Lessons from a Park Bench

It was a beautiful Sunday morning here – as bright and crisp as anyone could wish for on a December morning. I decided to don my sheepskin coat, wool scarf, and fedora to take a walk in the park across the street. I took my small two-pipe and pouch carrier in my pocket, hoping to find a bench in the sun where I could sit down and enjoy a pipe.

There is a bench not far beyond the Arlington Boulevard overpass overlooking a creek there. I had my sights on sitting there as I figured I’d get plenty of sun since it’s out in the open and away from the trees.

As the bench came into view, my heart sank. Someone was sitting there already. I avoid smoking around anyone else, mainly because I hate the predictable dirty looks or lecturing that may come my way when I do.

As I walked closer up the path imagine my surprise when I discovered that the person perched on the bench was smoking a pipe! I couldn’t believe it. This never happens to me.

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A Perfect Pairing: Sazerac and English

Like many of you, I’ve tried pairing various Bourbons and Scotches with the pipe. I’ve also had more than a few Martinis, Manhattans, and Old Fashioneds with my pipes. I’ve attended pairing events at pipe shows, too. Frankly, I have always left those events with more questions than answers, which is not necessarily a bad thing as I love an excuse to try and work the answers out, myself, later. When there are good whiskeys involved, one shouldn’t rush things. Don’t you agree?

Last Thanksgiving weekend, my nephew Alex made his annual and final visit from West Point during his Thanksgiving break. Although his visit is just a short three and a half days, it’s one to which I look forward every year. This coming spring, he will assume his role as a newly minted officer in the United States Army. I imagine that next Thanksgiving will be a lonely one as he will probably be far away from here. These Thanksgiving visits have been a bright spot in my years, reminding me how precious family is. There are few relationships like one between an Uncle and his beloved brother’s son, especially when one is childless – as I am.

To my great joy, several years ago Alex expressed an interest in taking up smoking a pipe. And so I introduced him to pipes and tobaccos and to the traditions that define the pipe man. He’s an adventurous, curious, and intelligent young man. So it has been a lot of fun to experiment with new tobaccos, try different pipes, and just talk while enjoying pipes together.

Among other things, Alex has taken an interest in mixology and cocktails. While he was here, he told me about his recent discovery of the Sazerac, arguably the oldest of the cocktails – or the second oldest – depending on whether you believe the claims of those who declare the Manhattan the oldest around. In any event, I decided we’d have Sazeracs after dinner with our pipes on Friday night. So I set about acquiring the necessary ingredients.

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The Whangee

Why would anyone nurse the ambition to acquire an old Dunhill bamboo pipe? If you’ve seen many of them, you know that these pipes are all too often ungainly and decrepit things.

Dunhill Catalogue, Collector Range Page, Courtesy of Jeff FollodorUnlike the bamboo we see in contemporary artisanal bamboo pipes, Dunhill used bamboo with all manner of issues. It was often too chunky. Knuckles were oddly spaced, usually way too widely spaced for the pipe’s length. The beautiful rhythmic proportions to which we are accustomered in work by Hiroyuki Tokutumi or Smiou Satou are completely lacking in Dunhill’s bamboos.

Amazingly, these traits are plainly evident in Dunhill’s catalogues. With all the bamboo in the world, it mystifies me that Dunhill’s pipe gnomes didn’t express their customarily restrained, elegant aesthetic in their Whangee pipes. Proportional, clear, and even-knuckled bamboo is no recent product of genetic engineering. It has always been around. It has just not always been used.

Still…sometimes Dunhill’s pipe makers produced exquisite bamboo pipes. I’ve seen several, and I’ve been jonesin’ for one for decades now. As an active quest, I gave up a long time ago. I figured if and when one came along I’d carpe the diem. I wasn’t holding my breath.

Imagine my joy at finding this wonderful Whangee Shell on Lawdog’s table at the NASPC Columbus Show. I could barely contain myself.

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Pairing Pipes and Tobaccos

The joy of pipe-smoking is all about deriving intense, complex flavor from my favorite tobaccos. Like many of you, I’m sure you like more than one blend, maybe even more than one style of tobacco. I know I do.

I have a great fondness for English blends, especially those with Oriental leaf. These blends require great skill from the blender in that every component tobacco should add value to the other components present in the blend.

If you’ve been here long, you know that I have been exploring the relationship between chamber geometry and flavor delivery for years. That investigation has led me to conclude that nothing beats a large diameter chamber with square geometry when it comes to making a good English blend sing. The difference is so profound as to render comparisons obvious.

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Uncle Sin

Thanksgiving is always a wonderful experience in my family as it is in so many other families. In many ways, it is my favorite holiday because it focuses me on gratitude, something that always improves my disposition and outlook.

This Thanksgiving has been especially good, due in no small part to my nephew, Alex, coming down from New York to join Wendy and me for the weekend. My younger brother Tom’s son, Alex is in his junior year at West Point where he is studying international relations.

Alex was last here during his plebe year. During that visit, he asked me to help him acquire cigars for a traditional dinner held at the academy during the Christmas season. Every year, the plebes are given this task and – like other assignments – they had better not screw up. So, I bought him a good travel humidor and the requisite number of Padron Anniversarios . If a Roan is going to be giving his company cigars; he’s going to make sure the experience is a good one. His table loved ‘em. That’s the way it should be.

Earlier this week, before he came down, Alex let me know that he wanted to give the pipe a try while he was here. Needless to say, I was delighted. Wendy, on the other hand, was mortified.

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