flow -micron bindings

They are different, no doubt, but Flow have been around for a decade now and they do sort of make sense... back flips down, boot goes in, under a well paddded sleeve, then back flips up. No straps to guide into a buckle etc. 1 flip. Bam. Thinking of getting these for the young learner. Flow calls the kids line Micron, rather than grom', like it. Look into your local shop right now as everything 2009/2010 probably half price...





Slightly worrying that the kid's favourite part of snowboard movies are when the guys snap their boards on the rail, whale on garbage cans or roostertail the camera man... #winteriscoming

don't tell pops

Have to bust this out soon... have the we'ans surprise Pops walking in with the bubble pipe working. They are getting fancy, instead of the bubbles just cascading all over the pipe bowl (and your hand) now a hole in the stem blows air through the flip up ring bit... snazzy. Tangent and Pustefix (toy companies) merged in 2000, this was one of the results. Nice e-commerce website guys... sheesh. [Update 10/27/09: Or go w/ the old liquorice option as below.]

pipe gloves... get it

Look close. Burton Snowboards, Inc. 2010. And brown accents not black... fantastic. Goes with my choice of cheddar. Burton recently updated their site for 2010 so it is now officially winter. Good.

farmer's meerschaum -cobb pipe

Supposedly you can make your own corn cob pipes but these simple, inexpensive cob pipes from the 19thC upstart Hirschl & Bendheim's Irvin S. Cobb marque (which come "Toasted and Broken In") get great play among pipe smokers, not least for their ease of use. Of course, better not to smoke atall. These pipes played off the aura of Irvin S. Cobb the Kentuckian humorist who it seems was actually more like a cigar smoker... Full story on this anyone??

The older and larger manufacturer of corn cob pipes is The Missouri Meerschaum Company, located in Washington, Missouri since 1869. The shots below from Life photographer Wallace Kirkland, seem to be from a visit there.




Finally, Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Photographer: Carl Mydans. MacArthur smoked a cob pipe made for him to precise specs by the Missouri Meerschaum Company. Dubbed the #98M (Mac). Natural cob with a straight stem.


Love this excerpt below from A Message to Boonville by Christopher Darlington Morley. (via Gutenburg Project)

"What is the subtle magic of a corncob pipe? It is never as sweet or as mellow as a well-seasoned briar, and yet it has a fascination all its own. It is equally dear to those who work hard and those who loaf with intensity. When you put your nose to the blackened mouth of the hot cob its odor is quite different from that fragrance of the crusted wooden bowl. There is a faint bitterness in it, a sour, plaintive aroma. It is a pipe that seems to call aloud for the accompaniment of beer and earnest argument on factional political matters. It is also the pipe for solitary vigils of hard and concentrated work. It is the pipe that a man keeps in the drawer of his desk for savage hours of extra toil after the stenographer has powdered her nose and gone home.

A corncob pipe is a humble badge of philosophy, an evidence of tolerance and even humor. It requires patience and good cheer, for it is slow to "break in." Those who meditate bestial and brutal designs against the weak and innocent do not smoke it. Probably Hindenburg never saw one. Missouri's reputation for incredulity may be due to the corncob habit. One who is accustomed to consider an argument over a burning nest of tobacco, with the smoke fuming upward in a placid haze, will not accept any dogma too immediately.

There is a singular affinity among those who smoke corncobs. A Missouri meerschaum whose bowl is browned and whose fiber stem is frayed and stringy with biting betrays a meditative and reasonable owner. He will have pondered all aspects of life and be equally ready to denounce any of them, but without bitterness. If you see a man on a street corner smoking a cob it will be safe to ask him to watch the baby a minute while you slip around the corner. You would even be safe in asking him to lend you a five. He will be safe, too, because he won't have it.

Think, therefore, of the charm of a town where corncob pipes are the chief industry. Think of them stacked up in bright yellow piles in the warehouse. Think of the warm sun and the wholesome sweetness of broad acres that have grown into the pith of the cob. Think of the bright-eyed Missouri maidens who have turned and scooped and varnished and packed them. Think of the airy streets and wide pavements of Boonville, and the corner drug stores with their shining soda fountains and grape-juice bottles. Think of sitting out on that bluff on a warm evening, watching the broad shimmer of the river slipping down from the sunset, and smoking a serene pipe while the local flappers walk in the coolness wearing crisp, swaying gingham dresses. That's the kind of town we like to think about."

[Note: meerschaum pipes are made of the epinonimous white bone-like mineral. Usually ornately carved.]

tip -peterson of dublin

Photo via Georgetown Tobacco
In 1890, Charles Peterson developed the Peterson Patent System - a graduated bore in the mouthpiece helps to collect tar and moisture in a reservoir and away from the bowl of the pipe. The shape of the "P-lip" vulcanite mouthpiece, invented in 1898, is designed to direct the smoke up and away from the tongue, reducing "tongue bite."

I don't have any solid stats in front of me, but I would bet that pipe smoking has slowed, in the way that using hair jelly or carrying a penknife and pocket handkerchief have slowed. Pops has smoked a pipe forever, practically a trademark, but I still cringe when I see most other people smoking a pipe, especially those under say... 40. Seems a bit of an affectation; along with dandy canes and capes¹.

Peterson of Dublin (with their trademark silver band) make many entry level pipes that are not the object of desire for collectors, but if you have a pipe smoker on your gift list the trick is this; at your reputable tobacconist (e.g. Leavitt & Peirce in Harvard Square) ask for refurbished Petersons. You may have to ask, they are often kept out of sight. Half the price, better aged and in the preppy tradition of fixing something to reuse.

The refurb is usually a complete restoration so you can rest assured, and goes something like this:
* Replace Stem
* Open airway to approx 5/32”
* Refinish rim - remove all charring, rerusticate (if appropriate)
* Strip, sand and restain pipe bowl
* Remove carbon from tobacco chamber, reround pipe bowl and finish
* Sanitize entire airway and freshen

Incase anyone cares, Pops smokes Balkan #2.


¹The absolute worst though is the contrived tapping down of your pack of cigarettes. Please stop, it is the immediate sign of the look at me smoker. Sure they are not good for you -to put it mildly- but I actually love seeing someone genuinely enjoying a cigarette (hi sis), and need to be restrained when someone starts this whole slapping the pack on your palm dance for 5 minutes... if you want to smoke just freekin smoke your cigarette.. or is that a mating call for other greeks?? It is not the 1920's... your store bought cigarettes are not going to cascade tobacco when you pull them from the pack. Both barrels if you have no idea why one would even engage in this behaviour and are tapping the bottom of the pack -thus loosening the tobacco more!