pipe elitism

Guest

I smoke Roll Cake and Dark Twist all the time!

I freaking LOVE THEM!!!

Subject: Re: pipe elitism Thu Apr 24, 2008 10:06 am

People act like they're still in junior high school because . . . they never left junior high school. Images and cliques and the rest of it are stuff they imprinted on and generalized.

So now they do it with pipes and tobaccos.

This is a surprise ?

Peon 'em.

Letting people like that spoil your mood is granting them an importance they don't merit.

What a Face

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All the old cliches are true.
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Subject: Re: pipe elitism Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:46 pm

The most important thing is to simply smoke what you like! If you enjoy Half & Half in a Dr.Grabow that's cool with me! I'm sure as hell not going to try to convert you into buying expensive well aged tobacco or hand made Danish pipes! What I like is what I like and that's fine. No one's going to convice me otherwise. I've smoked pipes from damn near every available pipe maker. I've sampled hundreds of tobaccos from sweet cherry aromatics to 50+ year old aged Balkan Sobranie and tons more in between.

I've found that I enjoy the characteristics of Danish and some American maker's pipes better than most Italian or English brands.Ideally they should be light in weight with a grp 3-4 sized bowl. Because I'm a fast smoker I prefer a flake tobacco,Macbaren's Navy Flake is smoked almost exclusively now.

A fellow Brother e-mailed me earlier this week to inquire as to wheather $800+ pipes smoke three times as well as a $300 pipe will. I had to say NO! In my experience they don't. I honestly believe that a well broken in Stanwell will smoke every bit as good as anything you could buy! I buy expensive pipes simply because I like their astetics and because I can....

Best,
Dock
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Subject: Re: pipe elitism Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:14 pm

Like it or not we all do it.

We claim we don't but we do, and I'm not just speaking pipes.

I don't shop at establishments that are run down and being managed by Goober. I don't call Mom&Pop chemical plants (yes they exist, by the thousands) because I fear I'll get screwed.
If I sold cars I don't think I'd go rushing out the door to 'sale' a car to every tom dick and harry that walks up. If I ran a jewelry store I'd be more prone to keep an eye on the guy 'baggin' than I would the model young republican.

Its wrong, but to some degree or another we all do it. The mange covered dog with 3 legs and ribs sticking out may be a nice dog and all but I think I'd rather pet the well groomed Collie.

I'm not suggesting anyone here besides me looks like a mange covered three legged dog. I've got lousy service and good service depending on how I looked at the time, that's life.

Most 'normal people' see pipes as a 'Old Man Thing' and cigars as a 'Fat Cat Thing'. The reason? It is, We (the under 50 crowd) are the oddballs not the norm.
I'll not dismiss the rudeness but there is a very valid reason they jerk out the Swisher Sweets and the Bourkim Riff Cherry, its what most guys our age ask for.
The greater abnormality is that we have all wound up at BoB and us youngins have found Fogs to take us in and put up with us.
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Post Tenebras Lux

Guest

PB is actually 60 and counting the days until he gets Social Security.

Joined : 29 Apr 2008 Posts : 16

Gentlemen,
Pipe elitism in any form is just plain wrong.
In NY, the same thing can happen, because too many people here can drop huge sums of money on famous names without even knowing how to light the pipe. When a pipesmoker starts spending time examining the pipes to see which pipe really "speaks" to him, the staff gets miffed. Lucky is the pipe afficionado who can have a detailed conversation with an interested pipe shop employee.

This elitism has propelled me toward eBay and wonderful forums like Brothers of Briar. Here, we meet like-minded people and no matter whether it's a $20 or $2,000 pipe, we can talk openly about it without fear of being looked down on as too poor (or parsimonious, as I am) to spend many hundreds on a famous name. Do I wish I had the big bucks to spend (or willing to shoot my retirement money) on those scrumptious big-ticket pipes? Of course!! But if tobacco fits into the bowl of a pipe and the flavor is pleasing, isn't that satisfaction enough?

I also have met some great pipesellers, like our own Dock Perry, and craftsmen like J.M.Boswell whose shop you can sit in for hours, puffing his tobacco, drinking his sodas and coffee, watching his big-screen TV, and end up unconsciously buying some great pipes.

Life is good.
Boo, elitism.

Subject: Re: pipe elitism Sun May 04, 2008 8:33 pm

Guest

I'm not sure if I understand the term "elitism" as it is directed towards pipes.

Is the definition held by members here that if a pipe costs $300, or $500, or $1,000 it is an "elitist" pipe- or is it an "elite" pipe?

I just don't get it.

I can say this. There are things in this world that I can afford, and things in this world that I cannot afford- but aspire to afford. For the things I can afford I celebrate my good fortune and the effort to which I spent to get what I want, but at the same time I do not call what I cannot afford "elitist." I may call something elite! As in wicked cool- or the best of the best. But I'm not in any kind of denial and say that's elitist just because I can't afford something bigger or better or more expensive than what I own.

Again- I just don't get it.

Subject: Re: pipe elitism Sun May 04, 2008 9:33 pm

Guest

Subject: Re: pipe elitism Sun May 04, 2008 9:43 pm

I think the original intent of the thread was directed toward these tools in some of these B&Ms that think they know everything there is about pipes and automatically assume you don't. I was recently told I must be mistaken, that I didn't have a Dunhill pipe. Not that there is anything special about that at all. But this guy behind the counter seemed to think they were out of the price range of any normal human. It wasn't so much that he was an idiot that bothered me, it was his condescending nature about the entire thing.

I should have known when the best pipe they had was a Butz Choquin and it wasn't much less than I paid for my Dunhill. Laughing

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Jason

Guest

Subject: Re: pipe elitism Sun May 04, 2008 9:50 pm

Oh I can handle that just fine... it's when I walk into a computer store and have some pimple faced geek try to explain to me why I don't want to buy such and such part that I want to go to fists. Laughing

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Jason

Guest

The same snobbery occurs in luxury car dealerships. If you are not wearing a suit, you may not get served for a long time.