The American Spectator

N.J. /p>

Nice article! But be prepared for backlash. It was an oasis of thoughtfulness in the desert of today’s PC society.

I’m tired of all the “anti” propaganda and publicity in the media these days. Whether smoking is good or bad, who the heck are you to be telling me, or anyone else for that matter, what they can or cannot do? Unfortunately politicians ears are easily bent by whineorities — the people who have nothing better to do than complain about something that upsets them. While most people are laid back and easy going, the little old lady who doesn’t like the smell of your pipe or cigar in the park begins a tirade that suddenly has smoking banned in yet another public place.

In a couple years, square corners will be banned. Mark my words: some mother, whose Precious Little Snowflake of a child, runs into a sharp corner at home, school, in a park, or in a public store, will damage or lose an eye, or possibly suffer a cut that may leave a scar. Sharp corners of every kind will be banned. Walls and floors will be padded. Kids (and older people) are already being forced to wear helmets while riding bicycles. Remember when you were a kind, and didn’t have to put on ANSI-rated protection equipment to ride a bike? I don’t remember anyone dying or being maimed on a daily basis back in the 70’s. Parents are already going through extreme lengths to prevent children from seeing/hearing anything naughty on TV or the internet. Luckily they can learn about life from other sources- friends, dad’s porn stash etc. We’re approaching the creation of a society that attempts to protect us from the real world.

p>Cynical? Perhaps. But at least I remember the sweet aroma of a pipe. Burning leaves. Campfires. Backyard grilling. Sharp corners. Riding downhill on a bike. Stuff that will be outlawed completely in the future. br> — J. Palmer /p>

I don’t remember why I was so attracted to pipe smoking. When I was a boy, it just seemed like something I would do when I grew up. Thus, once of age, I bought my first pipe and tobacco without uneasy self-consciousness or hesitation. It was even better than I imagined pipe smoking would be. I quickly built up a small collection of inexpensive pipes and tried just about every tobacco I could find in my small college town. (A real pipe shop was 70 miles away.)

One fateful day in my second year of college, I was puffing away in a friend’s dorm room when another friend of his dropped by. After about five minutes, he looked at me and sneered and: “Why don’t you stop being a stuck-up phony and smoke cigarettes like the rest of us.” It wasn’t a question — it was an accusation. This guy never liked me and I returned to favor; so I just thought he was being the jerk he was. Besides, didn’t he know that pipe smoking and smoking cigarettes aren’t even on the same plain of human existence? Over the course of the next few days, I discovered to my dismay that the jerk’s prejudice was shared extensively — even among my own friends. Since that time, with a few exceptions, I smoke my pipes alone and out of sight. I didn’t want others to ruin pipe smoking for me.

Today, I spend an hour or two at my desk at home quietly smoking while paying bills or writing. It turns out that learning to smoke alone has accidentally served me well because all smoking in general has been pushing out of public spaces.

Unfortunately, pipe shops have become few and hard to find even in the largest of cities. I can usually find a cigar shop or two that have a few different kinds of pipe tobacco in the back. Given the high prices of cigars, proprietors act like their losing money by pay attention to me while a moneyed cigar aficionado might stroll in. Thank the Lord for the internet. The selection is much wider and the service is very dependable.

Unlike cigarette smokers, I never feel the need to have a smoke very couple of hours. When I first began, I bought dozens of cheap, junk pipes. Now I limit myself to buying one very good pipe a year. (To say one hunk of wood is pretty much like another is much like saying every car is like another because they are just piles of metal.) On the other hand, some of my oldest pipes are treasures that could never be replaced.

p>In the end the, best story about pipe smoking is also the truest: A man was wronged by another and so he resolved to kill him. He decided to smoke his pipe and then follow through with the murder. After he finished his first pipe, he decided that instead of killing the other man he would just thrash him. He then sat down to smoke his second pipe. Afterward, he decided to not thrash the other man but instead sternly curse him to his face. After his third pipe, he decided to forgive the other man.