What are your tobacco preferences?
- Thread starter DrT999
- Start date
Help Support Brothers of Briar:
Rusty
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
- Messages
- 125
- Reaction score
- 0
A fascinating thread and poll. It appears to be the ultimate justification for not having a preferred tobacco. You guys are amazing and your tobacco promiscuity should be legend. 
But don't take this as criticism because it's not.
I think all these long lists of tobacco are a sign of being a hobbyist rather than a smoker. And I love variety too. But in the past we had to hide all this....
In the past there weren't nearly as many hobbyists as ardent pipe smokers. We were the underground. I think the name pipe smokers & tobacconists actually used for us was 'dilettante' rather than hobbyist. Yes, I remember being called a dilettante, a dabbler, not serious. But that was because the hobbyist behaviour, that we now think is normal, was contrary to both everything we were told and the behaviour of virtually everyone around us. Pipe smokers were loyal stolid creatures that were predictable if thoughtful. Single blend men. They were never adventurous promiscuous immoral dilettantes. Need I say it was discouraged?
If a pipe smoker bought a different tin of tobacco each week for three weeks his Tobacconist would ask if he was experiencing a crisis of some sort and maybe needed a sympathetic ear. So it was normal to be wedded to a tobacco. Of course they did understand that young guys new to the pipe would try tobaccos. They'd tolerate it for a while and then finally try to take the newb in tow and tell him how to be a pipe smoker. They matched personality and body to pipe and blend. That meant that they asked personal questions and then with a dramatic 'Ah!' hand you 'your' blend. It was a bit like wand shopping at Olivanders Wand Shop in the Potter movies. Many actually did stick with their blend. And of course people returned with mismatches for more help. There is no magic.
Anyway it wasn't my blend that I was handed. So I persisted in trying new stuff even after I settled on one for me. Usually I was warned not to try things. In some cases I was asked "What was wrong with the other blend?" It's a pointless discussion, as you know. That was the mildest outcome. There was worse. To avoid total pariah dilettante status I broadened the number of tobacco stores that I frequented. And I sometimes changed cities too. I would have invented new identities but that was the pocket solution when all failed. The idea was to load share and camouflage my dilettantism over many shops so that I wasn't dismissed at any one. Which was good because that meant they would still talk to me. I needed them to talk with me to buy pipes. I might have been the original zero case for PAD and I was forever trying to find new lies for why I needed so many damn pipes. Yep, tobacconists were worse than wives in those days.
But all this promiscuous behaviour has gone viral as you know... :lol:
But don't take this as criticism because it's not.
I think all these long lists of tobacco are a sign of being a hobbyist rather than a smoker. And I love variety too. But in the past we had to hide all this....
In the past there weren't nearly as many hobbyists as ardent pipe smokers. We were the underground. I think the name pipe smokers & tobacconists actually used for us was 'dilettante' rather than hobbyist. Yes, I remember being called a dilettante, a dabbler, not serious. But that was because the hobbyist behaviour, that we now think is normal, was contrary to both everything we were told and the behaviour of virtually everyone around us. Pipe smokers were loyal stolid creatures that were predictable if thoughtful. Single blend men. They were never adventurous promiscuous immoral dilettantes. Need I say it was discouraged?
If a pipe smoker bought a different tin of tobacco each week for three weeks his Tobacconist would ask if he was experiencing a crisis of some sort and maybe needed a sympathetic ear. So it was normal to be wedded to a tobacco. Of course they did understand that young guys new to the pipe would try tobaccos. They'd tolerate it for a while and then finally try to take the newb in tow and tell him how to be a pipe smoker. They matched personality and body to pipe and blend. That meant that they asked personal questions and then with a dramatic 'Ah!' hand you 'your' blend. It was a bit like wand shopping at Olivanders Wand Shop in the Potter movies. Many actually did stick with their blend. And of course people returned with mismatches for more help. There is no magic.
Anyway it wasn't my blend that I was handed. So I persisted in trying new stuff even after I settled on one for me. Usually I was warned not to try things. In some cases I was asked "What was wrong with the other blend?" It's a pointless discussion, as you know. That was the mildest outcome. There was worse. To avoid total pariah dilettante status I broadened the number of tobacco stores that I frequented. And I sometimes changed cities too. I would have invented new identities but that was the pocket solution when all failed. The idea was to load share and camouflage my dilettantism over many shops so that I wasn't dismissed at any one. Which was good because that meant they would still talk to me. I needed them to talk with me to buy pipes. I might have been the original zero case for PAD and I was forever trying to find new lies for why I needed so many damn pipes. Yep, tobacconists were worse than wives in those days.
But all this promiscuous behaviour has gone viral as you know... :lol:
I guess it's a good thing that in ye olde days I only bought from drug stores, where they didn't care what I bought so long as I bought oftenRusty":vzztjr3t said:
Kyle Weiss
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2011
- Messages
- 11,988
- Reaction score
- 7
Great observation, Rusty.
So, if what you're saying is accurate, there's a reason why the old codgers are all uppity about their old blends being gone, the not-quite-as-old codgers taking notice of this and hoarding 300 pounds of whatever their prized tobacco is, the younger-still set taking notice of that and saying, "Hey, why is that (insert hallowed tobacco) suddenly harder to get? Wow, I bet those guys know what's up..." (and consequently, doing the same thing for different reasons), then the newer-stagers that have been doing this for a decades or so and have a little relaxed experimentation under their belt (seeing that they didn't necessarily have the Good Old Bacca to miss and chase down, but did have a few others to choose from), and finally you have the rest of us upstart neophytes flitting around like beginning, snobbish tobacco elves with 300+ different (and open) single cans in on our shelves, being uninformed, overwhelmed, and haphazard (laying chaos to an otherwise predictable stage show). :lol:
So, if what you're saying is accurate, there's a reason why the old codgers are all uppity about their old blends being gone, the not-quite-as-old codgers taking notice of this and hoarding 300 pounds of whatever their prized tobacco is, the younger-still set taking notice of that and saying, "Hey, why is that (insert hallowed tobacco) suddenly harder to get? Wow, I bet those guys know what's up..." (and consequently, doing the same thing for different reasons), then the newer-stagers that have been doing this for a decades or so and have a little relaxed experimentation under their belt (seeing that they didn't necessarily have the Good Old Bacca to miss and chase down, but did have a few others to choose from), and finally you have the rest of us upstart neophytes flitting around like beginning, snobbish tobacco elves with 300+ different (and open) single cans in on our shelves, being uninformed, overwhelmed, and haphazard (laying chaos to an otherwise predictable stage show). :lol:
