From: ??????????????????
Subject: Howdy, heel cake, and humor...

>discussions going. For starters, why not take a few minutes and tell
>us about yourself by return mail? We'd like to hear about your

I'm a gradual student in computer science and I've been smoking a pipe
off and on for almost ten years now.  I started in earnest when I was a
freshman in college.  There is a tobacconist across the street from the
frosh dorms, and I imagine that at some point or other about half the
males wander over and buy a pipe and some tobacco and try to acquire
the habit.  In my case it stuck.  The name of the place is Leavitt and
Pierce, and they are affiliated with J.P. Erlich in Boston.  Both are
very fine tobacconists, and L&P has a one-third-off-everything-in-the-
store sale every year around the end of March.  

I have a number of pipes, but most of them are Erlich's house brand.
These range in quality (and price) from el cheapo (which smoke okay, but
don't look too great) to medium priced/quality (in the $50-60 range).
They have some very nice pipes as well, but I never felt like dropping
that much money on a pipe.  I prefer bent stems since there's very
little worse (for me) than a mouthful of pipe juice.  I don't know what
you'd call my favorite design, but it looks something like: ~\V i.e.  the
stem is bent, but not very rounded, and the bowl has a distinctly
pointed bottom.  Sort of something you'd expect a teenage wizard-in-
training to smoke :-).

In addition, I have a beautiful meerschaum, straight-stemmed Canadian
style pipe that my father gave me for Christmas about 5 or 6 years ago
that is turning interesting shades of caramel in various places.  That is
definitely the coolest smoking pipe I have.  I have the obligatory
calabash for solving crimes (got it for about $25 during one of the
one-third off sales).  And I got a church warden from L&P sometime back
there, which is cool smoking pipe, but tends to really collect
condensation and can be a bitch to clean.  All in all I have about a
dozen pipes.

My favorite tobacco is cherry cavendish; in fact, it's all I smoke.  I
guess I'm sort of conservative on this, and after I read a few more
recommendations here, I'll probably try some others.  Besides really
liking the taste, I stick with the CC for two reasons.  First, I've
never had a complaint about the smell from smokers or non-smokers.
Second, back when I did experiment with various flavors, if I found one
I didn't like it seemed like it took forever to get my pipe to forget
it.  I've tried to find good CC locally, but I finally gave up, and now
I just send off to Boston for it.  

<From: ????????????????????? (Martin A. Lodahl)
<Subject: Heel Cake

<is (snif!) ... I can't seem to develop a good heelcake!  The sides of
<the bowl seem to break in just fine, but the heel never seems to follow

Patience, friend.  Try putting less tobacco in the bowl and packing it a
little looser.  To fill a pipe, I was taught to loosely fill the bowl
and pack lightly, then loosely fill the bowl again and pack medium, then
loosely fill the bowl one more time and pack firmly.  This gives a nice
firm pack but leaves air space down at the bottom.  To break in a new
pipe, just do the first two steps.  In my experience, if you use less
tobacco and pack it less firmly, you'll get down to the bottom of the
pipe more quickly with less moisture.  Be careful not to let it burn too
hot though.  Another thing to try is to gently dig up and stir the
bottom when it won't light and try again.

^From: ???????????????????? (Ami A. Silberman)
^Subject: pipes

^recreational smoking, such as cigars and gourmet ciggarettes?

Gee, I wish I didn't like cigarettes so much.  To keep myself from
smoking them, I only smoke one brand, John Player Specials (not to be
confused with Phillip Morris's Players, or Player Rough Cuts) and
they're not available in the US.

Back when I was in  college, we got some Balkan Sobranie cigarette
tobacco and hand rolled some cigarettes that were marvelous.  I haven't
seen the cigarette tobacco since.  Anybody seen it lately?

>So, to that end, antismoking rhetoric will be /dev/nulled, and flames
>are to be used only for the purpose of lighting up. 'Nuff said?

This is sort of anti-pipe, but I got a kick out of it, and what the
hell: we're all friends here, right?  I was watching the show Night
Court, and there was a blind man walking around the commissary talking
about how his other senses were more acute to compensate for his
blindness.  "For instance," he said, "I can tell that there are four
people sitting at this table.  Two of you are having tea, one of you is
having coffee, and..." he takes a sniff as he walks toward John
Laraquette who is rather vigorously lighting his pipe "...one of you is
cremating a cat."  

Take care,
brad

"Happiness is a warm bowl"  -- Motto of the North House Warm Bowl Society

[Gee, that's a blend I haven't tried; is it best smoked in a meowschaum? -S.]

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