back in the day it seemed to be a natural part of romance for tobacco.  Why?  Smoking itself.  In fact if I’ve been out smoking my pipe my wife will comment on my smelling like tobacco.  No one wants to kiss tobacco laced lips or see tobacco stains on teeth.  It’s ugly and doesn’t smell good. Ai one time we were accustomed to it, but today we are not.  Tobacco turns off romance.  On a very rare occasion a pipe might remind her of an old relative who smoked a pipe.  But any longer those occurrences are rare.  I think my wife long ago lit my pipe for me.  Back in the day a man lighting a woman’s cigarette was a form of foreplay.  And a woman lighting a man’s pipe was the same.   Today things are very differ...

 According to Smoking Pipes website I have tried 75 different tobaccos just from them.  That makes me a gold tobacco meister.  But what does that mean?  That’s 75 just from them!  That doesn’t include the hundreds I have tried from elsewhere.  I’ve probably tried a thousand of tobacco blends.  Some are memorable and others are forgettable.   I received a bronze medal after about 30 from them.  Then I got a silver medal and now I am a gold medalist.  Supposedly I know tobacco!  I say supposedly because many I don’t recall.  But I do have my favorites.  I placed in my basket some Old Professor and when I went to place my order they were sold out of it.  So, I found a substitute I have never had before.  Will I like it?  I have no idea, but I probably will. But supposedly I’m supposed to know tobaccos very well.  I’m also a silver stock piker because I ordered over a hundred ounce of one blend and I’m gues...

 There’s a lot about heaven I don’t know.  But I start with Peace and Love because those I do know.  But heaven is a lot more than this.  It’s just that I don’t know the rest of it.  So, I begin from what I do know.  It’s just that there is a lot more to it.  We can imagine heaven and we can make it anything we wish.  I can speculate about the rest, but so can you.  Speculations are all we have.  I know Angels exist.  I know a little about what they do, but my knowledge of Angels is limited.   I know of their Peace and Love.  I know about God’s grace.  I know forgiveness.  But I just can’t say what heaven is like.  I know a bit about the feelings Angels give.  There are things I do know, but my knowledge is limited.  I know my Angels didn’t make me perfect.  They made me a better person.  Without them I can’t only guess.  I might not be here today.  This post might not be writte...

 Jesus asked, “What profits a man if he should gain the world but lose his soul?”  Sometimes profiting is at the expense of the lives of others.  My problem is that I’ve tasted heaven and apart from basic survival here on earth the things here don’t matter much to me.  I can’t help the way I am.  But I’m not much different from others who have had experiences in varying degrees with Angels.   So, in a way things here don’t matter much to me.  I’m not St. Francis who believed shoes were too worldly.  I’m closer to St. Augustine who felt he had a foot in heaven.  Except for living in this world I might be too heavenward to be of any earthly value.  But I’m convinced if not for Angels I wouldn’t be here.  My soul would have belonged to Satan.  I’m convinced of this.   But I’ll stick to what I know.  I might know more about hell than I do heaven.  I know of Peace and Love; I shun hatred; and I believe in more than I ...

 I thought about reposting the article I wrote about hell, but decided against it.  The article was well-received, but with that one once is enough.  My view of hell is pretty fixed, but my thoughts about heaven are wide open.  My Angels only said that if we knew what heaven was like we’d do anything to get there.  My Angels did say that only God creates so there is no need for sex in heaven.  Is it better than sex?  In a word, yes.  There are no earthly terms to describe heaven.   It’s the very best of all places.  Do we just stand around and give praise to God?  Are there levels of attainment?  Do we strive to be Angels on various levels?  I have no idea.  Heaven can be anything one wishes it to bee.  We can think of it in so many ways.  Our imagination is limited by earthly knowledge.  Heaven cannot be described by human terms, yet this is all we know.  If Human Life is the only determining fact...