From: ??????????????????? (Ted Wagner)
Subject: A few more tobacco musings

Hello all!  Just put down my pipe full of French Vanilla after a rather long
enjoyable smoke to read my PD from this past week.  
I still cannot find a better blend than Champagne.  I think that every
tobacco shop in Indy now has it.  ;-)  My friend at the Lafayette Tobacco
Shop in the Lafayette Square mall always has ample supply for me.

I have tried many blends since I last posted.  (I have also since gotten
married....I guess life can start again at 30...or however you wish to look
at it).  

My other favorite (the above you already know) is (believe it or not) Navy
Flake.  I don't mind Bengal Slices once in a while however.  All other
tobaccos I have samples are usually too sweet and loaded with casings (which
lead to the all too well known pipe gurgles) or they are very bitter, harsh,
and have an aftertaste of charred wood.  Everyone's tastes differ.  But, for
me, I tend to love the mild sweet tobaccos in small bowlfuls (to stay clear
of the casing problem).

Next weekend will be filled with wonderous times and pipefuls as it will be
the start of a new reenacting season.  The cannons will be rolled out, my
corporal stripes have been sewn on, and I am ready to fall in line with my
fellow (although only for a weekend) Virginians of the 1st Rockbridge
Artillery.  Rest assured a pleasantly fed (but beginning to show signs of a
long campaign without much food), moustached corporal will have plenty of
pipefuls for everyone in camp.  ;-)

Now, if anyone out there has seen a dated (19th century or earlier) pipe,
please email me.  By a dated pipe I mean a complete pipe in smoking
condition with a small bowl (about half the size of modern pipes) with a
bowl slightly tilted foward.  One way to date pipes before 1900 was the tilt
of the bowl.  The farther FORWARD a bowl tilts, the older the style of pipe.
I would love to have a smoking antique in my collection.

That is all for now.  Duty calls.  I must destroy a newly made cake that has
invaded my kitchen!  

Ted

____________________________________________________________________________
???????????????????                                     Civil War re-enactor
                         Civil War antique collector                    
============================================================================
"Life is just one damn thing after another!"
"A lot of people voted for Clinton for change, well, we got it alright...
but, that's what's left over....a penny here, a nickle there..."

~Tatter Ted~

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ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_
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